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Dear Roker Report,
Can I just comment on the new pink range of Sunderland gear as I’ve seen a lot of negative comments on social media, sometimes vitriolic (as is life now)
Firstly, I absolutely love the idea: the collaboration with the Elvis estate, the promotional video (which gave me goosebumps when it breaks into the Stadium of Light crowd) and the way the kits look on our very photogenic, slim, healthy players.
My concern, however, is how it’ll look on me (a sixty-five-year-old bald, slightly overweight bloke —
I dread to think what the wife would say if I bought one and put it on on my first day on holiday in Tuscany in July).
Having said that, maybe I’m missing the point. Tinisn’t aimed at me but to increase the worldwide appeal of the club — which if so, fair enough.
I have two twenty-something daughters who have a slight interest in football and always say they ‘support’ Sunderland when asked (we live about three hundred miles away). I showed them the promotional video today and they absolutely loved it and were genuinely gushing in their praise for the new kit.
I think it’s going to be like marmite — you’ll either love it or hate it but rather than just slag it off, we should see the bigger picture and praise the club for thinking outside the box and trying something different.
Ian Hack
Dear Roker Report,
The new away shirt is absolutely shite!
Rob Brown
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Ian and Rob. Thank you for your letters.
Suffice it to say, everyone seems to have an opinion on both the away shirt and the marketing campaign that accompanied it, so here’s my view on it.
The shirt itself is OK.
It’s by no means a classic and it’s not an absolute eyesore, and I’m also curious to see how the addition of our new sponsor will alter the look of it. Launching it without a sponsor probably wasn’t ideal but I’m sure it’ll all be explained at some stage further down the line, so that should work out well — as long as we steer clear of dodgy crypto firms or AI-related sponsorship.
As to the Elvis Presley connection? I must admit that I don’t quite get it.
I love ‘Wise Men Say’ and the emotions it can stir, but taking that idea and running with it to the tune of a collaboration with the estate seems a bit of a stretch to me. Then again, I dislike Elvis and much of his music with a passion, so maybe there’s some bias at play, and I also see the commercial value in such an arrangement, so it’s by no means something that Sunderland won’t gain from.
Interesting, and certainly headline-grabbing!
