Ozzy Osbourne holds his phone to his ear and waits for the answer. ‘Hey Geezer!’ he shouts. ‘Let’s play Villa Park!’. ‘As long as I play left wing,’ Geezer replies.
Not a promotional video for a Black Sabbath homecoming gig, but the launch of Aston Villa’s home shirt for the 2024-25 season. With the 1970 hit Paranoid playing the backing track, Geezer – real name Terry Butler and the band’s bassist – appears in the home team’s dressing room and asks whether he should play centre or left. Emi Martinez responds with a double-take that would make George Clooney proud.
Ahead of their away kit unveiling on 16 August, Villa pulled off their next trick: Ozzy’s wife, Sharon, officially opened the club’s new shop. In a short video, she brandishes a pair of blue adidas boots and shouts ‘I found his Preds!’
Meanwhile, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Rio Ferdinand, real football stars, relax around the pool of a posh hotel, all wearing the new Adidas third kits of their former clubs.
Welcome to the world of 2024 football kit launches. The days of Tony Adams or Alan Shearer posing military-style in their new club shirts are a different era. It’s analogue TV, with its five channels, versus modern digital and streaming services.
The business of launching football shirts has changed, with many legends now involved
Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand was involved in the launch of his ex-club’s kit
It is a colossal operation that takes years to prepare for, often involves television and film production companies, and can cost six figures. Mail Sport has learned that one leading Premier League club has spent more than £500,000 on this year’s event.
The rewards are clear. Just look at the numbers: Villa’s video has been viewed a staggering 4.4 million times on X and 175,000 times on YouTube, and has been liked more than 17,900 times on TikTok and 66,000 times on Instagram. That’s money. And the cash registers are ringing in the shops too, with a UEFA study showing that revenue from kit sales has increased by a staggering 60 percent from 2019 to 2023.
‘The kit launch industry has grown exponentially on the back of exponential growth in the price of football shirts,’ says football finance expert Kieran Maguire. ‘In the football calendar, kit launch day has become a bit like the day on which the matches are released.
‘The football and entertainment industries have realised that there is an overlap. Look at Ed Sheeran – he sells a lot of Ipswich shirts on his tours. Manchester United have a range of Stone Roses-style clothing. There is a symbiotic relationship there.’
Clubs have probably spent as much time thinking about what next season’s kit will look like as they have about who their next left-back will be. Listening to creative directors discussing the process, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were talking about the latest Damien Hirst exhibition, or new collections at Paris Fashion Week.
Director and photographer Thomas Van Kristen, who oversaw Chelsea’s launch, told the club’s social media channels: “We wanted to push the boundaries creatively and I think with the right team and creative people around us we’ve achieved something really special.
‘During the filming we combined different techniques to show the different stages of passion.’
Every launch begins with a design process and at most top clubs not only next season’s design has already been decided, but also the 2026-2027 one. Often it’s over two years from the first sketches to the slick launch video.
Aston Villa used Ozzy Osbourne to promote their new home kit for this season
Ed Sheeran’s popularity has helped Ipswich Town sell a significant number of kits
At most clubs, there are several key executives involved in the approval process, with 30 or 40 people involved before the owner finally signs off. The club’s retail department and chief operating officer play their part, and sometimes the front-of-shirt sponsor and sleeve partners — although there is a danger that too many cooks can spoil the soup.
‘When you change kit suppliers, things tend to get a lot bigger,’ explains one Premier League executive. ‘In those circumstances, planning for the kit launch starts around Christmas but then it really ramps up, building steadily towards the end of May and June.
‘For the more ambitious launches, you might have 50 or 60 production team members working on a video, especially if it’s a larger supplier like Adidas or Nike.
‘With the smaller suppliers, the clubs are largely left to their own devices when it comes to ideas for the launch video. In the case of Nike or Adidas, their teams have very specific ideas about what they want.’
The main aim of these launches is simple: sell as many shirts as possible. But if that were the only goal, clubs and suppliers could achieve it just as effectively by spending a lot less.
The kit is no longer just a piece of clothing. It is a way for a fan to connect even more with their club, and videos that tickle the funny bone or tug at the heart strings are a big part of that. ‘Manufacturers lose money on the big kit deals,’ Maguire points out. ‘Adidas might lose money on a real kit deal, but what they know is that it will drive traffic to the stores.
‘A fan can go to the store and not only buy their team’s new kit, but also a pair of Adidas trainers. It’s a loss leader.
‘For the launch videos, clubs often try to get a celebrity who is also local, because they often don’t ask them for a lot of money. They are looking for someone who wants to be seen as a supporter of their local club.’
Manchester City used a clever launch video featuring Paul Dickov for their new kit
As kit launch videos gain more attention, the rivalry between the marketing teams of various Premier League clubs has also increased.
Everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing and as soon as a new shirt comes out the WhatsApp groups come to life. They may not admit it publicly but they all want a pat on the back from a contact at another club or someone who works in sportswear marketing. It’s a sign of a job well done.
This summer saw particular popularity for Manchester City’s ‘Dickov’s Nightmare’ production, which saw former City striker Paul Dickov dream that he missed rather than scored in the 1999 Division Two play-off final against Gillingham. There were also admiring glances thrown at Manchester United and their ‘away day’ theme to celebrate the launch of their blue away shirt for the coming season.
“For the past four or five weeks, most clubs have been opening at 8am on a Thursday or Friday, so one of the first things I did on those days was check my social media and have a look,” one marketing executive explained.
‘There are internal WhatsApp groups at every club and you ping around the videos of the different launches, and you make observations about the bits you like and the bits you don’t like. In the last three or four years it feels like the whole thing has really grown. This year was bigger than last year and it will continue to grow.’
The football kit is no longer just for kicking a ball around or going to the game. It’s a piece of history, with many clubs stocking shirts from the 90s or 2000s in their club shops – often from times when the club was less successful than it is today. It’s a way to connect the current generation with what their parents or grandparents might remember, and bring those days back to life.
They are also fashion items. Look at the collaboration between Paris Saint-Germain and Nike’s Jordan brand, or the partnership between Juventus and Adidas. These are shirts that can be worn not just on the pitch, but on the streets too.
This trend is being driven by the manufacturers: spend a few minutes on your local high street and you’ll see teenagers wearing ‘Air Jordan’ caps and T-shirts. These were originally popular in the 1990s, when basketball star Michael Jordan was at the height of his fame.
Wolves broke club records in 2020 with a burgundy kit when they had several Portuguese players in their squad
The holy grail for clubs that partner with Adidas is the ‘trefoil’ logo. Normally reserved for trainers and casual wear, Adidas allowed five clubs in its ‘A band’ — Arsenal, United, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid — to use the logo on their third kits to celebrate their 75th anniversary.
The manufacturer united Zidane, Del Piero, Vieira, Schweinsteiger and Ferdinand in one image to mark the occasion — again at considerable expense. Ferdinand even posted a video on his YouTube channel, which has 1 million followers, explaining the story behind the kit’s launch.
Football shirts, that is. History, fashion and international travel.
A ticket to the rest of the world. Clubs like Madrid, Barcelona and United have launched simultaneously on different continents.
As Maguire admits, “People love buying unusual kits,” and with their third kits, clubs are trying to reach people who might otherwise have little knowledge of them. During Raul Jimenez’s time at Wolves, the club produced a green third kit — a nod to Jimenez’s national team, Mexico.
For the 2020-21 season, Wolves opted for maroon Portugal, at a time when the club had several Portuguese players. It broke several club records within 24 hours of the sale. These may appeal to even those with only a passing interest in football.
“People are buying stuff now when they come into the shop and admit they don’t know who these big teams are,” said Josh Phillips, who works at Classic Football Shirts in Manchester. “There’s Benfica, Newcastle or Hamburg and they say, ‘I love this look, it’s so vintage.'”
But beneath the catchy marketing slogans, over-the-top launch videos and bizarre third kits lies a simple truth: football shirts are expensive. Premier League clubs charge the best part of £100 for them, and those prices are unlikely to drop any time soon.
They get away with it because of the enduring appeal of the home shirt. From the red of United, Arsenal and Liverpool to the burgundy and blue of West Ham and Villa, from the white of Tottenham and Leeds to the blue of Chelsea, Manchester City and Everton, every supporter feels an affinity with their club colours.
And if these clubs can convince Black Sabbath or Ed Sheeran to bring those hues to life, all the better.