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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 shirts received.
Game On!
As far as pricing goes, ALL stores 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 saw Subside Sports and Worldsoccershop lead the way; however Worldsoccershop did have some of the rarer or harder to get shirts. They also had by far the best looking product pictures showing each product from multiple angles. The one key thing that stood out that 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 and Kitbag took the points in customer service. Our emails were often answered within 20 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 four stores 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 three 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 four, the difference in arrival time never exceeded 4 days between the American stores and European ones.
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 – A newly, beautifully designed site was a welcome relief to the previous, creaking site. If you are familiar with the older site, the new one takes a little getting used to. 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.
Kitbag.com: Another beautifully put together site yet their selection was noticeably smaller than the other three. We noticed many of their lines don't go back more than a couple of years.
The Champion...
Make no mistake about it - despite some minor point deductions, you are looking at the top four 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. If you are based in the U.S, our Editor awarded the points to Worldsoccershop.com based on it's wider selection and product display over Soccer.com. If you are in Europe, this was an extremely difficult decision as the two stores are too close to split. Editor marginally leant towards Subside Sports on the basis of much wider selection which got them over the line against Kitbag. When you factor in currency conversions and overall value for money, each store "winner" narrowly nudged out their very worthy rivals to earn our Editor's Choice for 2010.
Next Review: October 2011
Click Here To Visit Subside Sports
Click Here To Visit Soccer.com
Click Here To Visit Worldsoccershop.com
Click Here To Visit Kitbag.com
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