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[Biggie Smalls]

Seen Viking gloves on ebay , look nice . Although logo reminds me too much of Canberra Raiders ! 

I was confused too ! The gloves i saw were the aussie Viking brand . According to their instagram they were est 2014 , so were around long enough for Viking u.k to know about ( if they had looked I'm sure they would have discovered it ) ?
For me the logo's are too similar aswell , it's not lke an s.s u.k vs s.s india  where the logo's and full brand name are different  , this case sits a bit uncomfortably with me t.b.h.

[GDP1964]

There kit looks good it doesn't matter who they are where they are they getting great exposure on here 😂😂😂😂

[sultanofswing]

As far as I know one guy who owns it plus the batmaker he sources from. In his garage

[Tom]

@Woodyspin I've spoken to the guys behind Viking in the UK, and he has in turn spoken to his lawyer. The Aussie version is apparently a one-man band, and UK Viking's lawyer has advised there's little they can do.

They are aware of the AUS based company, but little to do I'm told

Nothing they can do because Viking Cricket UK was set-up in 2016, whereas the earlier, Australian, Viking brand was set-up in 2013.

[SOULMAN1012]

Just looked at the website and every range is Grade 1 willow. Opens up a cans of worms I know but no one can buy just G1 willow so it's internal grading again which means I would guess in simple terms "if we tell a punter everything is grade 1 we can sell lower grades at a mark up' he'll everyone thinks G1 plays better than G2,G3 etc"

Personally nothing new or great about them. pricing in today's terms is sensible I guess

[iand123]

@Woodyspin I've spoken to the guys behind Viking in the UK, and he has in turn spoken to his lawyer. The Aussie version is apparently a one-man band, and UK Viking's lawyer has advised there's little they can do.

They are aware of the AUS based company, but little to do I'm told

Chris you might want to have a word with them about their stockists page on the website, text regarding IJC under IJC and cricket asylum - https://www.vikingcricket.co.uk/stockists/

[The Cricket Boutique]

Just looked at the website and every range is Grade 1 willow. Opens up a cans of worms I know but no one can buy just G1 willow so it's internal grading again which means I would guess in simple terms "if we tell a punter everything is grade 1 we can sell lower grades at a mark up' he'll everyone thinks G1 plays better than G2,G3 etc"

Personally nothing new or great about them. pricing in today's terms is sensible I guess

Im not sticking up for them as we have no invested interest however only supplying G1 bats is fairly easy. When they ask for their stock from their supplier they just ask for only grade 1.

Its the same when you order a bat and ask for a specific grade, that's what you should get.

I get they have different levels of grade 1 but again this seems to be common place now and in all fairness to them they have put a description of each of the range on the site so its up to the customer if they want to pay a bit more for a bat that looks nicer or not.

[roco]

seems to say all g1 but the levels increase with grains

[Neon Cricket]

I'd agree with @TCB on this - for example, if I only wanted to order G1 bats I wouldn't have any issues (this is largely the case too).

I still don't agree with having 3 different grades of grade 1 though

[SOULMAN1012]

I'd agree with @TCB on this - for example, if I only wanted to order G1 bats I wouldn't have any issues (this is largely the case too).

I still don't agree with having 3 different grades of grade 1 though

I get what your both saying. I only know what I know from when I was at Salix which is 3 years ago now. G1 is G1 from Wrights for example and we couldn't ask Wrights for just G1. Kenner has to order x number of G2 and G3 bats to be able to order x number of G1 bats. And as far as I know that's still the case for the main willow merchants. If Viking can just get G1 clefts from Jedi and they are prepared to only sell from there cleft range to Viking than I guess you can. My point is still a G1 is just that not 3 ranges of a certain Grade. Maybe I'm wrong or out of date

[Vitas Cricket]

I'd imagine like many of these brands who operate in small numbers, many batmakers are OK to supply them with 5 bats here, 10 bats there.

Try to order 100 G1 bats and nothing else and you'll probably struggle.

[Andythomo21]

I get what your both saying. I only know what I know from when I was at Salix which is 3 years ago now. G1 is G1 from Wrights for example and we couldn't ask Wrights for just G1. Kenner has to order x number of G2 and G3 bats to be able to order x number of G1 bats. And as far as I know that's still the case for the main willow merchants. If Viking can just get G1 clefts from Jedi and they are prepared to only sell from there cleft range to Viking than I guess you can. My point is still a G1 is just that not 3 ranges of a certain Grade. Maybe I'm wrong or out of date

Think you have to order a cross-section of grades from a willow merchant, but Viking obviously have an agreement to only take grade 1 from their bat maker, James (Jedi).

[Viking Cricket]

Hi All,

We have been made aware of the confusion around Viking cricket and will try to clear a few things up.
We started planning Viking Cricket about 18 months ago although our plans had been around for much longer and we launched about 12 months ago.
We had bought a few bats from Jason at Hammer for local cricketers after they had seen my sons bat but were never going to be Distributors or anything like that.

We spoke to Jason about his future plans and without going into detail he had no issue with what we were planning, we discussed brand names etc as you would expect i cant go into more detail.
We are in the process of working with Viking Australia and have a very good relationship, we are hoping to both be under one Brand soon and again i cant say more just yet but it will be a very exciting time for both the UK and Australia.
Finally our bat maker is James Dollive who we choose to work after speaking to various people and visiting suppliers.

I understand we will have people who like what we are about and like anything in life people who don't.
We feel we have experience as ex players, an ECB Level 2 coach and parents of cricketers along with a bat maker with over 20 years experience who is well respected to offer a great products at good prices.
I am sure you will agree we have been open and honest on our website and named where our bats are made and by who, I am not sure everybody does that these days.

We have already worked with the local community to help a number of projects like the Cricket Asylum foundation, Given some bats to KECC who were burgled for the 14th time last year and a couple of other projects.

I hope that gives a little more info about us and please feel free to contact us if needed, however we wont be regulars on the forum but we thank all of you for the interest in Viking Cricket.
We have a website, telephone numbers and e-mail should anyone have any questions.
Best Wishes
Team Viking

[Yorkershire]

Great choice to use James! Quality... not always been keen on the JEDI stickers, so nice to know I can get a bat by James with different stickers.

Who makes Bear bats, are they also made by James?