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Training Camp
We put each store through its paces by posing as customers and actually purchasing jerseys from them to give you an idea what to expect. This included every drill from site navigation, phone and e-mail correspondence
(including “complaints” and testing them for product knowledge), speaking with their customers and evaluating the quality of the jerseys received.
Game On!
As far as pricing goes, Subside Sports and Soccer.com came in at a dead heat and surprisingly; not because their prices were the same. It’s just there was so little difference between them that after factoring in currency conversions and shipping, we couldn’t split them. Worldsoccershop’s strength in this category was its specials which scored very well with us. They ran them well and often.
Jersey selection marginally went to Worldsoccershop just over Subside Sports. Their range is quite impressive and not only do they carry the widest selection, but often several product versions of even the hardest to get items. They also had by far the best looking product pictures showing each product from multiple angles. The one
key thing that stood out to us impressed us most with all of the stores in this category was each made a genuine effort to locate any item on request.
Soccer.com took the points in customer service. Our emails were often answered within 10 minutes (crazy, we know)
and their follow up was consistently good. Subside Sports service was also terrific with the most knowledgeable staff but with e-mail delays a degree too long for our liking. Worldsoccershop lost a few points here due to longer delays but addressed our queries very well once they got to them.
For custom jersey printing, all three use both Lextra Felt and plastic/vinyl on their printing. The difference is Subside Sports automatically select the type of material used by the teams. For example all FAPL (Premier League) teams use Lextra Felt. So Subside Sports will automatically custom print FAPL
jerseys with Lextra Felt. Although the other two also provided Lextra Felt &
vinyl/plastic you have to instruct them which one you want used. By the way, we
highly recommend adding all the extras to a jersey like custom printing and
league patches – the difference it makes to the overall look is simply
outstanding.
Shipping rates were very similar across the board. Naturally those living in the same region as the store will receive their orders a little faster, but we found when ordering from all three, the difference in arrival time never exceeded 4 days between the American stores and European one.
Injury Time-Out
There is no such thing as a perfect store. Not a single one we reviewed had zero customer complaints. However, the reviews are based on how the stores performed across a whole range of areas rather than individual cases. Although minor, we feel you should know the few little injuries each store had:
Soccer.com – Their newly revamped website looks good but took a little getting used to. Pictures of products could be a little bigger, but once you click on them, that problem disappears. The search function while tedious; gets the job done.
Subside Sports – Probably the most challenging site to navigate out of the three. It also looks the most dated which is a real shame since they stock the latest and greatest lines. The listed teams under each section had too many empty slots for our liking. Of course, this will only affect fans after the rarer type products.
Worldsoccershop – The very slow response time to our emails was frustrating at times although they did adequately compensate for it with accurate information and great follow up. With such a tight race, small things like this can cut deep.
The Champion...
Make no mistake about it –
despite some minor bumps, you are looking at the top three soccer stores online. It’s very easy to tell they have put in considerable effort to really provide everything a soccer fan would want in a jersey. Since we scrutinized each store closer than any fan would, you are going to have an excellent overall experience no matter which store you choose.
So with so little separating them or too close to make a difference, our Editor finally made a decision. Those small added brownie points
aka 1%’ers Subside Sports accumulated throughout ended up just getting
them over the line. When you factor in currency conversions and overall value
for money, they narrowly nudged out their very worthy rivals to earn our
Editor’s Choice for 2009.
Next Review: January 2010
Click Here To Visit Subside Sports
Click Here To Visit Soccer.com
Click Here To Visit Worldsoccershop.com
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