Major sports brand marketing putting pressure on parents to give their children the latest team kits.
Irish teenagers like their counterparts worldwide are fashion conscious. Peer pressure and the influence of clothing brands are having an impact on what a young person wants to wear.
This however places pressure on parents especially when their children decide that designer sportswear is the only option, and refuse to wear anything else. This desire for sport brands also extends beyond replica jerseys. Bedlinen is also available especially for boys who follow Premier League football teams.
A Dublin mother of five boys has spent up to £80 on runners for her sons.
They have to be Nike or they have to have these air bubbles.
Dublin based retailer Pat Chaney of the Soccer Shop explains that it starts with royalties paid to football clubs by companies who manufacture their jerseys,
In order to get their money back they have to charge the punter in the street.
Former rugby union international Tony Ward has sympathy for parents whose children demand top price jerseys and trainers,
The winners sadly are the sports companies and the football clubs. They are the ones laughing all the way to the bank.
From 'Family Matters' broadcast on 22 September 1993. The reporter is Brigie De Courcey and programme presenters are Seán O'Rourke and Caroline Murphy.
'Family Matters' was a TV magazine programme for and about families. It was presented by husband and wife team Sean O'Rourke and Caroline Murphy and looked at the changing face of Irish family life. It was broadcast from 1992 to 1995.
