They will argue that making small things takes more work than the adult size....tosh, when you consider the profit margin for Adidas.
I would estimate that the individual cost of an adult shirt to manufacture is between £1 to £3, much of that coming from design and material development. The so-called hi-tech materials are pretty commonplace and once produced in vast volumes would be pennies per sqm. The cutting would all be done by machine on a huge scale, and a major cost would be the stitching, which would be as mechanised as possible before extremely poorly paid humans got a look-in. Of course, there's the sponsorship/advertising costs, which have to be clawed back somehow. Then the company has to make a whacking great profit in order to look good in the modern world, or the financial markets lose confidence. Somewhere, in amongst all that, various people make a mint, and the vast majority get shafted. But that's the way the whole World works anyway.
You can get it now online for a bargain £22.50! http://www.kitking.co.uk/product/adidas-campeon-short-sleeve-shirt/9607
Further on my post about the cost of producing a football shirt. I must have been ballpark accurate, at the very least, as it is estimated that an entire kit costs between £5-10 to make. So there you go. Ripped off, but at least you know it now.
Wont a fair chunk of the whacking great profit be made by Saints? I'd say around £15-20 on each shirt sold will go to the club.
Well Addidas will pay Saints to allow them make their kit. Probably not a huge amount, perhaps several million, but that surely will affect the profit split. I would have thought that most of the profit would be with Addidas.
But if you apportion the fee Addidas pay to each shirt, then it really reduces their margin. It is by far their biggest overhead, so it's a bit unfair saying that Addidas are making £40-45 profit per shirt. Still think the shirts are expensive for what you get though. I'll happily pay £40 quid for a polo shirt, but when I do I get something of far higher quality. Why do football shirts have to be made of the most horrible, sweat inducing fabric known to man? Why can you not get a cotton football shirt?