Charlton kit suppliers hummel met with a number of Addicks fans young and old to help them finalise the club's 2020/21 kits.
The annual kit consultation was hosted at Charlton Athletic Museum last week and gave fan representatives the opportunity to have their say on next season's kits.
At the event the supporters, made up of fan group representatives and Young Reds, had a look at potential kit designs for next season and were shown some of hummel's recent kits, including this year's Rangers' kit which can be seen in the above picture.
Robert Revell, a designer for hummel who was present at the meeting, explained his enjoyment on working alongside the supporters in helping to form the kit.
He said: “We met with representatives from some of the fan groups to talk about the 2020/21 kits. It’s been fun, we’ve done it for the last couple of years and it’s always proved very successful.
"We had a nice little mix of groups, the little kids have been incredible, they actually noticed a lot of things (in the designs) that the adults missed which is nice considering some of them are only three, four or five.
“But yeah, a nice mixed group with all ages. So, I think we’ve got a nice consensus on the kits.”
Revell explained: “Next in the process is selecting the final designs based off the comments made from today and also an internal talk within the team. Then the hard work starts because we then have to tell the factory exactly how to make them. That is a lot of work so that’s why it’s so early this year."
Since becoming Charlton’s kit manufacturer in 2017, hummel have consistently found their kits to be popular amongst the Charlton fanbase but Revell explains that it’s not by chance and that a lot of consideration goes into production.
“We probably design 100-plus kits per season for Charlton on the home kit alone. So there’s a lot of work beforehand before we actually get to this stage.”
Despite the hard work the designers are always pleased with the pay-off when they get to see their kit in action.
“It’s incredible, it’s always nerve-racking because you never know what is going to happen. The first day on Twitter is always fun! But it’s really lovely to see it in store and even more so when the player’s run out wearing it."
The event was made possible with the help of the Charlton Athletic Museum who hosted the meeting. Museum trustee Ben Hayes expressed his enjoyment in playing their part in the process.
“We’re really pleased to host events like this, it’s really what we’re about. It’s not about just being a static museum with some stuff in cabinets, it’s actually about being a resource for people and people like hummel and the fans. We can show them the old shirts and they can use those as inspiration, which they already have done over the last few years.
“Today was really enjoyable. The youngsters are great they really see it with fresh eyes. They don’t have any preconceptions about it and they just say what they think. We had some older fans as well, so lots of different views but they seemed to be leaning towards a couple of kits that were more favoured.”
Hayes added: “There were some really strong designs. They were different but also, they were harking back to some of the old kits. The home kit’s red and that’s the main thing!
“They [hummel] are really good, they listen to what we have to say. They have a good look at the kits and take on the designs. They even borrow some of our kits to get the right colour in when they are producing them.”
