Sunderland x Hummel: They're back!

06/27/2024 06:39 AM

We've been given our first glimpse of the home shirt that the Lads will proudly sport during the 2024/2025 season...and it's a gem!

New head coach? Tick.

New home shirt? Tick.

A new sense of optimism for 2024/2025 and signs that maybe, just maybe, things are starting to turn for the better on Wearside after a challenging 2024 so far? Hopefully!

The past week has been a productive one for Sunderland, and following the intriguing decision to appoint the relatively unheralded (in these parts, at least) Régis Le Bris as our new head coach, we've been given our first glimpse of the home shirt that the Lads will proudly sport during the 2024/2025 season... and it's a gem.

If the recent release of the new range of training and casual wear whetted the appetite, Thursday morning's social media buzz was centred around the first Sunderland shirt to be manufactured by Hummel since 1994.

After so much criticism of Sunderland AFC's operating practices in both the football and retail departments, it's nice to be able to offer fulsome praise and to credit the club and their new partner for a job well done, because it was executed to perfection on just about every level.

On a personal note, I've never been what you might call a 'Hummel disciple', as their first association with Sunderland ended before I started following the Lads, and many of my most treasured red and white memories came when we were wearing shirts made by the likes of Avec, Asics, and Nike.

However, after so many years of humdrum designs and bargain-basement manufacturing deals resulting in shirts of questionable quality, it's hard to overlook the effectiveness of the design, as well as the fact that we can finally combine the words 'Sunderland' and 'bespoke kit', in a sign that we're starting to flex our commercial muscle once again.

The shirt itself is an absolute cracker, as the Danish label returns to Wearside after a three-decade absence.

With lots of well-executed little touches burnishing the overall beauty of the design and the iconic chevrons sitting proudly on the sleeves, it's fair to say that this is a design to match, and perhaps better in some cases, any home shirt that we've sported during the past fifteen years.

If the look of the jersey itself, which will be available in both long and short-sleeved form, hit you squarely in the feels, how it was unveiled was equally impressive.

Given that slickly produced videos for kit launches are all the rage nowadays, it was no surprise to see the club embrace that idea, and the accompanying clip was superb; tapping into our past association with the Danish brand as well as tipping a wink to the future and introducing a new generation of Sunderland supporters to the label.

Equally important, the club must also be praised for listening to supporter feedback and offering fans the chance to purchase an unbranded, sponsor-free version of the home shirt.

A plainer design always looks neat anyway (as our popular retro shirts from the 1970s prove), but at a time when the relationship between football and gambling is under immense scrutiny, it's important and entirely fair to acknowledge the club's sense of social awareness and willingness to accommodate fans who may not want their shirt to double up as a billboard for a gambling company.

Amid the excitement surrounding the launch and the aesthetic beauty of the new kit, there's a very important point to remember; namely that the standard of merchandising and customer service is hopefully set to improve by a considerable amount, which is something that David Bruce will doubtless be taking immense pride in.

A shirt that we can all be proud of and a retail operation that offers availability, efficiency and value for money are basic tenets of any football club with aspirations of future success.

Although there's clearly plenty of work still to be done, with the opening of a new club shop representing another huge step forward, this is an encouraging start and it seems certain that this season's edition of the red and white stripes will be one of the most popular-selling Sunderland shirts for a long time.

By linking up with a brand that's known and loved by an entire generation of fans, the club has gone back to the future, but that's no bad thing and with both the away and third kits still to be revealed, there'll hopefully be even more to get excited about in the not-too-distant future.