School Uniform Supply Monopolies

jellyhead

Mine is still wearing his Trutex rugby shirt and PE polo from year 7 and he is in year 10 - he says they are fine for next year.

It's not the Trutex stuff I have a problem with - it's the sweatshirt, which is not Trutex.

My youngest will be a problem at high school though - he grows so fast. He is only 5, and I've just bought him age ten shorts and polos for this week. If high school don't change their supplier then my son can't have a sweatshirt. He will be bigger than me when he's 11 and they are not allowed non-logo sweatshirts.

Violetta_2

looby75 wrote: »

oh I forgot about another sneaky thing thats been brought in, name embroidering on uniform.

DS's junior school used to have a really good second hand uniform sale every term, when he started I got most of his logo'd uniform there including a really good school coat all for less than £30. Then the school changed supplier and introduced compulsory name embroidery on all uniform bought from them, and the quality is no where near as good as it used to be.

Which means they can't be resold at the second hand uniform sale :wall:

I get ds plain fruit of the loom sweatshirts from Ebay for less than half the price of the new school ones.

I am really surprised a school has enforced this when there is all the worries of child safety. If a stranger was to call a child by their name, a child may assume they know them or are mummy's friend so I think this sort of thing could be challenged as may put a child at risk eg on the way home from school. (sorry not sure I've explained that right)

QueenieB

I feel slightly better about the shock of having to buy an entire new uniform for DS1 this week now. All the uniform items have to be bought direct from the school, and with prices for a (very poor quality) fleece top starting at £16ish it certainly isn't cheap. Everything has school logos on it so unless you have relatives who can pass on their outgrown stuff, it can get very expensive, but obviously not nearly as much as some places.
I only have 2 in school at the moment, but next year it will be 3, and I'm already worrying about the cost of kitting out all of them.

Mrs_Arcanum

QueenieB wrote: »

I feel slightly better about the shock of having to buy an entire new uniform for DS1 this week now. All the uniform items have to be bought direct from the school, and with prices for a (very poor quality) fleece top starting at £16ish it certainly isn't cheap. Everything has school logos on it so unless you have relatives who can pass on their outgrown stuff, it can get very expensive, but obviously not nearly as much as some places.
I only have 2 in school at the moment, but next year it will be 3, and I'm already worrying about the cost of kitting out all of them.

You could always try the local Freecyclers, but you have to have lightning reflexes to grab things.

looby75

Violetta wrote: »

I am really surprised a school has enforced this when there is all the worries of child safety. If a stranger was to call a child by their name, a child may assume they know them or are mummy's friend so I think this sort of thing could be challenged as may put a child at risk eg on the way home from school. (sorry not sure I've explained that right)

oh I know what you mean, the names are embroidered in red the same colour as the sweatshirt so you can only see them when you are up close and know where to look. But it still means that they aren't resalable......everyone would know if a child had a second hand sweatshirt because it would have someone else's name on and you can imagine the bullying that could cause

looby75

danieltomlinson wrote: »

Hi,

Hope you don't mind, I just wanted to respond to the message from looby75. I am the Marketing Manager at Trutex and do understand your position with the uniform. Many parents and teachers however are opting for more detailed school uniform as it brings a number of benefits and often looks really smart.

I would also like to assure you that the school will not be getting a 20% kickback for their school uniform. It will be considerably less than that and very likely less than the margin a local retailer would make, plus it goes back in to the school

At Trutex we really work hard to keep the price of school uniform down and our prices are always the same no matter if we are the sole supplier or one of many. We go to great lengths to ensure our garments are of a high quality and are made in factories that are audited on a regular basis to make sure the workers are working in good conditions for fair wages. This often means that are garments are a little more expensive, but they are made to last and therefore great value

I've only just seen this but but I would have to completely disagree with you about the clothes being high quality, in my experience the blouses go grey much faster than cheaper blouses I have bought and the buttons had to be stitched on within a few weeks of being worn.

Also at the time I bought my daughters blouses there was an offer on for 2 for £10 for exactly the same blouses but without the tiny 2 letter logo on the collar. Yet I had to pay £13.50 EACH, you can't tell me that it costs £8.50 to embroider a logo.....in fact I know it doesn't as I found somewhere myself what embroidered the exact same logo for £2.50 each.

As for the 20% kick back......that what the school told the parents when they were trying to justify why to use Trutex.

lolly_896

pigpen wrote: »

Then you'd be very wrong because it is!

Dear God, I am amazed! We had a look around our "private" school and there blazers are £107!

pigpen

lolly_896 wrote: »

Dear God, I am amazed! We had a look around our "private" school and there blazers are £107!

I tried to find the price list for the private school online but there was the uniform list but no prices!

The buttons really annoy me.. they are shoddily sewn on.. and boys bein boys.. they are off in 5 minutes and they don't think to pick them up to be sewn back on.. then they are told off for not having 'full uniform'.. for want of a button!!! but they cannot be bought separately!

they have o have the £65 hat as well which breaks because they stuff them in their bags and sit on them and allsorts!

TechnoBadger

looby75 wrote: »

As for the 20% kick back......that what the school told the parents when they were trying to justify why to use Trutex.

That 20% kick back added 25% to the cost of your uniform. The retailer / Trutex / whatever didn't give it out of their own pockets. As I've said before, I believe these sweetheart payments are there to keep the school sweet at your expense thus eliminating any competition. I doubt bribery of this sort would be allowed in any other industry - why is it OK for schoolwear suppliers?

TechnoBadger

danieltomlinson wrote: »

Hi,

Hope you don't mind, I just wanted to respond to the message from looby75. I am the Marketing Manager at Trutex and do understand your position with the uniform. Many parents and teachers however are opting for more detailed school uniform as it brings a number of benefits and often looks really smart.

Hi Daniel, welcome to the thread! I was wondering, if a school arranges to use special Trutex 'more detailed school uniform' using one local shop would you be happy to also provide it to the school / its PTA so that they could sell it directly to parents too? I realise they'd probably need to find an embroider. Or would you supply it to a competing local schoolwear shop? I've been told that companies such as Trutex and Banner only deal with one shop in a territory and competing shops cannot get supplies. Is this true by any chance?

pigpen wrote: »

I think a lot of heads have God Complexes.. you know if they hadn't gone into teaching they would have been a doctor...

I think you may have a point...