English Premier League soccer side Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves) have announced a long-term, wide-ranging commercial partnership with nascent sportswear brand Sudu.
Sudu, owned by the merchandising arm of events experiences and events company Levy, has become the team’s official technical kit partner and will manage the design, branding, production, in-house manufacture, and retail of kits for the men’s and women’s first teams, as well as youth category Wolves sides, from the beginning of the 2024-25 season onward.
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Alongside playing kits, Sudu will also provide training kits and leisurewear ranges to the club.
Sudu takes over from fellow UK brand Castore, which had been the team's kit partner since the 2021-22 season and which Wolves decided against a renewal with back in May.
The wide-ranging nature of the partnership stems from what Sudu believes is an inefficiency in the market that is costing soccer clubs outside of England’s traditional biggest teams major money, and driving up the costs of garments.
Joe Poole, Levy Merchandising head of partnerships stated: “Unless you’re in the Premier League ‘big six’, the team and brand model is broken. It’s self-serving for brands as opposed to being a true partnership and we want to change that.
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By GlobalData“Seven-figure value is being lost by sports teams through inflated marketing costs, but even more so as a result of a disjointed supply chain which squeezes margins to the detriment of teams and fans.”
Sudu says its “innovative” plans to sell replica shirts for £58 ($73), below the typical market price of £80, are enabled by cutting out third parties that Sudu claims “take value out of the [production] chain”.
Poole added that Wolves, Sudu’s first partner after launch, is not the extent of the brand’s ambitions, stating: “We will be looking to further build out partnerships with other sports teams across sports.”
The wider Levy business is already partnered in some form or another with several major soccer teams across the UK including Scottish outfit Rangers, London clubs Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Brentford, and 2016 Premier League Champions Leicester City.
The Sudu announcement comes a day after Wolves also revealed a new partnership with sports betting company the LeoVegas Group, whose BetMGM brand will become the official European betting partner in a multi-year deal.
The two-year partnership, covering the 2024-25 and 2025-26 Premier League seasons, will see BetMGM retaining sponsorship inventory in-stadium on pitchside LED hoardings at Wolves' 32,050-capacity Molineux Stadium.
Alongside this, BetMGM branding will also feature on interview backdrops, “static branding sites”, and at the club’s Compton Park training center.
BetMGM is already an established Wolves partner, having served as the training kit partner since the beginning of the 2023-24 season, and the club’s general manager for marketing and commercial growth Russell Jones stated: “[BetMGM’s] support is invaluable to the club as we look to expand our portfolio of commercial partners.”
