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[Number4]

We all know stickers sell bats but really the most important thing is how the bat performs and I can honestly say I have never seen a bad looking GM and certainly never seen a bad performing one in my almost 30 years of cricket.

The new branding may not be everyone's cup of tea right now but I bet views will change when people get used to the new designs.

[Edward Lowy]

Hey Edward, been a big fan of GM for years. Really like the stickers with the embossed GM Logo on the purist, octane, argon etc. Not as much of a fan of the zona/six 6 ones but they are still nice. Think last years and this years versions are the best i've seen for quite some time.
My all time favorites were the circa 93-95 with the red original trim and grip.
Any plans to bring back the cannon, maestro, diamond or autograph anytime in the future.

Keep up the great work.

Cheers

Hi Calvin, thanks for your post.

Funny old world isn't it! We had a makeover of branding in 1993 to produce the style you are commenting on. It actually came about because our designer of many years decided to stop designing and sail his boat around the World. Good opportunity for us to engage new eyes, review what we are doing and make sure we were moving along with the times.

In the 1993 catalogue, our range consisted of 6 shapes. Diamond, Autograph, Maestro, Cavalier, Striker and Skipper. People seemed to cope with that range back then without finding it confusing - oh, and bear in mind that those shapes came in a variety of finishes / grades (Original, Superstar & Plus). Makes me think our 2014 range is positively straightforward!

Truth is, I never really got on with that look - we brightened up the house green and blue we used, but I never felt that it properly promoted the quality of the underlying bat as well as it could. I feel we have done a better job since.

Kind regards

Edward

[Butterfingerz]

Good question, yes I do know about Maestro. This is what is called an SMU (special make up) for specific accounts in Australia. Very nice too, well I would say that wouldn't I, it is in contemporary branding with a particularly vivid lime green theme.

Kind regards

Edward

When will pics be released? I had a pair of the 1993 Maestro glove....is it that model?

[Edward Lowy]

Thanks for the info, do you believe that is down to the bat itself, or the branding(obviously both play some part), I guess that will show with multiple bats now available with similar branding.

Bit of both - Zona is an awesome bat when you middle it. It isn't rocket science for everyone to understand that if you concentrate the wood in a specific area, if you hit the ball there it will go a long way. If you are at the top f your game, it's the bat for you.

The branding initially divided opinion, certainly on this Forum. However, around the world and through the year, there was quite a sizeable majority of positive feedback about the bolder look.

Kind regards

Edward

[Edward Lowy]

When will pics be released? I had a pair of the 1993 Maestro glove....is it that model?

As it is an Oz only model, I think you will need to do a bit of Googling. There have been some pictures of it on this forum already I recall.

At the risk of blood pressure exploding over the Forum, the Maestro name is preowned as it were, the products are new.

Kind regards

Edward

[Number4]

Hi Ed,

Why have different model bats for different countries?

I remember as a kid wanting bats I seen on T.V here is Aus but could never find them in the shops here... Didn't realise they weren't available here.... Not just GM but most major brands are the same.... Who makes the decisions on what gets release where?

[Kulli]

Bit of both - Zona is an awesome bat when you middle it. It isn't rocket science for everyone to understand that if you concentrate the wood in a specific area, if you hit the ball there it will go a long way. If you are at the top f your game, it's the bat for you.

The branding initially divided opinion, certainly on this Forum. However, around the world and through the year, there was quite a sizeable majority of positive feedback about the bolder look.

Kind regards

Edward

Yeah, I guess my issue is over the sticker, innovative shapes are always good to see even when they look a bit odd or not to my tastes.

Interesting that you allude to the newer style of stickers being more popular in other markets, I guess that is the dilemma of being a big brand with sales worldwide. Split your designs and risk criticism, or different products for different markets and risk criticism. It's a tough world 

[Edward Lowy]

Hi Ed,

Why have different model bats for different countries?

I remember as a kid wanting bats I seen on T.V here is Aus but could never find them in the shops here... Didn't realise they weren't available here.... Not just GM but most major brands are the same.... Who makes the decisions on what gets release where?

Because market needs are different. In China, you need to sell phones that can accept two SIM cards. Not a major requirement here, very important there.

Then, within a market, a specific channel may require something unique. We listen to the "need" and then decide (sales team, marketing team, factory) as to whether it is viable to do.

Good questions!

Kind regards

Edward

[Edward Lowy]

Yeah, I guess my issue is over the sticker, innovative shapes are always good to see even when they look a bit odd or not to my tastes.

Interesting that you allude to the newer style of stickers being more popular in other markets, I guess that is the dilemma of being a big brand with sales worldwide. Split your designs and risk criticism, or different products for different markets and risk criticism. It's a tough world 

Our responsibility is to take decisions for the best interest of the Company overall. We do try and listen to all feedback, as individuals we tend to enjoy trying new things.

[Edward Lowy]

Hi Edward, about this, have your drying techniques changed allowed for a bigger bat that you used to be able to make in 2007? I was having a think about this, and thought that perhaps you could beef up the edges to around the 30mm mark, still have the non-concaved back and the profile of the Purist, and maybe make it a limited run? Of course, this would probably have to be made in Players grade willow, but if you can get the Trott Icon to be that big without concaving, surely the Purist wouldn't be impossible? I know I'm probably just thinking in a fantasy world of mine, probably because a Purist 303 was my very first bat, but I'm just curious if it could be done. I completely understand the reasoning behind the traditionally shaped Purist not being brought back, even Newbery have apparently changed their Mjolnir profile for this year, (for a thicker edged profile) probably because thick edges sell bats.

I think GM have done a great job, maybe a little too much information, but I'm a bit of a cricket bat geek and I like info like this, and if the majority of your customers buy online, then why not give them as much information as you can? I'm warming to the Zona style stickers too, I think it's just the profile that wasn't quite to my liking.

I do have a question about the weight differences for a bigger edge, is this because you press the flat faced bats a little harder? I would have thought that if you pressed them with the same force for the flatter face ones, which would mean the edges wouldn't be as compressed but the middle would be just as compressed, which means that you still get the bat at the same weight, just with a thicker edge. Perhaps it's the profile shaping that's slightly different on the CNC, but surely you would get around a 5mm thicker edge from the F2 face compared to the F7 face. I'm just guessing here though...

Top questions!

In terms of drying, we only put willow into production when it reaches a specific moisture content. As part of the DXM investment we fundamentally changed how we season and condition the timber, which is much more effective, but the moisture content criteria has not changed. This is an important point - a company can dry out a piece of timber more so that it will be lighter (moisture = weight), and then produce a bat that appears to be big and light. However, it will not be durable and is not something that we will do.

Absolute top end willow is getting increasingly difficult to source - this will affect the whole industry in due course. In a way the bat you are talking about is a slightly bigger 1885 so yes it can be done, we would need to run the numbers to see what sort of weights would be produced.

Thanks for your comments about info on the website - across our businesses, we feel that our customers are after more and more information, so we try to provide it. The bat spectrum shows at a glance details about our entire bat range. The height of the bat on the graph shows where the swell is, the rest of the info shows dimensions etc - we are pleased with how this is developing - it has now been updated for 2014 :
http://www.gm-cricket.com/pages/bat-spectrum.aspx

Pressing - there seems to be some confusion on this very important point.

We achieve the different face curvatures by machining, not by pressing. When the clefts are then pressed, we use the same pressures on the different faces. The vital point here is that we will only use the correct roller for the specific face curvature - so we have three different sets of tooling for F7, F4.5 & F2. Sadly, many manufacturers only use one roller profile irrespective of the specific shape they are pressing. This leads to incomplete contact between roller and willow, variable pressure applied across the face of the bat, and inconsistency in use as a natural consequence of less than rigorous manufacturing processes.

We don't do that at GM Nottingham.

Kind regards

Edward

[Hammer Cricket]

certainly havent read all 20 pages of this and probably won't, as who has the time?

But as a retailer im still trying to explain the two different faces to customers and some of them still arent getting it....adding an extra face ( and a ton of extra products and options on the website ) etc is a nightmare. for the icon you already had 22 different options and now essentially you can get an icon in 33 different variations is mental...from 101 to Original LE and in F2, F4.5 and F7...craziness.

[MD2812]

Does GM have it's own cricket team?

If so could we arrange (next year) a forum factory visit on followed by a CBF vs GM match?

I'd be happy to try arrange accommodation, pitch etc if it was an option.

Also did you see my post about duffles? Would love to hear feedback if it's feasible to create a proper cricket backpack.

[Edward Lowy]

Accurate measurements or not, we knock in on average two bats per day by hand, so we get quite familiar with the pressing of various different models (especially as we don't just knock in bats sold in store).  There's a fair amount of experience to back this up, despite the lack of scientific proof.  I will let this matter rest for now though, as it's not really relevant to the thread.

As for us stocking GM, even if the new range blew my socks off and got me foaming at the mouth, I simply refuse to deal with a company who reacts the way they have to the comments in this thread.  The words of Mr Lowry in my eyes prove that they aren't really listening to the customer, rather, they are just disagreeing with anything critical, and I cannot support a brand that behaves in this way.

Knocking in - always a sensitive issue. We introduced GM Now as a factory fit option many years ago. The reason we did it was because that is how we treated pro player bats so that the player could go straight out and play. We felt that if it was good enough for them, it should be a facility we make available to our customers. We knock in a lot of bats per day, hundreds of thousands of bats over the years. Immodestly we believe that we do the best possible job of knocking in at the factory. Internally we attribute a declining returns rate over the years partially to the fact that we are knocking our bats in ourselves in our own factory.

We know that some retailers are not a fan of this as an in store knocking in service can be a source of revenue for them.

I am sorry that we may lose you as a customer - it may be too late, I hope not, but what exactly have you taken exception to in my postings? If I have inadvertently offended, I apologise absolutely.

Kind regards

Edward

[Edward Lowy]

certainly havent read all 20 pages of this and probably won't, as who has the time?

But as a retailer im still trying to explain the two different faces to customers and some of them still arent getting it....adding an extra face ( and a ton of extra products and options on the website ) etc is a nightmare. for the icon you already had 22 different options and now essentially you can get an icon in 33 different variations is mental...from 101 to Original LE and in F2, F4.5 and F7...craziness.

I have taken the time as have others as we felt it was worthwhile.

Actually the number of SKU's in the GM 2014 bat range is reduced from 2013, sorry if you find it too confusing. 101/202 grades are Kashmir Willow, not really a hot topic in this thread. How do you get to 33 by the way?

Kind regards

Edward

[Edward Lowy]

Does GM have it's own cricket team?

If so could we arrange (next year) a forum factory visit on followed by a CBF vs GM match?

I'd be happy to try arrange accommodation, pitch etc if it was an option.

Also did you see my post about duffles? Would love to hear feedback if it's feasible to create a proper cricket backpack.

No we don't have our own team, but we do have quite a few talented players on the staff. It would be a pleasure to organise a Forum day at the factory, I can't speak for a match.

Yes, I did see your note about duffles - we do our 505 Duffle, have done for a couple of years.

Kind regards

Edward