Hi Guys,
First post on here so thought I would introduce myself. I'm Chris Beaumont-Dark, worker at It's Just Cricket, and regular cricketer, playing for Hampstead CC 1st XI in the Middlesex Prem, and Middlesex u17, u19 and Academy. You may have seen me on the Youtube channel for IJC.
Yesterday was the first trade show I had the luck of attending and I found it particularly interesting. As a big of a bat geek, I told my friend I was going and she said I'd be "like a kid in a candy shop", and how right she was. Here are a few observations from the day.
Really liked the Adidas / Ayrtek collaboration. Especially with the Masuri offering being poor this year I think that people will definitely start paying more for their helmets, more so if Adidas can persuade players like Broad and Pietersen to wear them! Very expensive but the new safety standards will definitely play into their hands, so I can only see them growing.
Adidas I liked their new shoes, the Vortex being the Jimmy Anderson shoe I think will sell particularly well, it has a lot of little features like the grid system of the rubber spikes, and one back spike on the inside? of the foot, which I haven't seen on other spikes before, so think they will sell. The Adidas softs were ok, nothing special, but not too awful either. As for bats, I don't mind the Pellara stickers as much as anyone else seems to do, I think they aren't terrible. The bigger news is the launch of the Sachin Tendulkar bat over here in the UK for the first time. Fully expecting that to fly off the shelf.
Masuri as I have mentioned was distinctly average. Very heavy, visibility limited, and frankly they look a bit cheap, with the different materials just looking like it has all been thrown together. Not impressed massively.
Gray Nicolls must have been one of the highlights of the show for me. Their new bats are very good. Some of them I felt were a bit gimicky, like the Maverick F1 with the "speed grooves" cut into the side. Nemesis and Vortex similar thing, but they will sell I'm sure. The bats I most liked were the Oblivion E41, very nice, if quite standard shape, and then the X181 I was remarkably impressed by. Great shape, huge, long middle and picked up like a dream, will certainly be a top seller for us at IJC I believe. Softs were standard Gray Nics, solid without being amazing, and bags were much the same, although a couple of the new bags are ridiculously big, honestly these things were enormous!
Next brand I really looked at was Spartan. We had a few reservations with Spartan before the show so this was an important one. I arrived after Matt Prior had left so I didn't get the gimick, I just got to look at the kit in detail. The softs were really nice, very high quality, and the bags had some nice little touches like a cool bag at the end for drinks and food etc. No bat cave was a worry though. I agree with earlier comments about standardised shapes - the Chris Gayle bats varied massively in their amount of concaving, so this is something I would be worried about. Prior shape is a bit of a nothing for me, so it was the Clarke shape I really really liked. Little concaving, big middle, good pick up, was a massive fan of that. Overall, quite pleased with that from Spartan.
M&H were my final brand I took an interest in. Pleased to see them bringing back the tan leather on their wicket keeping gloves as well as the white, I think it is understatedly very good looking. The major thing is the CK22 range which I'm a massive fan of. The bat itself is a cross between the Master and the Amplus, with the spine of the Master, and edges and middle position of an Amplus - can see it being a big hit. The CK22 softs were very nice, traditional style pads, with the gloves also being very solid, the splashes of blue on this range also looked very nice IMO. Think M&H will be very strong this year.
That's my conclusion really, had a great day, exciting to see the major brands launches for next year, we are certainly spoilt for choice as the paying customer!
Sorry it's so long, had to do it justice!
Chris
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Topic: Lords Trade Show (Read 59382 times)