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We don't call you VIPs for nothing. This month, Barkers role as the Official Formalwear Sponsors of the All Blacks gets you the chance to get up close and personal with members of the team at some of your local Barkers stores.
Come along to any of the stores at the dates listed below to meet your heroes, get autographs, maybe a photo or a chat. We'll have the full 2010 Barkers Black range available for purchase too, so you can get the All Black look.
The first in-store is a little over a week away in New Plymouth, so book your local date into your schedule and make sure you don't miss the chance to meet the members of the All Blacks and cheer them on before the weekend's test.
Barkers New
Plymouth – Friday 11th June, 10.30-11.30am. Shop 57 Centre City
Mall, Gill Street, New Plymouth
Barkers
Dunedin – Friday 18th June, 10.30-11.30am. Meridian Mall, George
Street, Dunedin
Barkers
Outlet Hamilton – Friday 25th June, 10.30-11.30am. Dress-Smart, Te
Rapa Rd,
Hamilton
Barkers
Sylvia Park – Friday 9th July, 10.30-11.30am. 286 Mt Wellington
Highway, Sylvia Park, Auckland
Barkers
Wellington – Friday 16th July, 10.30-11.30am. 226 Lambton Quay,
Wellington
Barkers St
Lukes – Thursday 22nd July, 6.30-7.30pm. Westfield Shopping Town, St
Lukes, Auckland
Barkers
Riccarton – Tuesday 3rd August, 3.30-4.30pm. Shop 134 Westfield Shopping
Town, Riccarton,
Christchurch
Barkers
Cashel Mall – Friday 6th August, 10.30-11.30am. 125 Cashel Mall,
Triangle Centre, Christchurch.
Everyone who attends will receive a 20% off voucher to be used with a future Barkers' purchase, and we'll have autograph cards and specially priced tees available for purchase in store.
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Posted:
1 Jun 10, 12:00 a.m.
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Comments (1)
| By Duncan Greive | categories: Barkers Blog
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New Zealand has a strange relationship with football. Our
undying love affair with the oval ball means that it rarely does better
than a solid third in the winter code rankings, and for long stretches
our national team performs its duties away from the limelight in front
of the true believers. But in the depths of this winter the round ball
is undeniably in the ascendant, and in large part that's down to the
belief and smarts of one man.
Ricky Herbert was just 21 when New Zealand last made the
FIFA World Cup Finals in 1982, but his tender years didn't prevent him
being part of the dream run to Spain. Now, nearly thirty years on, he
finds himself in the unique position of being a core part of the
national team's second appearance at the world's biggest sporting event.
Barkers is the Official Formal Wear Supplier to the 2010
All Whites, and we managed to sit down with the All Whites coach for
twenty minutes prior to the team's departure last weekend, a few hours
before they headed out on a whirlwind tour which has seen the perform
creditably against in a last minute loss to Australia (a game which even
Australian commentators said we were unlucky to lose) and snatch an
incredible 1-0 victory over Serbia, a side ranked 15th in the world.
While Herbert drank herbal tea sweetened with honey we
plied him with questions about his coaching philosophies, the road to
the Finals, the rise of the Phoenix and his time with the great Mt
Wellington football teams of the '70s and '80s.
[+] read more
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Posted:
1 Jun 10, 12:00 a.m.
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Comments (0)
| By Duncan Greive
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When Ruben Wiki first strode on to a rugby league field, few watching would have predicted that he would become one of the sport's most revered figures. Dragged to the ground in South Auckland's Otara by his mother and father, he was as terrified as a debutant has ever been, and it showed.
"My first game wasn't that flash, I kept getting tackled and crying," he says, laughing at the memory. "But mum pulled out a little device to make me score some tries. She stood under the posts, and I just ran to her. As I got a bit older, I didn’t score as many tries, but I’ll always remember that."
Who knows where the sport would be in this country had Wiki's mother not come up with that piece of maternal ingenuity. The game of rugby league was in a very different place back then. Its home in New Zealand was Carlaw Park, the best players still had day jobs and State of Origin was just a crazy idea. The Kiwis had completed a miserable decade of international league, with a ten game losing streak to Australia probably less humiliating than recent losses to France and Wales. But that skinny kid, playing in the backs as he would for most of his early years, would go on to leave an indelible stamp upon the game. In some ways, though, it's a miracle he made it out at all.
"It was pretty rough, mate," says Wiki of his upbringing on the poverty-stricken streets of Otara. "The Once Were Warriors story explains what I went through, and my mum went through as well. She had abusive relationships with her partners. For me, I had to protect my other siblings. My mum went through some walls, but it made me a stronger person to help her out."
[+] read more
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Posted:
26 May 10, 12:00 a.m.
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Comments (0)
| By Duncan Greive | categories: Barkers Blog
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A
few weeks ago then-Barkers MD Zac De Silva, Little Brother's Murray
Crane, Isaac Hinden-Miller of isaaclikes.com sat down in the Crane
Brothers offices to discuss the new Little Brother range, the lessons of
the brand's first year in Barkers stores, and much else besides.
We
spoke for nearly an hour all up, and ended up traversing topics ranging
from the way New Zealand men relate to colour, to the move from pleats
to flat-fronts. It is very long, and if you want a more edited version
of events head
to isaaclikes.com. But hopefully for those interested it'll provide
some insights into the evolving collaboration between Murray Crane's
Little Brother and Barkers.
[+] read more
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Posted:
26 Apr 10, 12:00 a.m.
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Comments (0)
| By Duncan Greive | categories: Barkers Blog
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