Teams' jerseys fly off shelves

Dubai: With such a diverse number of nationalities in Dubai, store owners had been eagerly anticipating a rush for World Cup merchandise.

Now that the tournament is underway, Gulf News visited a number of outlets to find out what was flying off the shelves.

Some retailers are already out of stock while others claim to be raking in around Dh5, 000 daily from T-shirt sales alone.

Team jerseys and kits bearing the name of such players as Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho seem to be the favoured option for many.

Adidas, Burjuman Shopping Centre
Store Manager: Anil Binu

"You will not find any official jerseys at Adidas they are all sold out!" said Anil, who explained that only a shirt or two were left for the French fans.

"We even had a guy come here all the way from Kuwait. He was looking for an Argentinian piece but it's too late now. He only wanted an original shirt and couldn't find it anywhere else. Argentina was the hottest seller. We're out of stock and cannot order more because of some pre-buying arrangements," Anil pointed out.

"From our experience, Germany and France are the next most sought after teams as far as kits go. We displayed the shirts mid- April and now they're gone. Ninety per cent of our inventory was gone in a month."

Anil was overseeing about 25 shirt sales a day each goes for about Dh180.

"We also sell the official match football for Dh390. They're nicely made but hardly as popular as the jerseys."

Anil said fans will be able to get their hands on the kits after the season end in August.

"We've more coming on the way then. Caps are the next running items, followed by shorts. We have five or six outlets in Dubai and it's the same story everywhere." Anil named Arabs and the British as the top shoppers.

"Arabs go for Argentina and people from the UK obviously go for England shirts. We also have some visiting Europeans buying their respective team's shirts."

Zico Sports, Al Karama shopping Centre, Karama
Store Manager: Mustapha

Although not officially recognised as a world cup sportswear dealer, Zico is popular with the Iranian, British and Asian bargain hunters.

Mustapha was busy sorting out the mess shoppers leave behind after browsing through endless varieties. "Iranians and people from the UK are the best customers; UAE nationals and Indians follow. David Beckham (UK), Ronaldinho (Brazil), Crespo (Argentina), and Karimi (Iran) are the top players in demand. Their shirts sell well because they play good. It's that simple," he said.

"If a player scores in the world cup, the next day we sell a lot of their shirts. Business is not bad." The T-shirts range from look-alikes of the official jerseys to plain-janes with a simple 'Brazil' or 'Argentina' splattered across the front. Their prices are not fixed and depend on the haggling skills of the shopper on average Dh75 is a reasonable cost considering the football fever in the city.

Nike, Burjuman Shopping Centre
Store Manager: Rana Sulaiman

The American sportswear company has sponsored eight countries this world cup, with Brazil leading their sales."Yes, we have some Brazil shirts in stock. We got the inventory almost two months back and they started selling right away when we put them on display. Holland and Portugal are other popular teams," assured Rana. "There's a slight slump in demand because most fans have already bought their stuff. We see sales rise of a particular team when it is scheduled to play." Rana said Nike is not selling national flags, adding caps and shorts are doing well after the shirts. "We have a lot of Nationals and other Arabs ask for Brazil. The English also shop a lot at our 10 or so branches. Our shirts are priced at around Dh245 but there's a sale on we're letting them go for Dh199." Rana declined to say how many shirts they have sold. "It's good," she replied instead.

Studio 'R', Burjuman Shopping Centre
Store Manager: Alfred Apolonio

Studio 'R' has the rights here to sell all Reebok and Umbro brands; Umbro sells jerseys of various football clubs like Chelsea, Sweden and Ireland.

"The England official jerseys are the fasting moving models both 'away' and 'home' versions. We expect more sales around the last days of the world cup," hoped Alfred. "Chelsea items also do well. We don't carry official shirts for Brazil but have other fashionable gear related to it and yes, they sell fast too. The English and Brazil colours are Dh250 on average and I think we sell about 30 of them on a daily basis."

Alfred called the word cup the "DSF (Dubai Shopping Festival) of football," adding the "craze" has bought in customers as far as Saudi Arabia to his shop. "Saudis buy a lot. They like Dubai and feel confident when shopping for original stuff here. Sales also depend on the location the shopping malls seem to get a lot of foot traffic. Outdoor shopping is a bit tricky with the heat and knock off goods," opined Alfred.