Pink 'Ladies' GAA Jerseys-Why?

iffy_2007 wrote: »

I have one & guess what? I bought it because I like it!!! I got mine of the ladies county board, our ladies county team get a percentage of the profits. I feel by wearing the pink jersey I am supporting the ladies team, i know they use them as training tops.

Different situation altogether - if I am right in assuming that you are from Dublin, then the jersey is actually the Dublin ladies gaelic rather than Dublin. I'm involved at county board level, and we get no profit from the jersies that we are on about here, which are these ones I'm fairly sure you are on about these ones

panda100 wrote: »

Sorry guys and gals, but I just can't see this as a bit of 'fun'.

Women's sports and women sport spectators aren't really taken seriously, and I really think a seperate pink 'supporters' top for women buy's into this notion. Its like women are more interested in what colour top they're wearing, than the team and the sport they've come to watch. If you really are a true supporter, you will wear you're county colours, and not some overpriced genderist fashion accessory.

One of the reason's I love GAA so much is women players and spectators are treated with respect, unlike rugby and soccer. These pink tops just make women look vain.

Given that its ladies GAA jersies, I'm going to jump right in, given where I stand with GAA. I don't see it as a slight on females sport at all, given that these jersies are targeted at female supporters of the males representing the counties. All the jersies are pink version of the male jersies. Some women are conscious of how they look, and would prefer to wear pink. I've seen a lot of younger girls wearing these jersies around the place. For the record, its the same price as the official jersey - it is a novelty factor for O Neills to try and promote jersies, a small niche in the market, and its obviously selling or else they would have taken them down. It is a novelty and a selling gimmick- for St Patricks day O Neills brought out green versions of every counties jersey.

It is a pink version of the official jersey - I'd have a big problem if they were making pink versions of the jersey with a major difference between what the mens one is and the female one is. Only difference is the colour. O Neills are now carrying the official ladies jersies of some county teams, which is a bigger step than the pink jersies. I agree that supporters should be wearing their county jersey and county colours - but I don't see an issue with women or men for that matter wearing pink jersies with their county's crest and sponsor on it.

Your quote about how you love the GAA because women players are treated with respect baffles me - can I ask what county you are referring to or is it in general? I'm involved with ladies football for the past ten years at this stage, and in the administration side of things for about 4/5 years, and I can tell you that its not the case from what I can see, and the disrespect is coming from within the GAA. The one club model that the GAA are promoting won't make any difference to the grass roots members - trying to get pitches for training and games, ladies clubs having to pay the mens club for the use of facilities, mens teams taking precedence over ladies teams no matter what. This has been my experience in general, but there are a number of clubs where the person in the ladies football club is also involved in the mens, which makes things easier.

If the GAA respected the ladies organisation, then why do the Ladies Gaelic Football Association have to pay to use Croke Park on All Ireland final day??? I'd take more issue in all counties, male and female not supporting the ladies teams in general than O Neills releasing a pink jersey for supporters to wear. I was at a Munster final, if there was more than 600 at it, I'd be surprised - a provincial final that had senior and intermediate teams playing. It just so happened that Waterford were in the intermediate, and the senior hurlers were playing the following day, Cork hurlers were playing that evening in Thurles I think. In fact, I met a number of supporters who if they did not have a bus booked to the ladies game, would have gone to the hurling.

To answer your original question about why - O Neills saw a niche in the market for "female" jersies and went with it as a marketing gimmick, and its working. Its still a jersey supporting the wearer's county as it has the sponsor and the official crest of the county, just not in the counties colours. Some people don't like wearing their counties colours, so O Neills came out with a different colour