New sportswear brand clinches kit supply deal with Premier League giant, Wolves

A little-known Manchester sportswear brand will be rubbing shoulders with the world’s biggest football kit suppliers in the forthcoming 2024-25 Premier League season.

Sudu has signed a deal with Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers to provide its main kit, training and leisurewear, including across the men’s, women’s and academy teams from the 2024/25 season onwards, in what it describes as a “long-term partnership”.

And it has pledged to provide lower-priced kit for football fans, compared with the major brands such as adidas, Nike, Umbro, Puma and Castore, the Manchester-based busineess which was Wolves’ previous kit provider.

Earlier this month Castore was unveiled as the new kit partner for Everton in a record deal for the Goodison side, delivering almost three times the £9m-a-season it previously received from former kit company, hummel.

Sudu is backed byLevy UK and Ireland, part of FTSE 100 company Compass Group.

The firm said, as a landmark deal within the sports industry, the Wolves deal marks a significant shift in the traditional kit supply model, the current structure of which affords a suboptimal deal for most sports teams, often with an imbalance of commercial terms and service levels.

Joe Poole, Head of Partnerships at Levy Merchandising, a new arm of Levy UK & Ireland of which Sudu sits within, said: “Unless you’re in the Premier League ‘Big Six’, the team and brand model is broken. It’s self-serving for brands as opposed to being a true partnership and we want to change that.”

Poole added: “Seven-figure value is being lost by sports teams through inflated marketing costs, but even more so as a result of a disjointed supply chain which squeezes margins to the detriment of teams and fans.”

With the current model, brands are operating more so as third parties taking value out of the chain, said Sudu, arguing that its innovative new approach instead brings the whole process under one roof, from top to bottom, encompassing manufacturing, retail and brand.

For Wolves, this will translate to reduced expense, without compromise on craftsmanship or materials, with greater commercial return, therefore, available to be reinvested into the club. Meanwhile, for fans, the new deal will mean substantial reductions in retail prices as compared with their Premier League peers.

Joe Poole

Poole said: “Levy Merchandising was born from a desire to revolutionise the often inflated price of pro and replica kits and we’re incredibly proud to be partnering with such a well supported club like Wolves, with an amazing fan base and rich heritage.

“We’ve seen the price of Premier League jerseys increase consistently over the past few years. Our philosophy is that a pro jersey should not cost £125, Wolves’ will be £80. A replica jersey should not cost £80, Wolves’ will be £58.”

Russell Jones, General Manager of marketing and commercial growth at Wolves, said: “This fresh new approach to kit creation is long overdue and we’re delighted that Wolves get to be at the forefront of this innovative approach.

“For far too long top tier clubs like Wolves have been held to template designs. This partnership enables Wolves to work with fans and players to create technical product with our heritage at the forefront of design.”

He added: “We are also able to continue to widen our reach, as this innovative model allows us to create attractive price points to better distribute within the UK and internationally ensuring that Wolves products can be available, at affordable prices for fans, in stores all over the world.”

In a first for Wolves, the new kits have been crafted in collaboration with the playing squad with peak performance on the pitch in mind. The players not only informed the look and feel, but also participated in fit and performance sessions with Sudu to ensure kits meet every standard.

Club captain, Max Kilman, who has played a part in the product creation process, said: “It has been really interesting to play an active part in creating our kit for this season. Since we were first introduced to Sudu, the designers and product development team have kept us constantly updated.

“Seeing feedback on fabrics, design and our performance needs worked into the finished products has been a really positive experience for us. We are delighted with the final products and are excited to wear them this season.”

While the creation of the Wolves kits has been spearheaded by Sudu’s design team, which, collectively, boasts experience across the likes of Adidas, Puma, JD Sports, Berghaus and Regatta, Levy Merchandising’s wider world class team, which has been assembled, has considerable experience across multiple sports including across licensing, product, buying and retail, design, manufacturing, ecommerce and trading.

Poole said: “We’ve big ambitions for Levy Merchandising and the Sudu brand having successfully launched our first Run menswear collection last month.

“Expansion into other categories is already being worked on with Play football, Train fitness and Rest lifestyle product ranges to come, likely in early 2025, and we will be looking to further build out partnerships with other sports teams across sports.”

A training kit will be the debut range of the new Wolves partnership, launching at 10am on Friday, June 28.