Direction D
The canvas and the four actions
The move from today
Swipe the picture sideways to see all of it.
- Big brands via distributors (Joma, Nike, Macron)
- Local sports shop (Deportes Polos type)
- Custom specialists (Aimar, Wade, Panda)
- EKANA todaycheaper than the specialists, no shop of its own
- The new lineThe same shirt, for as long as you want it.
The four actions
Eliminate
- The seasonal redesign. Not the club's right to ever change its shirt, but the trade's assumption that a kit is redrawn every two or three seasons and that this is what a kit supplier sells. It is the industry's own reorder trigger, and it is the single cause of buying too much in the first year, too little in the last, a hand-me-down that no longer matches, and a fresh minimum fabric purchase every time. No supplier group questions it, which is why it was never on the picture.
Reduce
- Ease and speed of custom design. Below every group, on the factor EKANA is strongest on. There is one design and it is slower to arrive than anyone else's, because a shirt meant to last five years gets more of Carolina's time than one that dies in two. After that there is no design service left to sell.
- Breadth of catalogue. Below where EKANA sits today. Only garments that can be held in one cloth and repeated for years stay on the list; everything else goes.
- Flexibility of deal terms. The design is a fixed term and the club cannot negotiate it away. EKANA is level with the specialists on flexible terms today and gives that up here, which is what makes the cloth worth buying in one go.
Raise
- Small orders and top-ups. From the weakest score EKANA has to the strongest on the board. A five-shirt top-up is a draw against cloth we already own, at a factory that already holds the artwork, with no fresh minimum and no small-run penalty.
- Delivery speed. The first run takes exactly what it takes today. Every order after it loses ten to fourteen days for the material, and another ten to fourteen when a colour has to be dyed, because the cloth is already here in the club's colours.
Create
- The same shirt, years later. Order the same shirt in year four and it is the same shirt: the same cloth, the same shade, the same quote. Nobody in this trade commits to a design surviving, because nobody holds anything; a specialist will remake a design on request and it comes back off a new dye lot at a reopened price.
How the cuts pay for the additions
The redesign is what pays. Every design change costs a tech pack, a sample round, new artwork at the factory, a fresh dye lot and a fresh minimum fabric purchase, and it costs every family in the club a full re-buy. Stopping it releases exactly the money and the working time that holding a club's cloth consumes.
The fabric minimum is the clearest case: we already eat it today, and the leftover already goes back to our own store, where it is worth nothing because the design it belongs to is going to die. This direction does not spend new money on cloth. It makes the cloth we are already buying worth something for five years instead of one.
The three tests
Focus
The value curve concentrates on a limited set of factors.
Passes Four high points and nothing else: top-ups, the shirt that is still there years later, the club's own design, and delivery across the life of the deal. On the seven other factors the line sits at or below the middle, and four of those are below where EKANA stands today.
It competes on a shorter list than EKANA does now, not a longer one, and there is one product in the package rather than five.
Divergence
The curve's shape stands apart from the industry's average curve.
Passes This is the half to argue with, so it is written plainly. The raises on their own are not new: two custom makers in Madrid advertise unlimited replenishment and two German ones sell single pieces into Spain in about two weeks. If this direction were only faster top-ups it would be today's offer with better logistics.
What makes the shape different is the drop. It is the only line on the chart that falls on design flexibility, on deal terms and on catalogue, and the only offer in the market that asks a club to give something up. Everyone else's pitch is more of everything, which is why every other line has the same shape.
A compelling tagline
The strategy can be stated in a short, honest tagline that speaks to buyers.
The same shirt, for as long as you want it.
Passes A president repeats it in his own words as they said the shirt doesn't change, or we'll never be stuck with stock again, and both are the offer. It names the sacrifice and the benefit in the same breath, which is what the test asks for.
The word to be careful with is same: the shirt is the same, the sponsor's mark and the names on the back are not, and that has to be said at the first meeting rather than at the first argument.