Club GAA gear - “shall be of Irish manufacture”

M007 · 17-06-2021 9:32pm #1

Just wondering If anyone knows the answer as to whether or not club gear has to be actually manufactured on the island of Ireland to comply with the rules of the GAA.

The rule states: Playing gear and equipment
(a) All jerseys, shorts, stockings, tracksuits (tops and
bottoms) and kitbags, worn and/or used for official matches, in pre-match or post-match television or video interviews, player walk-ups and photographs, shall be of Irish manufacture. This requirement shall also apply to replica playing gear.

What does of Irish manufacture mean. Does importing them in from abroad and getting the embroidery done here suffice? Does umpiring the jerseys and selling them with an Irish manufacturing companies logo suffice.

I’m seen an explosion of Irish companies selling Gaa club gear. Some is better quality than others, some have no labels showing where they are manufactured and I’ve seen one with “Registered and Designed in Ireland” but no mention of manufacturing took place.

Anyone have a clear understanding or definitive answer on it?

M007 · 19-06-2021 8:26am

Does anyone know?

Pogue eile · 19-06-2021 1:48pm

M007 wrote: »

Does anyone know?

The only person i would suggest that knows is the legislator.

I would assume that the wording was deliberately chosen in order that only part of the manufacturing process has to take pkace in Ireland, otherwise it would simply say that it must be 'manufactured in Ireland' but who knows what the intention was. No matter who is manufacturing the gear I would assume at least some of the raw materials are imported.

Frank Murphy be the man to answer

:D

CrabRevolution · 21-06-2021 1:33pm

I haven't done any real research into them, but from all I've heard about the new small-time club gear suppliers they're more agents for materials manufactured in Asia. Much like the numerous "Irish PPE Manufacturers" which popped up at the beginning of the pandemic who were simply middlemen for Chinese manufacturers.

callaway92 · 21-06-2021 1:36pm

Yeh I have to admit, there’s a person I know of who has a ‘company’ now with an atrocious website basically selling jumpers/t-shirts etc at absolute rip-off prices with a team’s name on them (ie Ballyhale).

100% ordering them in from something like AliExpress and selling then online himself for stupid prices (for some reason having the prices ‘marked down’ which is just bizarre).

Their ‘refund policy’ which is laughable, shows this:

‘ Return Policy

We use print on demand services so as soon as your order is placed production begins. For this reason, we don't offer returns or exchanges, but if you are not entirely happy or there is something wrong with your order, please let us know by contacting us at contact@repyourlocal.com

Refund Policy

Refunds are only offered to customers that receive the wrong items or damaged items. If any of these apply, please let us know by contacting us at contact@repyourlocal.com with the necessary information and photographic evidence for further investigation. ’

Obviously can’t associate himself with the GAA though.

Ah ya, shipping then, just not quite mentioning having to wait for China to send here first:

‘ When will I get my order?

Usually, it takes 3–5 working days to fulfil an order, after which it’s shipped out. The shipping time depends on your location.

***[Covid-19] When will I get my order?***

Our fulfilment times may be longer than usual and may continue to increase until things get back to normal. We’re seeing delays in our supply chain, including distributors and shipping carriers as the entire industry is grappling with challenges.’

Boom__Boom · 21-06-2021 5:39pm

M007 wrote: »

Just wondering If anyone knows the answer as to whether or not club gear has to be actually manufactured on the island of Ireland to comply with the rules of the GAA.

The rule states: Playing gear and equipment
(a) All jerseys, shorts, stockings, tracksuits (tops and
bottoms) and kitbags, worn and/or used for official matches, in pre-match or post-match television or video interviews, player walk-ups and photographs, shall be of Irish manufacture. This requirement shall also apply to replica playing gear.

What does of Irish manufacture mean. Does importing them in from abroad and getting the embroidery done here suffice? Does umpiring the jerseys and selling them with an Irish manufacturing companies logo suffice.

I’m seen an explosion of Irish companies selling Gaa club gear. Some is better quality than others, some have no labels showing where they are manufactured and I’ve seen one with “Registered and Designed in Ireland” but no mention of manufacturing took place.

Anyone have a clear understanding or definitive answer on it?

I think this might be more aspirational than anything binding - I would imagine that if the GAA actually tried to enforce this that they would be on a very weak legal footing, especially in terms of goods manufactured in the EU. I'm not a lawyer but I'd imagine the EU rules about free trade would give anyone in the EU who the GAA tried to take action against, a very strong defence against these rules.

What the story is legally in terms of outside the EU probably depends on what country is being discussed and what sort of trade agreements are signed with that country. [I think if no trade agreement agreement is signed with a specific country, then WTO rules apply.]

I'd imagine if you got in touch with Croke Park's legal department they might be able to give you the GAA's interpretation of these rules. Also get an idea of what sort of enforcement they engage in.

Probably worth mentioning that the GAA's interpretation of these rule might not be fully definitive. A court might have an different interpretation of these rules in terms of whether they are legal/what exactly manunfactured in Ireland means]

CrabRevolution · 21-06-2021 7:04pm

Boom__Boom wrote: »

I think this might be more aspirational than anything binding - I would imagine that if the GAA actually tried to enforce this that they would be on a very weak legal footing, especially in terms of goods manufactured in the EU. I'm not a lawyer but I'd imagine the EU rules about free trade would give anyone in the EU who the GAA tried to take action against, a very strong defence against these rules.

What the story is legally in terms of outside the EU probably depends on what country is being discussed and what sort of trade agreements are signed with that country. [I think if no trade agreement agreement is signed with a specific country, then WTO rules apply.]

I'd imagine if you got in touch with Croke Park's legal department they might be able to give you the GAA's interpretation of these rules. Also get an idea of what sort of enforcement they engage in.

Probably worth mentioning that the GAA's interpretation of these rule might not be fully definitive. A court might have an different interpretation of these rules in terms of whether they are legal/what exactly manunfactured in Ireland means]

If a sporting goods behemoth like Adidas couldn't get around the GAA's Irish manufacture rule, then it's safe to assume that the rule is on a pretty solid legal footing;

https://www.independent.ie/sport/croke-park-row-stalls-kerrys-adidas-kit-deal-26182863.html

callaway92 · 21-06-2021 9:58pm

Ya exactly

You don’t see Nike bringing out their own version of a jersey for a team that is contracted to Adidas etc because they wouldn’t have the rights to the crest etc

M007 · 21-06-2021 11:57pm

Yes - I’ve seen prices for training tops and jerseys that aren’t a patch on the quality of product you’d get from azzzuri or O’Neill’s and yet they charge the same price.

callaway92 wrote: »

Yeh I have to admit, there’s a person I know of who has a ‘company’ now with an atrocious website basically selling jumpers/t-shirts etc at absolute rip-off prices with a team’s name on them (ie Ballyhale).

100% ordering them in from something like AliExpress and selling then online himself for stupid prices (for some reason having the prices ‘marked down’ which is just bizarre).

Their ‘refund policy’ which is laughable, shows this:

Obviously can’t associate himself with the GAA though.

Ah ya, shipping then, just not quite mentioning having to wait for China to send here first:

PARlance · 22-06-2021 8:14am

M007 wrote: »

Just wondering If anyone knows the answer as to whether or not club gear has to be actually manufactured on the island of Ireland to comply with the rules of the GAA.

The rule states: Playing gear and equipment
(a) All jerseys, shorts, stockings, tracksuits (tops and
bottoms) and kitbags, worn and/or used for official matches, in pre-match or post-match television or video interviews, player walk-ups and photographs, shall be of Irish manufacture. This requirement shall also apply to replica playing gear.

What does of Irish manufacture mean. Does importing them in from abroad and getting the embroidery done here suffice? Does umpiring the jerseys and selling them with an Irish manufacturing companies logo suffice.

I’m seen an explosion of Irish companies selling Gaa club gear. Some is better quality than others, some have no labels showing where they are manufactured and I’ve seen one with “Registered and Designed in Ireland” but no mention of manufacturing took place.

Anyone have a clear understanding or definitive answer on it?

Not a definitive answer (because it's a legal matter) but I would be almost certain that embroidery would pass as manufacturing or production.

A bit like Brazilian or EU chicken used to be imported into Ireland, cooked cooled and sliced and then labelled "Made in Wicklow".... (Recent legislation now states that the country of origin of the meat needs to be also labelled).

It's an interesting area. The "shall" is the other bit that jumps out at me. Generally in the legal world, "shall" is now seen as being ambiguous and not as definite as "must". I would also wonder how this would stand up to an EU challenge...

M007 · 22-06-2021 4:14pm

I understand the EU law concern and wouldn’t have a problem with that. I do have a concern with clothes coming in from countries with less than ideal worker’s conditions, poor material etc and being charged a whopping price and you can’t really say no as it’s the designated club training gear etc.

The vast majority of these brands seem to be ok but I’ve seen some very poor quality stuff being hawked for juvenile teams that wash very poorly

PARlance wrote: »

Not a definitive answer (because it's a legal matter) but I would be almost certain that embroidery would pass as manufacturing or production.

A bit like Brazilian or EU chicken used to be imported into Ireland, cooked cooled and sliced and then labelled "Made in Wicklow".... (Recent legislation now states that the country of origin of the meat needs to be also labelled).

It's an interesting area. The "shall" is the other bit that jumps out at me. Generally in the legal world, "shall" is now seen as being ambiguous and not as definite as "must". I would also wonder how this would stand up to an EU challenge...

Club GAA gear - “shall be of Irish manufacture”

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