Dulwich Hamlet 2024/25 Kits

[tonysingh]

We've had some superb kits these last few years so a misfire was maybe statistically inevitable. The idea of referencing the Hills song like that does have legs but imho much better as a special, one off item like a t shirt as opposed to a first team shirt.

As for releasing a new kit every year....it does feel like a cash in on an unusually large supporter base than most in this level. I thought we did things differently but hey, I'm old and irrelevant to clever marketing like this.

As a side note, I'd love us to do a line of retro kits. Some of the 70s and 80s efforts were class on a stick

 

[editor]

*I've moved over the kit discussion from the General Hamlet thread.

 

[zedr]

I really like the new design with the away/Altona colours. guess the home kit could have had the same stripe design to keep the pink and blue even but still think it looks good.

I totally get the argument that its a bit much to change the kit year on year but I also love new/weird kits. having said that I'm unlikely to buy it!

 

[Roger D]

Imho I wouldn’t say a shirt that a fan buys becomes obsolete when the club releases a new design.

It's not so much the lifespan. It's the way the materials were sourced, air miles etc. A shirt worn for two years and then becoming a heritage shirt is very likely to be less environmentally damaging than a shirt won for one year and then becoming a heritage shirt. The environmental damage is largely done when it's made and shipped to London, irrespective of whether or not it is sold.

 

[Moroccan Sunset]

Re: the new kits every year thing. Tbf, I think its just a valuable income stream for the club. If people want a new design every year and are willing to buy it, then why not. It's better than having to rely on donation from wealthy backers (see the cautionery tale of Lewes this summer.) I dont think its the same as the big PL clubs cashing in - they've got shit loads of cash already. We're a lot more hand to mouth than they are. No one's forcing anyone to buy it, it's just there if you want it.

Completely agree with tonysingh - the new kit looks like a funky DHFC shirt of some kind, not a home kit.

 

[Roger D]

"Do the right thing"

Mishi D..Morath

It would be interesting to know how much replica shirts make. My money is on less than a week's wages net in profit.

 

[Moroccan Sunset]

"Do the right thing"

Mishi D..Morath

It would be interesting to know how much replica shirts make. My money is on less than a week's wages net.

All adds up though, right. It's not like you're not allowed into games unless you have the most current kit.

 

[Pink Panther]

All adds up though, right. It's not like you're not allowed into games unless you have the most current kit.

I prefer to have the current kit, I just don't want the current kit to change every single bloody year. A kit can remain "current" for more than one season. (And different sponsors are not a reason to completely redesign the entire kit, there's no reason not to just have new sponsors on the same design as last season.)

I'm not a fan of the topographical pattern, although I accept its relevance and that some will like it. My beef is with the almost complete lack of pink, which is the most distinctive feature in any Hamlet kit. The away kit looked alright in the flesh today, and the numbers were nice and bold, which is always a plus for me. I think that template would have looked really good in pink and blue, and it's a shame no one thought of using it for the home shirt.

 

[Roger D]

If the club have done a supplier audit to ensure the materials are well sourced, dyes are ecologically friendly and employees are well treated, I personally am uncomfortable with fast fashion but will accept it.

If not, frankly I can't justify a football club making a small amount and exploiting either the world or supplier employees. Especially a club that likes to make a noise about doing the right thing.

I should say this is a bit of a passion of mine. I rarely buy new clothes and my shoes / trainers come from suppliers who hit Ethical Consumer test standards I accept I am in a minority here.

 

[Pink Panther]

If the club have done a supplier audit to ensure the materials are well sourced, dyes are ecologically friendly and employees are well treated, I personally am uncomfortable with fast fashion but will accept it.

If not, frankly I can't justify a football club making a small amount and exploiting either the world or supplier employees. Especially a club that likes to make a noise about doing the right thing.

I should say this is a bit of a passion of mine. I rarely buy new clothes and my shoes / trainers come from suppliers who hit Ethical Consumer test standards I accept I am in a minority here.

I'm fairly certain Hope & Glory use recycled materials in our shirts. I'm also fairly sure they're manufactured in Lancashire, not the Far East, unless I've confused them with the previous supplier. I've seen some shocking statistics in the past for people sending clothing to landfill that's only been worn a handful of times. It just feels wrong to me to throw things away when they're not broken or worn out.

 

[Roger D]

Where does the material come from? Almost certainly not Lancashire. When I spoke to a club official at the start of the deal the club rejected the recycled material shirts as too flimsy. It's possible it's used for the replicas.

Edited to say it's likely to be environmentally sensible to reject a flimsy shirt which will rip too easily for a player. I don't necessarily have problem with that decision.

 

[Pink Panther]

Where does the material come from? Almost certainly not Lancashire. When I spoke to a club official at the start of the deal the club rejected the recycled material shirts as too flimsy. It's possible it's used for the replicas.

Edited to say it's likely to be environmentally sensible to reject a flimsy shirt which will rip too easily for a player. I don't necessarily have problem with that decision.

I don't know where the raw material is sourced from, but a couple of years ago I know Gavin and Junior visited the factory with club officials to see the kits being produced. It sounded like a lot of cutting edge technology was involved, so they're definitely not arriving in a shipping container as the complete article.

 

[wphillips7]

Pink sleeves would have looked good on the new kit… if you’re going to go for something alternative

 

[Roger D]

Agree re pink sleeves.

Hope & Glory's website suggests UK design and foreign production. Not necessarily a bad thing, if the appropriate audits have been executed.

Ultimately I believe in a minimum of two years for a kit on environmental grounds. You can then alternate a new home and away to.drive sales.

Guildford City guaranteed five years on their current kit, bar sponsor changes obviously.

About - Hope and Glory Sportswear

HOPE + GLORY are a sportswear & urban apparel designing and manufacturing bespoke football kits, training wear, travel wear & fanwear.Working with professional league clubs, as well as semi-pro, amateur and grass roots clubs to create bespoke team wear.

hopeandglory.co.uk

 

[Pink Panther]

Agree re pink sleeves.

Hope & Glory's website suggests UK design and foreign production. Not necessarily a bad thing, if the appropriate audits have been executed.

It might have been SK Kits, the previous supplier, whose factory was visited. The production almost sounded like a 3D printing type process.

 

[Paula_G]

By comparison Clapton CFC produced the “No Pasarán” away shirts for the 2018/2019 season and continue to wear them to this day. They’ve shifted over 20,000 units (and continue to be bought) in that time so with the right design and the right message a shirt can be an income generator without the need for constant change. Off the top of my head believe there have been just two home shirts since the split from the other Clapton.

 

[Paula_G]

If the club have done a supplier audit to ensure the materials are well sourced, dyes are ecologically friendly and employees are well treated, I personally am uncomfortable with fast fashion but will accept it.

If not, frankly I can't justify a football club making a small amount and exploiting either the world or supplier employees. Especially a club that likes to make a noise about doing the right thing.

I should say this is a bit of a passion of mine. I rarely buy new clothes and my shoes / trainers come from suppliers who hit Ethical Consumer test standards I accept I am in a minority here.

In Chile’s Atacama Desert there’s a mountain of clothes just dumped, some of them designer and others “donated” to charities who just can’t use them. Chile's Atacama Desert has become a fast fashion dumping ground

 

[Cat Daisy]

By comparison Clapton CFC produced the “No Pasarán” away shirts for the 2018/2019 season and continue to wear them to this day. They’ve shifted over 20,000 units (and continue to be bought) in that time so with the right design and the right message a shirt can be an income generator without the need for constant change. Off the top of my head believe there have been just two home shirts since the split from the other Clapton.

And one of those was enforced as the zombie husk of Clapton FC refused to allow CCFC to continue wearing stripes.

 

[Pink Panther]

And one of those was enforced as the zombie husk of Clapton FC refused to allow CCFC to continue wearing stripes.

How can you stop another club wearing something as generic as red and white stripes? I thought CFC complained about the CCFC badge being too similar and including the original club's founding date of 1878, forcing them to change that, and the new club just decided to refresh the kit at the same time?

 

[AveryDave]

Pink sleeves would have looked good on the new kit… if you’re going to go for something alternative

Pink sleeves, pink collar and pink shorts, maybe even the Defected logo in pink, none of which impact the main design.

 

[Cat Daisy]

How can you stop another club wearing something as generic as red and white stripes? I thought CFC complained about the CCFC badge being too similar and including the original club's founding date of 1878, forcing them to change that, and the new club just decided to refresh the kit at the same time?

Badge and stripes according to this CCFC members to choose new logo and home kit as intellectual property dispute resolved - Clapton Community FC
Anyway not keen on “contoured” Hamlet home kit!

 

[Pink Panther]

Badge and stripes according to this CCFC members to choose new logo and home kit as intellectual property dispute resolved - Clapton Community FC
Anyway not keen on “contoured” Hamlet home kit!

I noticed the stripes on the CCFC badge had changed from vertical to horizontal. It sounds a bit like when Meadow attempted to seize Hamlet’s IP rights, including the initials DHFC.

Maybe CCFC chose not to engage in a battle and preferred to establish a more distinct identity, because I still don't see how they could be stopped from playing in stripes, especially as kits change so frequently these days. (Clapton FC themselves seem to have abandoned their traditional black shorts and socks for red in recent years.) As for nicknames, the whole basis of a nickname is its informality. An "official" nickname is something of a contradiction in terms. Maybe McBean copyrighted "The Tons" to stop it being used on branded merchandise, but you can't stop independent supporters from cheering for "The Tons" if they choose to.

 

[Paula_G]

Little story. When I made my home for Clapton CFC at the OSD last season, the GK shirt that had been packed for the game was far too small so one was quickly sourced and a badge sewn on with the correct stripes & foundation date (First Picture). Just looking back at the photos from my away debut (Second Picture) and I see the shirt I wore that day had vertical stripes rather horizontal ones. Hope the lawyers didn’t spot that! That said intrigued to see what happens after the news that Clapton FC have folded.

 

[Taper]

Work in progress on new terrace song.

By The Scaffold Cover at Both Ends.

We'll a drink a drink, a drink
To minimal pink a pink a pink
The saviour of the Pink and Blues
For we invented the isohypsical home kit
Most efficacious at forty quid

Mr Chambers had a case of the jitters
And it made him liable to crack
And so they gave him isohypsical home kit
Now he's an rock of a man at the back

 

[Cyclodunc]

It's not so much the lifespan. It's the way the materials were sourced, air miles etc. A shirt worn for two years and then becoming a heritage shirt is very likely to be less environmentally damaging than a shirt won for one year and then becoming a heritage shirt. The environmental damage is largely done when it's made and shipped to London, irrespective of whether or not it is sold.

That wasn’t what I was getting at. I just don’t think personally that it matters at all which season’s shirt anyone wears. It’s just something I find completely unimportant. I generally don’t wear any merch or colours anymore aside from a scarf. But I accept that’s not the case for everyone.

The environmental angle is definitely something I think a lot more about with clothing these days though, and I am loathe to buy synthetic clothing where I can possibly avoid it (not to say cotton garments etc. are great for the environment).

Not to mention how replica kits generally make one sweat then they smell horrible.


I guess I am really not the target market for replica shirts anyway!