Our business goes through some well-established cycles throughout the year.

Product ideas, development, sampling, ranging, more sampling, tweaking, marketing and launch plans, purchasing stock, receiving stock, launch, sales drive.....and the cycle then starts all over again.

Coronavirus has thrown in some considerable challenges during this process but also some interesting opportunities.

More time spent in isolation has meant more time spent thinking about product innovations and ideas. More time spent looking at competitors and gaps in the market and more time thinking about product launches.

The downside is that, with factories closed and/or working at much less capacity, the ability to sample and tweak has become much more challenging and has affected potential launch timescales.

This, coupled with the fact that many retailers and brands have high inventory levels, will mean for many businesses that new product launches will simply be delayed for, perhaps, 6 months or more.

At gloveglu we have taken the opposite approach and will be heading full steam into a mammoth product launch programme during the latter half of the 2020.
We've been working incredibly hard on a line of products to help with all aspects of goalkeeping, not just glove care, and to enhance the ability of keepers.

Isolation has, arguably, given us the opportunity to think about brand development like never before and, over the coming months, we can't wait to share with you the launch of a new sister brand and associated products.

But, in the meantime, we working hard on launch plans and timings - the latter being determined by so many different factors that it's hard, at this stage, to provide an accurate launch date.

Suffice to say as soon as we have an idea we'll let you know through our social media channels.

Until then stay safe and keep lovin' your gloves.

Its May 1st and, in the UK, we've been in lockdown due to the Coronavirus since March 23rd.

The impact on the gloveglu business, like many businesses throughout the globe, has been significant and, upon lockdown, we immediately moved to skeleton staffing and more measured social distancing.

The office is deserted (apart from "Dave" our resident showroom dummy) but it's given us all a chance to concentrate, not least, on the future development plans and strategy for 2020 and beyond and a chance to reflect on every aspect of the operation.

In production, we have invested in a new bottling machine to increase production levels and turnaround times and to ensure that stock levels are high when we come out the other side of lockdown and thus are able to react to any business upturn.

In marketing we have reviewed social media strategies, our email databases, pop-ups and looked generally at ways to connect with our customers. Social media advertising has also been increased to further deepen our relationships.

In new product development, we have been working hard on an exciting new project, planning the launch for later this year and ensuring that our factories can deliver ready for the start of a new season (whenever that may be) but more importantly for Christmas. In fact, Christmas planning has been at full speed with some new and exciting bundle packs in production alongside some additional gift items.

The website continues to have more content added as well as the introduction of our gluBOT to help customers choose the right product -something that has been a huge success and well received.

In customer care we have installed zendesk to ensure that queries are answered in a professional and timely manner.

Our amazon business has been overwhelmed, particularly in the product categories that support solo training such as Responseballs and cycling gloves.

For many, this has been a particularly tough and challenging time, and our hearts go out to those that have lost loved ones. We salute the front lines staff, the doctors, nurses and carers and we look forward to the day that football (and indeed all sport) begins again.

But until that time we wish all our customers the very best and thank you for your support.