What kind of reaction has the much anticipated new strip garnered?
Over the last few weeks we've seen numerous rumours stating the sponsor was another gambling firm, or an Asian company (given our links with Ki), but news first broke that our new sponsor was Goldenway on Swansfc.com - top work, and they've clearly got better sources than I have! Reaction to the kit has been mixed. Some have deplored the colour scheme of the away kit, with "rhubarb and custard" being mentioned a couple of times on Twitter, while the main bone of contention seems to be, in all honesty, the effect the new sponsor has on the shirt.
Given that the Swans had severed ties early with the previous sponsors 32RED, and the subsequent mystery surrounding the new sponsor, it's hard to not be a little underwhelmed in that the new official club partner is a company that most of us have never heard of - GW FX - a trading firm who specialise in mineral and precious metal trading. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, their "About Us" section of the website is worth a read, as it's clearly been translated from another language. Apparently they are "deeply trusted" by the European market...
Something which will definitely have exacerbated any misgivings fans had of the kit is the fact that Adidas managed to mess up the kit order, and weren't able to deliver adult home shirts on time. They released a statement as follows:
"Adidas wishes to sincerely apologise to the club and all Swansea City fans. Unfortunately there has been a delay with the delivery of the new 2013/2014 adult home shirt and some items from the new 2013/14 Swansea City training wear range due to a situation which regrettably adidas has been unable to rectify in time for the scheduled launch.
"Adidas is immensely proud of our partnership with Swansea City Football Club and we are working extremely hard to ensure this situation is resolved quickly and efficiently. We would like to put on record how sorry we are for any inconvenience caused to the fans and the club by the delay in adidas delivering these items.
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| New signing Jordi Amat with what seems to be the only adult home shirt in the city |
"The revised launch date for the 2013/2014 adults home shirt and relevant items from the new 2013/14 Swansea City training wear range will be communicated to the fans via the club website as soon as possible." Adidas statement
Leigh Dineen wasn't too impressed either:
“The club is extremely disappointed that our supporters have been let down at the last moment by adidas, but the matter was totally out of the club’s control after numerous guarantees received up until today.
"We would like to apologise to our supporters and we are currently in discussion with adidas regarding a new delivery date for adult home shirts."
Swans' Vice-Chairman Leigh Dineen
Back to the sponsorship deal though, and it seems something may have gone awry here. The deal is for one year (although apparently both parties have options on extending that), and is worth £2million. Now, while that is massively more than any previous sponsorship deal we've signed, when you compare it to Fulham's sponsorship deal with FxPro it's only worth half what theirs is per year. With European football on the table, and with the Swans choosing to pay their way out of the 32RED deal, is it possible something big fell through at the last minute? This could also account for the kit being delivered late, in that if Adidas didn't know which sponsor to print onto it they can hardly ship it to SA1!
Either way, Goldenway are the new sponsor for next season and I'm sure no-one has any actual issue with that. After all, it's only a sodding football shirt...
Either way, Goldenway are the new sponsor for next season and I'm sure no-one has any actual issue with that. After all, it's only a sodding football shirt...