Saints have finally revealed when the new home shirt will be available for supporters to buy after the issues surrounding it delaying it's release for two months. However bizarrely they are delaying it further themselves before it goes on general sale.
Saints home kit will finally hit the stores two months late after issues with the sponsors logo, Saints have been very coy about the exact reasons behind the issues, but it is believed that the problem arose after the club ordered the logo separately from Under Armour and after it being fixed to the shirts and training kit etc it came off in virtually the first wash.
Investigations then found that the material that the logo was made of was not compatible with the material the shirt is made from and this was not discovered till it came out in the wash so to speak.
It is unknown how many replica shirts at this stage had actually had the logo affixed to them and whether they had to be scrapped, or whether this was found out before the replica shirt 's had their logo's attached, but whatever the situation you can't just fit a run into the schedules at the drop of a hat, with the levels of mass produced football shirts these days, production has to be booked way in advance.
The good news is that the shirt goes on sale 9am on Saturday morning 31st August, perhaps not the best day to do this given that a little over 3 hours later we are playing Manchester United at St Mary's so there is bound to be a rush.
The club have also warned that there are limited quantities in some sizes, although stock is arriving imminently, however there are no infant or toddler mini sizes at all yet, so if that is what you are after it will be a wasted journey.
The club do realise that there will be a rush and are advising the fans to utilise the store in West Quay and not just the one at the stadium.
But given that they have dispatched pre orders yesterday (Thursday) they clearly have the stocks in the warehouse, surely it would have made more sense to put it on sale on Thursday or failing that Friday.
Indeed Customers who chose the club's click and collect service can collect their order from their selected store from 10am on Friday 30th August, so why not put it on sale then
That would have relieved some of the pressure on the stores on a matchday when they are busy enough as it is, there is going to be a big demand compressed into a short time on Saturday and whether Saints have the staff available to cope completely with that demand is doubtful and at best it will mean long queues to get the shirt and at worst utter chaos with some fans being disappointed as they are not able to get their hands on the shirts.
I cannot for the life of me think of any good reason why it could not have been put on sale today, perhaps with a special late night opening for those not able to get down during the day.
If the club had done that they would have sold hundreds of shirts and that is hundreds of people who would not have to join the queue on Saturday and in turn perhaps hundreds of kids who might not face disappointment as their parents are unable to get a shirt.
This issue has been bad enough as it is, yet right to the end the club seem determined to create potential more problems for themselves.