On Friday, FC St. Pauli and equipment supplier Under Armour announced they will not to continue their collaboration beyond the 2020-21 season. Now St. Pauli announced a pretty bold and uncommon decision - the 2. Bundesliga club will launch its own sports brand.
St. Pauli And Under Armour Part Ways
DIIY - St Pauli To Launch Own Teamsport Collection
Starting next season, the players of FC St. Pauli will run out in jerseys produced in-house. According to the club, this is "another important step towards more sustainability in professional sport".
The club has been working on the project since 2018, looking for a kit supplier that produces performance wear sustainably and transparently and supports fair trade. As no external provider was able to meet the criteria in full, the club will assume responsibility for production itself in future.
Under the motto, "If you want something doing, do it yourself", FC St. Pauli has set itself the goal of producing the most sustainable teamsport collection in the world with its own DIIY brand. In doing so, the club is satisfying the express wish of its members to continue pursuing the issue of sustainability.
The new St. Pauli 21-22 in-house collection will be available from May 2021, though the home jersey can be already pre-ordered from 1 December 2020. During the first four weeks of the pre-order phase, buyers will have the exclusive opportunity to personalise the shirt and have their own name printed on the front instead of the logo of principal sponsors congstar.
Club president Oke Göttlich: "Not only, but in particular during the crisis posed by COVID-19, we are striving to meet the challenges with courage and entrepreneurial spirit along with all St. Pauli fans. This independence, and the search for new avenues, has always been a hallmark of FC St. Pauli. In launching our own teamsport collection, we remain steadfastly on our path of independence. The strength of a member-run club is reflected in the implementation of our members' ideas. In this way, we can face any crisis together. DIIY, incidentally, is derived from the term DIY, or do it yourself. That's exactly what FC St. Pauli is all about - not just moaning, but doing it better yourself."
Head of sales Bernd von Geldern: "At the 2016 general meeting, we were tasked with producing our merchandise fairly and sustainably. We want to satisfy this aspiration in as many areas as possible. With our own DIIY brand, we aim to show that quality, sustainability and fair working conditions do not have to be mutually exclusive for performance wear. We therefore set a deliberately high bar with self-imposed standards for the new teamsport collection. We're convinced our fans have the same aspiration and we want to take them with us on our journey. This is why we are commencing sales for the 2021/22 season home jersey in advance - because we can only achieve our ambitious goal of producing the most sustainable teamsport collection in the world with the fans.”
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Share your thoughts in the comments below and check out an interview with FC. St Pauli responsible department heads about the club's decision on the team's website.