The success of the Donegal Football team in making it through to the All Ireland Football Final has given a massive boost to Waterford based sportswear manufacturer Azzurri Sports.
The company has rushed to produce thousands of new replica jerseys after the county beat Cork on Sunday to set up a first All Ireland Final since 1992 and only the second one ever.
Stocks of the home and away Donegal Kit, as well as the pink women’s version, sold out in stores across the county at lunchtime on Monday but the company hopes to have vehicles on the road this evening to replenish stock.
“We’ve been planning our production for the final and stock will be hitting the roads today,” said Azzurri sales director Jamie Osborne, speaking to the Irish Examiner newspaper .
“The calls are coming in from retailers all over Donegal but we’ve also had calls from individuals looking for jerseys to be sent out to Australia, the UK and America. Our Australian retail partner was on the phone first thing looking for jerseys.”
“At each stage of the team’s progression, the sales of the jersey have been ahead of what we expected. There has been a great sense of momentum behind the team.”
“It’s a unique opportunity for us and the retailers to generate revenue in a marketplace that’s very tight right now.”
The green and pink jerseys were both on show on the pitch on Sunday when the GAA struck lucky by finding that Nicola and Martin McBride from Kerrykeel in Donegal won the prize of two tickets for the final after becoming the 1,000,000th spectator at the Championship this season.
The ticket was able to be selected through the scanning technology employed by another irish based company Tickets.ie which manages all of the GAA’s ticketing needs and was able to watch the numbers clock up to the magic million on Sunday.
This weekend Dublin take on Mayo in the second semi final.  They are playing for the right to face Donegal on September 23rd.  Donegal’s only previous final appearance was twenty years ago when they caused an upset beating Dublin in the final.  That summer is fondly remembered for the celebrations surrounding Ireland’s last previous Olympic Boxing gold medal won in Barcelona by Michael Carruth.
Many Donegal supporters are now drawing comparison to Katie Taylor’s Gold at the London games and seeing their hopes rise even further.
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