Soccer/football

So apparently, soccer is very popular in the world, you know, except in the US.  I believe the only time Americans get excited about soccer is during the world cup, which I think is kind of a "jump on the bandwagon" time created by marketing and hype of the event.  Since being in Vietnam, I have watched more soccer games in the past 6 months than I have the previous 24 years in the US because my landlord and my neighbors are huge fans and occasionally invite me. (Little cute story: every time there is a game on, my landlord scarfs down dinner as fast as he can and keeps an eye on the clock so he doesn't miss a second of the game.  He's like 60ish but he reminds me of 8 year-old catching his favorite TV show.)  So now that I am a super-expert fan in the art of football, because we snobs know this is the real football, I have decided to support my teams by capitalist methods, mainly buying team clothing.  So not only am I supporting my team, I can also become a walking billboard for their sponsors.

Chelsea sure looks good on a Sony, I mean, Samsung TV

Naturally of course, I am very selective in choosing my favorite teams.  The process goes like this: 1) Who has pretty colors in their Jerseys.  That's it.  Does this make me a woman?

So far I like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool because I think their jersey designs are neat.  As far as the actually playing, it is okay and sometimes even exciting, though I have no idea about the standings or rosters.  However, those concepts are for the brutes, as I am more specific in my entertainment and tend to appreciate the more shallow and materialistic side of football.

In my quest for clothes, I decided I should start with the "official" avenues of acquiring merchandise and visited the Nike and Adidas stores.  While the selection is great, the prices are a bit out of my spending range, starting from about 30 dollars to 75 dollars--which is not too bad but that is way too much for a sport that honestly bores me 97 percent of the time.  What confuses me is that most of these clothes are made in Vietnam so you would think shipping would be cheaper, thus resulting in a lower overall price.  Also, considering I have never met anyone who works in a clothing factory to be rolling in cash, I would think the labor would be more exploitative  cheaper.  Not a business person but I don't think that is how it works.

Anyways, I then visited a....let's call it an "unofficial factory-direct outlet store for damaged soccer merchandise" to see if I could get anything cheaper.  Now these places are fun--part of the game is to find the defect and haggle your price down.  This particular store would be an extra challenge since it was located in a heavily tourist area so you know the markup would be higher than usual.  So I go in and look at pants and ask in Vietnamese what the prices are.  One pair is 160k.  I ask for two pants and get it down to 240k, or 120k each, roughly 6 dollars for a pair Chelsea and ManU pants with just some loose threads and ripped labels.  Now considering these "real" versions are like 50 dollars in the US and the Official stores, I say that's a deal.  But I was wondering if I could push harder and save 2 more dollars.

But then some tourists come and ask in English the prices of some shirts.  300k for a shirt.  I ask the lady how much that shirt is for me and she said, "for you, 110k."  I then decided I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead and brought the pants...though they did make fun of me because I brought two rival teams (Though the way I think of it, when both teams play each other, I always win).  For you Americans, it is like buying a Cowboys shirt and a Eagles shirt at the same time.  Yes, I think I will stick with the more complicated though less action version of football...

 tony