Aston Villa has reportedly agreed a kit manufacturer with Adidas and will drop its current deal with Castore after its ‘wet-look’ kits led to criticism from players for the club.
The Adidas deal will begin at the start of the 2024-25 season and was sealed by Aston Villa owner Nassef Sawiris, who also owns a 7% share in the sports apparel company, making kits for the men’s, women’s and youth teams.
Sawiris was seeking a high-profile kit manufacture of the ilk of Adidas to align with his growing ambitions for the club, according to The Telegraph, as Aston Villa currently sit 2nd in the Premier League table.
Adidas currently has a range of kit manufacturer deals with some of European football’s biggest clubs such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Arsenal.
But one of the major reasons as to why Sawiris and Villa agreed the Adidas kit deal was due to the owner being left frustrated with the reception the Castore kits drew, with Sawiris pushing for a resolution.
During the start of the current season, Villa men’s and women’s players complained over the wet-look design of the Castore kits, believing them to affect their performances due to weighing heavy.
Whilst the UK kit manufacturer distributed new kits for its teams to wear, aiming to ‘address this issue as quickly as possible to meet the standards we expect’, they were sent in December which was three months after the initial complaint.
Despite only being in the second year of its multi-year deal with Castore, Villa will no longer wear its kits from the start of next season.
