ISU Launches Online Shop

The story doesn't actually tell you the address for the shop. But, I eventually worked out the the picture at the side of the story is actually a link to it!

http://shop.isu.org/

Looking through the products, and the prices, I was thinking "You have got to be kidding me! Who is going to pay that for that?!"

For example, you could buy your own copy of the 2001 Judges Manual for Singles Skating for only €46.

Or a set of 4 CD's of music used in 22 Compulsory Dances for only €110.50.

The standard price for a lot of the publications, such as the current regulations, seems to be €18.50.

Admittedly, some of the publications do sound interesting. For example, there is a book listing all the skating results from the Olympics from 1908 to 1994 (€37).

But, on the whole, the prices that the ISU are charging in their shop are ridiculous.

We have been hearing for years that the ISU is cash-strapped, and I get the impression that this shop is intended to be a money-spinner to get some more cash in the reserves. Hence the high prices.

But I really can't see too many people paying those prices. So, in my opinion, this shop idea could backfire.

CaroLiza_fan

ISU seems like something my business school could use in a case study about what not to do as an organization. You open a store with premium prices that have no photos. I actually really like the idea of having commemorative books but €37 for Olympic scores, it better be some sort of hardcover book printed in colour that I can display on my coffee table for guests.

Also who pays for CDs for songs that can found for free online? Especially since the pages for the CDs don't even list what songs are on the CD and which orchestras/artists they were performed by.

lyndichee said:

Also who pays for CDs for songs that can found for free online? Especially since the pages for the CDs don't even list what songs are on the CD and which orchestras/artists they were performed by.

Click to expand...

The point is not so much which tunes are played, but those very specific recordings that maintain a specific rhythm and tempo for a specific number of measures to accommodate the requirements of the dances. I don't know how they were recorded or edited or how the artists are credited or how they were reimbursed (which might be connected to the cost of the CD). But even if you knew the tune and the performers, if you look online for that a recording of that performer playing that tune, you might come up with a different recording that would be totally unsuitable for compulsory dances.

I suspect either they hired an orchestra to play the tunes or they did some significant editing of existing recordings to make them fit the compulsory dance requirements, either of which would add to the cost.


My impression is that the ISU had been selling these items on their website all along, but they didn't publicize them or make them easy to find. And they're not geared toward fans, but mostly toward federations, officials, and coaches.

I was never inspired to spend the money when I first became aware of their existence, nor am I likely to do so now either.

The current Special Regulations document you can just download from the website:
http://www.isu.org/en/about-isu/isu-statues-constitution-and-regulations
http://www.isu.org/en/single-and-pair-skating-and-ice-dance/special-regulations-and-technical-rules

Wow, you weren't kidding about the no photos of the books. No photos, a single short sentence on the book, and we're supposed to hand over $50+ on a book or DVD. My favorite is this one:

Elements of Basic Skating
Format: DVD
Duration: 29 minutes 07 seconds
Content: The fundamentals of Figure Skating by analyzing basic skating techniques
Cost: 37,00 €


But I actually did find something rather cool and reasonably priced
Pair Skating as Sport and Art, by Tamara Moskvina and Igor Moskvin - 1987 (revised 1992)
Length: 70 pages
Content:
Foreword
I. Introduction
II. The technical program
- How to compose a program
- The music
- The sequence of elements
- The procedure for making a program
- Choregraphy of a program
- Polishing a program
III. The Free Skating program
- Classification of the elements of a program
- Composition of the Free program
- Music
- Content of the program
- Programs of the world's best Skaters
- Selection of elements
- Exercises used in polishing components of a program
Cost: 14,00 €

Hahahah *snort* .... where can I send a review? Cds and dvds says it all... how to cheat the COP for dummies by A Lakernik under politics/ selfguide / Russian history. I am the greatest by Cinquatta under Science fiction/fantasy.

May all your stockings be filled with compulsory dance CDs.

**I do not own this quote.