You know the release of a lifestyle range is wildly successful when people take to Social Media to digitally gnash their teeth about not being able to make a purchase when they’ve all gone and coin-eyed meffs are touting them on eBay for several times the RRP.

Tiger Leisure have pulled off this trick twice now in 2023, following up the coveted Kappa retro tracksuit which sold out fast at the end of September with three new items that disappeared from the club shop website within three minutes of going on sale just to members at 9am on Thursday 14^th December.

The new set comprised of a new track jacket in amber (a colour switch from the first release, though not a like for like chromatic swap out as the Kappa omini logos on the shoulder and sleeve taping are in white, and the top sleeve ringlet is red whereas the lower ring was red on the black first jackets), plus a hoodie and tee-shirt in black.

Whereas the first release was teased by the players who wore the black jackets and pants (which followed a classic Kappa template) as a travel suit ahead of the Stoke away game, this time the ‘drop’ was announced on club social media and later on the Tiger Leisure site, with images of a chap bedecked in the Kappa range enjoying a flat white and the ambience of rustic hipster hangout Thieving Harry’s on Humber Street.

That said, the players did wear the amber jackets before the member only release at Middlesbrough, where they were used as anthem jackets (since the players arrived at the Riverside in the black tracksuits).

Predictably, sales were uber-brisk, leaving some people without and unhappy. Some typical responses on Social Media are “Poor from City again!! 😡Should have learned after demand outstripped supply last time.” and “Really poor from the club. There’s significant demand for these items and they should run the full range, not just bits here and there.”

Those comments though miss the whole point of a limited-edition release: to build hype, to get people talking about a Hull City lifestyle release in a way that is not typical of Tiger Leisure stock, which has tended to be generic and dull. This stuff is achingly cool and frankly people complaining that they didn’t get what they wanted only adds to the mystique. Hats off to the club (Hmm, have they considered Kappa hats?) for creating a buzz about amber and black merch and utilising the Kappa brands design heritage.

The resale market, though driven largely by coin-eyed meffery from people who bought items just to sell them on, is a good barometer of the coolness quotient of stuff, and there have been items from the second range release appear on the auction website, though asking prices have been more modest compared to the September release which had people asking for £300-500, not forgetting the auction which closed at £6,400, though the jacket was relisted and went for a more sensible £240.