Fungai Muderere
BULAWAYO Chiefs’ online store continues to grow in leaps and bounds amid revelations that the club recently acquired a state-of-the-art machine which is capable of embroidering six of the club’s products in an hour.
With demand for their club’s apparel growing each passing day, the club’s spokesperson Thulani “Javas” Sibanda said courtesy of their Butterfly Multihead Embroidery Machine they had produced enough to meet demand from all over the country.
“It’s a machine that does the club’s logo on two products in 13 minutes 45 seconds.
In that space of time, the machine is able to do 11 695 stitches on a single product meaning under the Covid-19 revised working hours (8am to 3pm) we are able to produce 46 embroidered Bulawayo Chiefs goods,” said Sibanda.
The clubs’ merchandise on offer includes tracksuits, sweaters, hats, masks, socks, shorts, T-shirts and official replicas.
A quick look at their paper work showed that as of Wednesday, the Twitter Kings, who launched their online store at the end of June, had taken care of 883 orders that had come from places that include Kariba, Gwanda, Ruwa, Ngezi, Harare, Mazoe, Gweru, Beitbridge and Hwange. Bulawayo Chiefs are the first football team in Zimbabwe to have an online shop selling their club merchandise.
Following a beta test, buyers can buy their goods from anywhere in the world and get them delivered at their doorstep. Orders are delivered by courier at an extra cost.
“Our target market is anyone in the country, who associates with football or sport in general. Anyone who can look beyond a badge and support football or any individual in the street who can look into our merchandise and fall in love with it can buy it,” Sibanda said.
Replica jerseys are priced at $2 500, travel golf T-shirts $1 875 and branded golf T-shirts come with a price tag of $1 250. T-shirts with catchy inscriptions such as “Anjalo Ama Sports”, “Ebhoreni Akula John Cena”, promoted by the club on Twitter, cost $1 000.
For the diaspora market, those based outside the country can purchase the club’s replica shirts for US$30.
