The Old Onion Bag Soccer Shop

This picture of my daughter was taken on Thanksgiving Day, 2007 outside our old storefront on 11th Street and 2nd Ave in Manhattan. This tiny store was the original Onion Bag Soccer Shop, we did two and a half years there before moving across the Hudson to North Bergen in September 2002. Our hand painted sign still exists today, and has been joined by many other hand painted signs !

Nevada Smiths Quiz Night, NYC

Nevada Smiths Quiz Night, NYC
Team PAY THE BILL* aka The Onion Bag drink team will be showing off big style at Nevada Smiths Quiz Night this coming Monday, December 2nd. Yes, it's true we are undefeated, never cheated and a little conceited. Myself, Iain, Gabriel, Felix and EL GUILLERMO* invite any and all of you to come down and heckle us. El Guillermo has warned that he will be 'MUCHO PELIGROSO*' to be around if PAY THE BILL*, in the unlikely event, does not win the aforementioned quiz.

If you'd like to get the drinks in we will be accepting the following all evening long: 3 pints of lager and a GINGER ALE NO ICE*. Thankyou.



* All references to The Bill must be made in caps. Show up on Monday to see why.

Timing is Everything

This week we were very exicted to finally be able to offer authentic name and number sets for Ajax and PSV. The last time we were able to import these numbers was two seasons ago when we offered that year's Ajax Home and Away jerseys with Van Der Vaart on the back. This season, with Carlos Salcido at PSV, we decided to bring them in again. We've even decided to carry the official Eredivisie sleeve badges for the first time. So now came the time to decide who to bring in for Ajax. A quick scan of the team roster on the official Ajax site and we decided on only bringing the two most recognizeable players (at least to us), Edgar Davids and Jaap Stam. So off went the order and everything was happy in Onion Bag land.

The day before offering this on our website:

Came this news from Holland:

That gave us a good laugh. Only The Onion Bag. It immediately reminded us of the infamous France 2002 World Cup jerseys. That was our first World Cup since the shop had opened, and by the time June 1st rolled around we were pretty much sold out of every team in taking part in that year's cup. If you recall, the defending champions France were one of the big favorites going in.

So we got on the horn and ordered an amount of France jerseys that, to be honest, I don't think The Onion Bag has carried ever since. Probably because the whole thing left such a bad taste in our mouth!

Long story short, order is placed and finally arrives. The day after France loses 2-0 to Denmark to complete a spectacular exit from the World Cup after only securing one point in three matches, including the tournament's inaugural match defeat to Senegal. Merci, mon ami! It really felt like a kick in the nuts when the UPS driver unloaded all the boxes and we realized what was inside. Oh well, I guess it's true what they say, you really can look back and laugh (sometimes!).

United Go Top of the League

That's Carlisle United, and they have just moved into the top spot of the Football League One. Next stop... Champions League football (in three years).

adidas' 2 Cents (Literally)

Found this on the shop floor yesterday. The manufacturer price tag in the image has not been altered (but it has been removed from our shirts in the shop). Subconscious slip-up? Is someone over in Germany having a laugh?

On a somewhat related note, the price for an official adidas soccer jersey is going up to $70.00 (suggested retail price). For years now adidas had been beating it's competition by anywhere from $5.oo (Nike) to $10.00 (Umbro, Kappa, etc..). Add this to the growing list of things adidas is doing to try and keep up with Nike. In their defense though, the falling value of the dollar is making anything manufactured over seas more expensive to import.