Sports and entertainment experiences giant Levy Merchandising’s technical sportswear brand Sudu has signed a “revolutionary” new football kit deal with the English Premier League’s Wolverhampton Wonderers. 

The club is following Newcastle United in replacing their previous kit provider Castore for the upcoming 2024/25 season, the latter signing up with Adidas.

However, Sudu claims its revolutionary stance involves “shaking up a currently ‘broken’ existing sports team/brand kit supply model which affords a suboptimal deal for most sports teams, often with an imbalance of commercial terms and service levels”.

The new long-term partnership will see Sudu design and manufacture Wolves’ official kits, training and leisurewear, including across the men’s, women’s and academy teams.

It said the landmark deal “will drive better commercial return for sports teams as well as better quality product and affordability for fans with Wolves the first to benefit”.

“With the current model, brands are operating more so as third-parties with ‘seven-figure value being lost’ by sports teams through both inflated marketing costs and a disjointed supply chain which ‘squeezes margins to the detriment of teams and fans’,” it said. 

Sudu’s new approach “will instead bring the whole process under one roof, from top to bottom, encompassing manufacturing, retail and brand, with greater commercial return therefore available to be reinvested back into sports teams”.

It added that the approach “will allow Wolves to create attractive price points to better distribute and maximise sales within the UK and internationally working with wholesalers and retailers, with the game-changing new model to be rolled out to other teams across sports. From a fan standpoint, it will directly address the often-inflated price of pro and replica kits where costs have skyrocketed to as much as £125 and £80 respectively”, noting that the Wolves’ pro and replica kits are priced £80 and £58.

Joe Poole, Head of Partnerships at Levy Merchandising, 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.”

Russell Jones, General Manager of marketing and commercial growth at Wolves, added: “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.”

On Sudu’s wider plans, Poole also 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.”