Latics fans in wait for kit

Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date published: 25 July 2014


ATHLETIC’S away kit for the 2014-15 season will be revealed next week — but fans will have to hang on until two days before the Sky Bet League One campaign begins for a glimpse of the new home strip.

And frustrated supporters face an even longer wait before they can snap up home shirts, which won’t go on sale until “around the end of August”, according to the club’s website.

With Athletic’s club shop having shut down permanently ahead of a new Sports Direct store opening within the North Stand next year, the new away kit will be available to buy for supporters after a public launch featuring the players at 9am on Thursday, July 31, at the Sports Direct store on High Street, Oldham.

As a part of the sponsorship deal which is set to rake in £1million for the club over the next five years, both the away and home kits are to be manufactured by Sondico and feature Sports Direct as a main shirt sponsor.

For tomorrow’s friendly match at Barrow, Athletic will continue to wear the adapted training kit that has been used in all of the pre-season matches so far.

The new away kit will be showcased in a match for the first time when Huddersfield Town visit SportsDirect.com Park on Saturday, August 2.

The home strip will be unveiled on Thursday, August 7, and become available for purchase for supporters at an unspecified point towards the end of the same month in local Sports Direct outlets.

Athletic will also be launching a new online shop next month, in association with Sports Direct.

Ironically, Athletic’s website yesterday called on fans to create a “Wall of Colour” for the opening home league match against Leyton Orient on Saturday, August 16, as part of a Football League initiative.

But with the home kits unavailable to purchase by that date, the “sea of blue” the site calls for would presumably feature a host of fans wearing last season’s kits that do not bear sponsorship of heavy new backers Sports Direct.