What The Nigerian Jersey Can Teach Publishers
Unless you have been living under a rock, or NEPA has not given you light for the past 3 weeks, then you must have heard about the new Nigerian soccer jersey that has been making waves worldwide.
In fact it has been voted by several different publications including GQ magazine as the best looking jersey at the on-going Russian world cup. The jersey is so popular it has been worn by celebrities across the globe including Wakanda’s Mbaku and Arsenal’s Aubemeyang.
But that’s where the good news for our soccer jersey ends!
In the first day the jersey launched, it sold out everywhere. Like everywhere, you couldn’t even find it on Amazon, that’s how you know the problem was serious.
I know this because I went to ShopRite mall a few days after the jersey release, and I met a foreigner trying to convince the sales clerk to sell the Nigerian jersey being worn by the mannequin at the NIKE store.
I hope you got that?
A foreigner was begging, I mean asking to buy the Jersey off the back of a mannequin! But of course the answer was a no, he was rebuffed.
I quietly asked the sales clerk how long it would take for the jersey to be available and I was told 3 weeks … without skipping a beat!
THE PROBLEM
You must have caught on to the problem by now. If you haven’t, let’s replay it in slow motion …
“I WAS TOLD 3 WEEKS.”
In 3 weeks, Nigeria, unless we pull off some major upsets, would be out of the world-cup. But yet the NIKE store in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city located in Nigeria’s most lucrative area, has run out of Nigerian jerseys before Nigeria has played their opening match?
So what do you think happened next?
Nigerians, went home and waited for NIKE to bring in the next shipment of jerseys after the world cup so they could by it legally? Heck no!
People started pirating the jersey, hawking fake jerseys on the streets of Lagos and started importing the fabric from China. By time the original jersey hits Nigeria, the world cup will be over and the jersey buzz dead.
SO HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY?
When Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi came out, I happened to be at the US at that time.
And my biggest mistake, was taking a picture of book and posting it on instagram.
What happened next was a flood of requests from people in Nigeria for me to buy the book for them. But seeing that the book weighed a couple of pounds as it was a combination of an encyclopedia merged with a bible, I dodged their requests. Because I needed to weigh in at the Turkish Airline counter, and I did not want to come in over weight because of 30 books!
3 weeks after I arrived Nigeria from the states, the book had landed the shores of Nigeria. But like what was happening to the Nigerian jersey, it was too late!
The digital copy of the book had leaked and was being shared on Whatsapp group chats and illegal websites.
THE LESSON
In a global economy where the world is connected instantly by the internet, if you do not come to the market quick enough and big enough. You will allow piracy thrive.
Sadly, this message is lost in transalation.
Most publishers and kit manufacturers are afraid of Africa because of the fear of piracy. But what they fail to realize is that by staying away from the African market, or coming in late, you will miss out on potential millions. Which is likely the lost opportunity NIKE will face, for not getting enough kits to the country for which the kit is designed for!
In the same way that sales of Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi would have easily sold 10,000 copies but lost out because it came to the market too weak and too slow, allowing piracy destroy that opportunity.
We need to change the narrative.
