Watford Fc Kit - Kelme

The stripes look built around the sponsor and like last seasons home effort, I think the sponsor is woven into the fabric rather than printed on.

Given the shirt is on sale already, I really doubt there’s going to be a redesign or new manufacturing process because most of us find the sponsor intrusive. Best that will happen is that concerns are noted for next seasons design and even then I bet they will fall on deaf ears.

I respect your effort in highlighting your disappointment to the club - but I think it’s probably a case of ‘Man shouts at cloud’ as far as the club are concerned.

What I can’t fathom is the overriding sense from the opinions so far on here and social media is the sponsor is far too big - so I can never quite understand how those in charge of these things didn’t have the same concerns when seeing it beforehand!

 

The sponsor has ridiculous power because of the ££££. The club I work at had to completely change the design because the sponsor weren't happy with how it impacted their logo. The kit launched recently and all the comments were about the box round the sponsor ruined it. At the club we all know that, but money talks...

 

It doesn't look woven to me - it looks like the sponsor's logo is some shiny plastic material similar to that used for the shirt numbers, or perhaps felt, with a yellow bubble around it, that has just been printed off and ironed on top of the kit.

Correct.

 

Well Stake must be paying us an absolute bucketload because I can't remember seeing a sponsor so large on a shirt in a long time.

Either that, or someone at the club just c0cked up the design and/or the negotiations.

 

I suspect there is a limit to the font size you can have on a shirt and they probably maxed out on this. I don't have a problem with the type of company Stake are, as we are in post-pandemic and they are paying a record breaking deal. Financially it makes a lot of sense. The moralistic bus will have to be parked for a while until perfect world scenarios rule the planet once more.

Maybe the size is ok, although my initial feelings are that it's too dominant. However, it looks like it's been just stuck on the top of the shirt and not designed to be part of it. It's the yellow bordering around the lettering that is the problem for me. That had to be a bit thinner and I think it would have looked a lot better.

 

Just had a look at the new shirt, but I think there's been a mix up.

I was worried when I saw the abomination on display, but was relieved to see on closer inspection that it's actually a Stoke shirt.

 

The sponsor is too big. Aside from that it’s nice enough.

 

My mistake, you're right.

Which is to me even worse. Knowing they won't change it now, they couldn't have at least gone to the effort of making it to the same standard as last season. A big vinyl sticker on the front just poor, if unsurprising.

Perhaps it lends into the theory that the sponsorship deal was done late on - meaning there wasn't time to manufacture it to last seasons standard I guess.

 

I love the shirt. I despise the sponsor with all my heart.

 

The Athletic have stated it's a 3-year deal worth £5m per season, paid upfront, and has bonuses which will take it past £6m if Watford stay up and do well in other competitions.

Watford are also going to have a sleeve sponsor and they have implied this will be American Airways, plus a continuation with Afex and Football Manager.

 

I'll eat my hat if that sponsor is sublimated (woven into the fabric) rather than stickered on. You can tell from the pictures, the slight gloss compared to the rest of the shirt.

Kelme are more than capable of sublimation - we saw that with Sportsbet last year - but Stake were clearly signed so late into the summer that they overshot the lead times for the manufacturing plants in China (Kelme does a lot of business there, half of their Championship wears the paw print). Very disappointing from a quality perspective as that sticker is going to get easily damaged, but that's nothing compared to the horrible cursive font and the firm's line of business.

A 'crypto casino', really? I've lifted some pictures from the club store, the back is disappointing too - not even an attempt to continue the hoops on the reverse;

 

I agree with your earlier point - sponsorship was always going to go top the highest bidder.

It's just a shame that this monstrosity of a logo couldn't have been the sleeve sponsor and American Airlines the main shirt sponsor. Would have made the shirt far better IMO.

 

It would be better if they squeezed it into one segment, rather than overlapping a yellow part and stripe. Hideous.

 

I wonder if that bit of the design was signed off based on a chance we could still be in the EFL and so could take advantage of their rules which allow more sponsor logos on the back of shirts too? Better to have a blank canvas for that.

 

The shirt looks a lot better on the players than it did in the leak. I think the sponsor looks quite tacky, like a logo for a chocolate brand or something but as the shirt design is also quite tacky they go well together. For me it's a likeably tacky shirt.

 

A fairly tame kit after last season, I’m a little disappointed Kelme didn't go for outrageous.

Safe, but otherwise looks okay.

I don't have a problem with betting sponsors, I like the odd bet myself. But then again I’m old skool, believe in personal responsibility and dislike a nanny state approach.

 

If last year is anything to go by, Cucho modelling the kit is the surest sign yet that he’ll be wearing a different one, probably in another Country, by the time the season starts.

 

The number of sponsors on shirts is creeping up. Going to end up like south American teams where you can barely see the shirt in a few years.

 

Surprised sponsorship hasn't worked it's way onto the shorts yet. I kind of like the shirt and couldn't give a toss about the sponsorship.

 

A ‘Crypto-casino’. Could it be dodgier? Up there with ‘Putin beverage supplier’.

 

That kit release video they've posted is hilariously bad. The kind of thing that a team on The Apprentice would come up with and then get savaged for in the boardroom.

 

The pictures of the shirts look meh to say the least, but they are successfully brought to life in this ha ha tsk tsk what will they think of next caper video that starts with a tubby lad getting out of a car.

 

The yellow looks a bit washed out, like a cheap tee shirt rather than a technical fabric.

 

Considering how happy they were to break up the hoops on the front, I'm sure doing the same on the back would not have been a huge issue

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Seen some guy from the Athletic commend the club for 'not doing a Norwich' - who signed a similar sponsor with dodgier advertising campaigns. That, however, resulted in such a huge amount of backlash that Nodge cancelled the deal and got Lotus Cars - a local and much-loved company - on the shirts instead. Beats Stake any day of the week.

 

I think we used up the remaining £3.50 of the transfer budget on this vid.

 

So with a medium hot iron it might be possible to pick/peel the sponsor off?

 

Sponsorship negotiations in the Watford Boardroom

 

To be fair to Kelme, if Leventhal’s article is accurate, they go through a process where they design up to 20 efforts and present them to the club - and then other matters are consulted on (fabric etc) and a final handful are then given to the hierarchy to choose from.

There may well have been bolder designs given by Kelme - but this is the design chosen by Gino and Co.

Brief outline of the article for those who can’t access it…

• Says Sportsbet.io was only a 2yr deal. (Swear the club said it was 3yrs?)
• Due-diligence was done on Stake.com - will be a record deal IF we stay up. Only then surpasses the previous deal.
  
• Money has been paid up front (£5m) - other potential sponsors wanted to pay over the course of the season.
• Norwich cancelling their deal cost them £3m
• Plenty of betting firms put forward offers - but club had concerns over their working practices.
• A few non-betting firms also showed interest
• Club acutely aware of fans feelings around betting companies - but bottom line takes precedence right now.
  
• Deal was done late - hence it being a printed logo rather than woven. Last season could be woven as they knew the sponsor early in the design process.
  
• Deal with American Airlines has been extended (as highlighted by their logo reappearing on the partners section on the clubs website.
  
• Says sleeve sponsor will be announced shortly - doesn’t really allude to being AA in my eyes but open to interpretation.
• Away kit launched next week. Third kit before the start of the season. Leaked designs are accurate.

 

I like the kit

Not fussed by the sponsor (as long as we get the actual money)

Video harmless fun and get to see the kit worn by the players.

To be continued.......if that's Hughes wearing it signing his new contract later on then happy days!

 

I like it.
Does our sponsor expect us to get a grilling every weekend?

 

The 15-16 junior shirts usually fit me. Worth a try... In March.

And did I see Vydra in the background of the release video?

 

Yeah a few of them are horrendously uncomfortable on camera. Don't blame them, they're paid to play football!

 

Also cost them £3m which we can’t afford.