After each matchday programme this season, we publish the regular column from the Coventry City board on our website. You can read Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy's column from our game against Blackburn Rovers below:
Good evening and welcome back to the Coventry Building Society Arena for tonight’s game as we host Blackburn Rovers in the Sky Bet Championship.
I would also like to welcome the players, staff, officials and supporters to have made the midweek trip from Blackburn to the Arena for the match tonight.
Last week saw us launch two new shirts, in partnership with hummel.
Over the last four years the internal kit committee comprising myself, Mark Hornby, Mike Reid and Tynan Scope have worked closely together with Rob Revell, the excellent designer at Hummel, to come up with our shirt designs. However, these two kits have been slightly different as we have been part of the celebrations of Hummel’s 100 year anniversary.
Hummel were founded in 1923 and we are joining with other Clubs who work with hummel in marking the date by creating our own unique version of Hummel’s iconic Denmark 1986 design (arguably their most famous non-Coventry City shirt!) for our Third Kit.
It was a style which we also used in the late 1980s when we were first with Hummel, and of course in the League One promotion season of 2019/20 which still brings back so many memories. The new twist is that the style on this occasion is in Green and Black, a colour scheme which is famously associated with the Club but not in this style – more traditionally the thicker stripes. Hopefully this new version will prove successful and popular as we join in the celebration of hummel’s 100 years.
On the same day we also unveiled our collaboration with Hummel and six other international clubs on the Matchday Equality Shirt, which we warmed up in last Saturday against Queens Park Rangers and again this evening. This initiative serves as a celebration of the hummel’s century-long commitment to promoting equality and inclusivity in the world of sports - Real Betis, Las Palmas, Everton, Southampton, FC Köln, and Brøndby IF are the other clubs working with hummel on this shirt.
With its eye-catching and vibrant colour scheme, this jersey is designed to raise awareness and inspire positive change, celebrating hummel’s century long commitment to promoting equality and inclusivity in the world of sports. The limited-edition shirt has proved extremely popular in terms of sales but also in portraying an important message and displaying our commitment to it.
Working as closely as we have done with hummel on the designs of kit has proved extremely productive - both in terms of the sales we have achieved and the fantastic, often iconic, designs that have been created.
When I arrived at the Club in 2017, we were selecting our kits from templates and had very minimal input into the design process. Since then, through our partnership with hummel and the work we have done internally - we have had some brilliant designs which have been truly Coventry City kits. These have reflected the history and identity of not only the Football Club but the City as a whole, and the improvement in kits has been tangible and fantastic to see.
Alongside our new Head of Retail Rasoul Didarzadeh, we have already began to sign off designs for next season’s kit. I am looking forward to us revealing these next Summer as we have again pushed forward with some new concepts that will again be kits that represent proudly this Football Club and this City.
Thanks for your support as always. Enjoy the game – PUSB.
Dave
Dave Boddy
Chief Executive
Coventry City Football Club