"Totally Annoying": Schalke 04 Face Quality Control Disaster With 26-27 Away Kit
- Quality Control Disaster: Schalke 04's popular 26-27 away kit, despite high sales, faced a major quality control issue with fans reporting numerous printing defects like crooked sponsor logos and misaligned names/numbers.
- Merchandising Partner at Fault: The printing defects were attributed to Schalke's merchandising partner, 11teamsports, responsible for applying sponsor logos and player details, rather than the kit supplier Adidas.
- Club's Remedial Actions: Schalke responded by halting deliveries to manually inspect approximately 17,000 jerseys, causing severe delivery bottlenecks, and offered free exchanges for defective shirts along with complimentary match tickets for affected customers.
FC Schalke 04's retro-inspired 26-27 away kit was widely praised as one of the best releases of the summer, selling an astonishing 60,000 units shortly after launch. However, what was poised to be an enormous commercial triumph has turned into a major logistical and quality control headache for the club. Numerous supporters who received their jerseys took to social media to share glaring printing defects, most notably crooked and misaligned Beumer Group sponsor logos across the chest, as well as mismatched and poorly applied player names and numbers on the back. Thanks to Fussballdaten.
Schalke 04 Face Quality Control Disaster With 26-27 Away Kit
While Adidas supplies the blank kits, the application of sponsor logos, names, and numbers is handled by the club's merchandising partner, 11teamsports. In response to the wave of complaints and defective deliveries, Schalke took the unusual step of halting regular dispatches to manually inspect roughly 17,000 remaining jerseys one by one before sending them out.
This comprehensive quality check has caused severe delivery bottlenecks, pushing some customer order arrivals back into October and November.
Schalke 26-27 Away Kit Printing Issues
Addressing the debacle in an interview with the WAZ, Schalke CEO Matthias Tillmann made no excuses for the situation: "That is totally annoying, that is not our standard. In this case, we unfortunately could not rely on our finishing partner as we have in the past".
While the club has stated it has no plans to terminate its partnership with 11teamsports, the entire workflow is now undergoing review. Beyond offering free exchanges for defective shirts, Schalke and their partner are compensating affected supporters whose orders failed quality control with a free ticket to an upcoming home match at the Veltins-Arena.
What do you think about Schalke being unable to control the quality of the printing on their jerseys? Comment below.