“We wanted to pull everyone together and to create that togetherness”
It was announced ahead of the 2020/21 academic year that the University of Gloucestershire would cease their partnership with Italian sportswear company Macron in order to unify all clubs under one company to create a better sense of “togetherness”.
The introduction of PlayerLayer as the new kit partner for the University of Gloucestershire was met with some uncertainty among students but UoG SU Sports Officer George Berry was keen to shed light on the benefits of the deal and the thought behind the switch.
“We really wanted to streamline and we wanted to pull everyone together and to create that togetherness.
“Our clubs have always been, and it’s something we’re proud of, they’ve always been unique and to themselves and had a bit of free reign in captains going out and finding sponsor deals and find whatever they want.
“Having seen the teams in it yesterday play the kit looks really good and our teams felt good in it, for instance the tops look really good on everyone.
“In sport you look at it and you look at team sports and the best teams are the teams that perform together and perform well no matter their differences players are a unit, that’s how Leicester City won the Premier League.
“And for us to have thirty clubs and god knows how many teams go out every Wednesday in the same top, the same motifs, the same shade of blue from the same brand it brings everyone together and hopefully that will reflect in performances”.
Berry spoke on the financial aspects of the deal and both the positive impact it can have but also why other major brands were turned down. The deal did bring a financial benefit for the University and Students Union which Berry was keen to say would be passed on to the players and students.
“We get a percentage back and we get kit back in gift of kit and stuff like that, it all comes through us, we can manage that money and that spend, and we can use it appropriately to better our students.
“People never saw the individual Macron prices and so when you look at them and when we spent hours doing this, these meetings to get a new kit supplier were hours and hours long.
“Nike were on the table, they were, but no student would have been able to reasonably afford it and looking at prices. Yeah it’s brilliant to have everyone in Nike but you’re students, we don’t want to bankrupt you.
“PlayerLayer prices are better value for money than macron and individually everything costs less from PlayerLayer and it’s a higher quality of kit”.
Berry accepted that the deal did bring some negative attention and that not all aspects were perfect, however the overall benefit heavily outweighed this.
“There’s always going to be negative stuff like this when you change deals, when people have been with the same kit supplier for years.
“There will be teething problems like there is with everything.
“We’ve got a few issues around the shorts with the sort of size and stuff that we can hopefully iron out.
“It wasn’t streamlined with Macron, not everyone went to Macron, that was the problem. We needed to start and do something where everyone went.
“The overall benefit has been really positive”.