Sampling and sourcing is a constant, it is always on going, present, developing and changing. However, in the very early days it posed the ultimate hurdle, and that is not to say we don’t still get things wrong, it just seemed in the earlies we never got things right. Frankly, without the correct product, well to put bluntly, you are snookered. (Side note, someone told me the other day more money is gambled on frames of snooker than most other sports, how crazy).
What do you think of the photo attached? If you think the embroidery looks dodgy, you should have tried it on. The amount of money I parted with on woeful samples was truly astonishing, and it is harrowing to this day. I spent hours trawling through Alibaba (which by the way is worth billions, and I personally think is useless), and then days going to and fro with my Asian counterpart, only to then wait weeks on some awful samples. Years go by, sourcing and suppliers change, but there is always teething. Patrice Evra always states ‘I love this game’, I am not sure how he’d feel about sampling and sourcing.
