If Germany’s first official match against Mexico in the 2018 World Cup didn’t dampen your mood, perhaps throwing down $90 to buy your very own German team jersey will. As Germany hopefully advances further into the competition, demand for the popular German jersey is expected to follow, but at such a steep price, you may be asking yourself where all that money is going to after you hand over your credit card.
Thanks to some digging by marketing consultant Dr. Peter Rohlmann and an easy to digest chart put together by our friends at Statista, we can get a better understanding of whose pockets the money is trickling down into.
While the breakdown was done in euros, based on the jersey’s 89,95€ selling price in Germany, we can assume the prices are about the same in the U.S. seeing that Adidas has set the dollar pricing pretty much the same at $90 USD.
The largest chunk of the selling price is reaped by the retailers selling the German jersey to willing buyers — like yourself — as they take 39,64€ from every sale. After covering their own expenses, however, stores can only realistically expect to make a three to four euro profit on each jersey.
Adidas takes the second largest payout at roughly 17,00€ as the manufacturer and designer of the jersey. The German Football Association (DFB), which owns the trademark and rights to the official team jersey, is paid out a 5,50€ licensing fee on each sale.
The rest of the money goes to cover the necessary costs to take the jerseys to market, including 8,60€ to cover production and transport expenses, 2,60€ for marketing costs, and 2,25€ to pay for distribution. The remaining 14,36€ goes to cover the VAT (tax).
Now that you have a better understanding of where your hard-earned money is going when you buy your jersey, perhaps it makes the high cost easier to swallow.
