Absolutely brilliant quotes here from Leo Pearlman’s LinkedIn:
“From 1988 to 1994, my formative football years, the eponymous chevrons on the arms, Hummel on the shirt and Vaux emblazoned across the chest WERE Sunderland AFC to me. Of course it was against the background of our iconic red n white stripes, but other clubs also had those, no one else had our combination!
The memories of those years are all through red n white tinted glasses, we were by far the greatest team the world had ever seen and the 10yr old me can't remember us ever losing a game or being outplayed. Certainly we were never mastered by black n white....
Tony Norman, Don Goodman, Gordon Armstrong et al battling their way to an unlikely FA cup final in 1992, achieved in a Hummel shirt.
Marco and Gatesy knocking out the Mags at their place in 1990, achieved in a Hummel shirt.
Benno depositing a certain David Speedie over the hoardings in 89 at Roker Park was you guessed it, achieved in a Hummel shirt.
Since 94 we've run the full gamut of kit partnerships, from Asics, Diadora and Lonsdale to Nike, Adidas and Umbro, from the sublime to the ridiculous, but none have given me that same feeling as Hummel did all those years ago.
Just like so much else at our football club, improvement and higher standards are necessary across the board. While we've undoubtedly seen an upward trajectory over the last 3yrs on the pitch, off the pitch, especially in terms of both meaningful engagement and delivering a quality product to our most important asset, our fans, we must do better.
Today's announcement of a 5yr deal with Hummel is another example of the club recognising this need and responding accordingly. It is yet another step in the right direction that our club is now finally heading. The deal is commercially exciting for the club and maximises revenue in a way that any professional global facing sports organisation should aspire to. But perhaps more importantly, it simply enables our fans to actually get hold of top quality club merch as and when they want it and for that merch to be something they're proud to wear and display.
As an important aside and believe me when I say this, I've seen all the kits and training gear and it's the coolest retro styled merch on the market! The designers have done a brilliant job and real credit should go to the Chairman and David Bruce for having the vision to get this deal done.”