Selling the replica jerseys

Kotoko's replica jerseys have been on sale. 

Merchandising at Kotoko. This perhaps used to be one of the most discussed issue.

More than a decade back when I joined Kotoko Express as a cub reporter, it was one of the issues I was tasked to interview supporters on. I remember speaking to fans who couldn’t understand why for decades, Kotoko haven’t taken the sale of its paraphernalia seriously.

Fans I interviewed between 2005 and 2007, shared fine thoughts on the subject among which was the call for the opening of Kotoko shops across the country. The shops, the fans argued needed to be opened in the regional capitals and notable towns nationwide.

Besides situating such shops in Kumasi and other regional capitals in Ghana, there were many other suggestions that, online avenues could be created to enable supporters outside the country to purchase any of the paraphernalia and later get it delivered to them via courier.

Reflecting of these suggestions more than ten years on, it’s sad to note that, successive managements don’t seem to have taken the issue of merchandising very serious. As a club, we seem to have concentrated on building the team on the field and even with that, the overall results especially in continental competitions haven’t been anything anyone of us have liked.

Let me state before I’m misunderstood that, this write-up isn’t to make any management or indeed, Kotoko look bad. It’s rather to briefly look at the subject of merchandising with specific reference or attention to suggestions that have come from supporters who have been engaging us at the Kotoko Express office in Accra over the last one to two weeks.

We need to come out with plans to help the sale of the replicas. There’s no denial that, Kotoko supporters love everything branded in the name and colours of the club. They will got every extent to have one with them. Years ago and even now, some unscrupulous people designed and continue to design anything – sometimes mediocre, substandard paraphernalia that the supporters don’t mind buying all the time.

Some few years ago, there were announcements to the effect that, such unscrupulous people were going to be arrested and prosecuted as they were infringing on the copy rights law. As I said, it’s been years but no one has been caught by the law; found guilty or punished for that illegality. That’s bad news if you ask me.

The good news however is, we have authentic replica jerseys at the moment. News on these jerseys have been everywhere but not the jerseys itself. Specific locations where the jerseys have been on sale are the club secretariat, Kumasi; Kotoko Express office, Adabraka, Accra including match venues either home or away.

Apart from these outlets, the replica jerseys can’t be found anywhere. Throughout last week, Kotoko Express’ office was inundated with calls from supporters in Tema, Ho, Aflao, Akosombo, Koforidua, Cape Coast, Tarkoradi, Sunyani, Elubo and many other towns – all inquiring about locations they could purchase the jerseys. Many of the calls also came from abroad.  

Some of these passionate fans weren’t too happy hearing that they could only get them in Kumasi and Accra. Those who could afford the cost of courier or the postage charge have had theirs mailed to them with the others who couldn’t courier cost, advising that, the jerseys are made available at notable places so they could go and purchase.

When you have supporters expressing such interest, the best we can do as a club is to ensure that their demands are met. It’s over to management. The humble suggestion coming from the supporters is that, where possible, we should arrange with post offices across Ghana to sell the replicas. That just was one of the many advises. We ought to look at the issue of merchandising.

There isn’t any official Kotoko paraphernalia to sell apart from the jerseys which are of high quality. Post offices, prominent supermarkets and the likes could be fine sale points for the jerseys one of which cost GHȼ40. The commentary on how well Kotoko could sell its replicas and further get a real merchandising policy should be encouraged. At the end of the day, all that must lead to a positive management response.