Games merchandise will soon be all gone
AS MEMORIES fade, so too merchandise from the Island Games is on the way out. Organisers have sold nearly all the stock.
Those looking to keep in the spirit of the Games for a little while longer can still buy items such as hoodies, T-shirts, bucket hats and towels from the official games website, or from Beau Sejour, for as little as half price.
Items will be available online for another week, after which customers will need to go to Beau Sejour.
A total of 11,677 items were ordered in preparation for the Games, with more than 10,800 sold as of Friday.
The most popular item was the Jet the Puffin mascot toy, with all 2,450 selling out.
Other popular items have included T-shirts, of which more than 1,700 have been sold, and bucket hats, with more than 1,200 sales.
There are just less than 400 Guernsey flag towels still available to buy, and more than 200 T-shirts.
All items were printed and sourced through local company Printed in Guernsey.
Merchandising team leader Nadia Newton said that none of her 26-strong team had realised how much work there would be for them to do over the course of the Games, with more than 30 shifts completed between them.
‘The kit arrived from the printers just over a month before the Games folded together in groups of 10, so every item had to be unfolded and then individually folded, ready to sell,’ she said.
She joked that all the volunteers now had very tidy wardrobes at home.
‘I was watching YouTube videos about folding and we had lessons on how best to fold things. We ended up with a production line going.’
Merchandise was on sale at the opening and closing ceremonies and at many of the sporting venues, while Morrisons, Matalan, Checkers Express, Iceland and Wine Warehouse also stocked items.
‘We had to split the stock up for distribution to the various pop-up stands, and I think we sold £14,000-worth of stuff on the day of the opening ceremony alone,’ Mrs Newton said.
‘Sure in the High Street allowed us have a mini pop-up shop through the whole of the week, and Creaseys very kindly lent us more than 100 plastic crates and wheels so we could pack everything up and ferry them from pop-up to pop-up.’
Games director Julia Bowditch said that the money raised from merchandise sales would be ploughed back into sports clubs on the island.
‘We are still waiting for the final figure, then we will be able to distribute the money equally between all the sports that made up the Games,’ she said
