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Sourcing National Team Gear In Europe

Sourcing national team gear in Europe isn’t easy, but the lacrosse world is obsessed with gear, so it must be done! Since Danish Lacrosse created Twitter and Instagram accounts in August we have been inundated with comments from people wanting to see our team gear, but the truth is we don’t have any national team gear.

Or at least we didn’t. This is how we got ourselves geared out, and what we’re going to do moving forward. This is basically a case study of how to gear out a national team, especially in Europe.

Since we haven’t had a team since 2010, most of the stuff with DANMARK written on it has been used in our recruiting process, turned rusty, fallen apart and been put out to pasture. We have therefore had to start from scratch with sourcing new stuff for the team, and this is where things got truly interesting.

Uniform

Sourcing National Team Gear In Europe

The general consensus in Europe is that it is all but impossible to get a team sponsorship from a major lacrosse company. Aiming for the most impact on social media to improve our chances of luring a gear sponsor against all odds to Danish Lacrosse, we based our model for world domination on Wales @WalesMensLax.

With over 2,500 Twitter followers and a blue Twitter tick of approval, they run a pretty solid campaign that should be emulated. Wales had all the nice gear at the 2014 World Championships and we wanted to do the same the next time we took the field.

Where do you even begin to start?

National Team Gear

The first part of sourcing our team gear was setting a budget – inevitably the first question any company or lacrosse shop will be ‘what is your budget?’. Our guys are students and one of the many reasons our national team hadn’t been out to play for so long was the cost of the trip and gear makes up a large portion of any lacrosse budget. We took the budget from the 2010 trip to Manchester and cut it in half and used that as a starting point.

How do you source the same amount of gear with the aim of halving the budget?

EMAILS!

Getting in contact with people who make gear and uniforms for us is pretty much entirely done via email. We understandably don’t have much of a network around our national team anymore so not too many people replied to the first round of unsolicited emails we sent. It is easier to get replies from lacrosse shops, of which there are a couple scattered around Europe. Unfortunately the price you can get from a European lacrosse shop usually isn’t the most competitive so it helps to go straight to the well (in this case, a lacrosse brand) to get your water.

We somehow managed to get in contact with STX via some creative social media work and got a dialogue going about getting gear. STX had some old model stock that they were happy to move at a really great price but the sticking point was getting it to Europe…

National Team Gear

Sometimes it is just about who you know, or follow on Twitter.

This is where our European lacrosse friends come in handy – NorthernSoul in England stocks STX gear and also had a shipment of STX gear arriving around the time we wanted our gear to arrive. So we just got our team gear put in with their shipment from the US to England. We had some warm-up games set in England and were able to receive the gear in person in Manchester, which also saved us some money on European postage, which can add a considerable margin to any budget.

We also did the usual thing of reaching out to friends further afield. Kevin Proctor (LaxThePlanet) came up big for us and put us in contact with some people at UnderArmour who have done us a great deal for on field footwear and socks. Kevin even had a handy contact for helmet wraps to get our helmets looking the goods.

But what are the helmets? Please tell us more about the helmets.

2016 has been the year of helmet debate and Instagram comment feeds for colleges wearing new lids from STX and Warrior have been more hostile than a Justin Bieber YouTube comment feed, which we thought was impossible.

To put it plainly – helmets are expensive and a nightmare to move. So we weren’t really too concerned about what we were putting on our melons as long as we could get it to Denmark for a good price. Unfortunately the best quote we got on team domes was around $175 U.S.D a piece excluding any sticker work and going back to our budget aims the price was a bit too high, especially when you need to include freight from the US to Denmark on top of the 20% import tax when you receive the goods in Europe.

We weren’t making much headway on helmets (pardon the pun) but then after our previous article about funding the team we were contacted by James Madison High School from Virginia, who coincidentally have red and white team colors, and they made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.

They were going to donate 50 helmets to Danish Lacrosse if we paid to get them to Denmark – since the helmets are used and a donation we shouldn’t have to pay any taxes on them (in theory). We even have enough time up our sleeves to put them on a boat from the US to Denmark to save money on the freight – let’s just hope they arrive on time!

European Lacrosse Networking

It is hard to know if you are on the right track if you have never sourced gear for a team before. The people who sourced our gear for the previous national teams aren’t involved in Danish Lacrosse anymore and never seemed to crack the magical code to getting good quality things to Denmark cheaply.

But we are lucky enough to live in Europe where the lacrosse community is a bit like that small inbred village: you drive around on your way to your great aunt’s house – everyone knows each-other a little too well and people are willing to help out and share ideas/tips, usually out of curiosity’s sake.

While in Manchester to play trial games against Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the England under 19’s, we got a chance to sit down with our counterparts from Wales and Ireland to discuss the never ending European lacrosse gear saga and as it turns out there are many ways to skin a cat.

The things we learnt from the Welsh.

Coaches

A few lacrosse people are under the misconception that Wales get gear sponsored but it turns out they are scraping the equipment together just like we and many other teams are. The thing the Wales Men’s National Team has up its sleeve is experience and a good network.

  • Use social media as a tool to get in contact with more people, including ‘non lacrosse’ people.
  • Not everything for a lacrosse team needs to come from a lacrosse company. There is a possibility to cross over and talk to apparel providers from other sports.
  • There is a snowball effect but it takes time to achieve. The work you put in now will pay off but it might not happen straight away.
  • Try and keep things locally based – get into good relationships with the local area. The prices might be higher but turn out similar when shipping and taxes are taken into the equation.
  • Being a repeat customer pays off – if you buy your gear from the same place they will be more likely to go the extra mile to make sure you get a good deal.

Wales

The things we learnt from the Irish.

The Irish are in a pretty similar boat to the Welsh and aren’t getting a free ride either but they are really well connected in the states and have people putting in ground work for them – ground work such as throwing one of the best parties at the annual Lacrosse Convention. Nothing will help you make friends in lacrosse like hosting a good party.

Aside from plying sales reps with alcohol the Irish have thought outside of the box on the age old problem of getting gear from the U.S to Europe – go directly to the company that handles the shipping/freight to get sponsorship or donated freight.

MIND BLOWN!

Vs-Ireland

Everyone talks about the luck of the Irish but if you ask us genius thinking has got nothing to do with luck.

We are really looking forward to playing against the Irish and Welsh teams again at the European Championships and hopefully picking up a few more pearls of wisdom from the after game chin wags that will ensue.

You will see us wearing equipment that we have worked hard to get to Denmark and that our players have sold beers, crowd funded and hosted parties to make the out of pocket payment less damaging to their own personal finances.

If you are interested in keeping up to date with what is happening in European lacrosse we recommend following:

Twitter:
@danishlacrosse
@walesmenslax
@irelandlacrosse
@europelacrosse

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon with more on Dansk Lacrosse!