Aston Villa Kits and Merchandise 2024/25

[mrchnry]

The adidas label on the new shirts say maroon and blue

[est1874]

8 minutes ago, mrchnry said:

The adidas label on the new shirts say maroon and blue

Let's bin 'em. ASAP.

[Woody1000]

13 minutes ago, mrchnry said:

The adidas label on the new shirts say maroon and blue

 

[479Villan]

5 hours ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

The Adidas flagship store in NYC still has no Villa gear. Color me disappointed.

There's apparently a meet and greet at a JD Sports in NYC later this week. I'd wager it'll be there.

[mrchnry]

[Aston_Villan4]

53 minutes ago, 479Villan said:

There's apparently a meet and greet at a JD Sports in NYC later this week. I'd wager it'll be there.

There‘s a meet and greet!?

Edited July 29 by Aston_Villan4

[479Villan]

3 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

There‘s a meet and great!?

No, not a meet and great, a meet and greet.

 

Maatsen, Rogers, and Jacob at the Times Square JD (1466 Broadway), Thursday at 4:30 eastern.

[skarroki]

I really want to get a shirt for the champions league season but I refuse to buy a shirt with that badge, awakens something irrational in me. It's a shame because I think the design team have nailed it with the shirt and the quality feels so much better now with Adidas.

Based on some of the third kits released so far by Adidas and the throwback badges they've had, got my fingers crossed for something similar. 

[mikeyp102]

We really need the away now please Villa 

[Aston_Villan4]

27 minutes ago, 479Villan said:

No, not a meet and great, a meet and greet.

 

Maatsen, Rogers, and Jacob at the Times Square JD (1466 Broadway), Thursday at 4:30 eastern.

Oh wow. That’s greet news. I know where I’ll be Thursday afternoon!

[striker]

29 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

We really need the away now please Villa 

Is the black keeper shirt available yet?

[mikeyp102]

Just now, striker said:

Is the black keeper shirt available yet?

No idea

[Hank Scorpio]

54 minutes ago, striker said:

Is the black keeper shirt available yet?

Yes

[Jas10]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

It looks decent in all monos ive seen.

It shows to me the actual design isnt the biggest issue its the colouring

Always has been, and that is what has been the root cause of the long term complaints, discontent etc.

After two (faux?) “badge redesign processes” and/or (faux) fan consultations… we’re right back to the same problem and it’s kind of maddening, foolish, stupid and even shocking.

It’s the main, arguably only, problem that needed solving but we are back to it and stuck with it.

In that sense, I think the complaints and criticisms are more than justified and don’t warrant being mocked… but we have all just had to accept defeat.

And now, there is no doubt that it spoils what is a well designed and aesthetically pleasing shirt. We really should’ve ended up with something much better with the time taken and the fact that we are now celebrating our 150th anniversary.

Disappointing, stuck with Mr. Blobby and the frigging drop shadow now too.

Oh well, it is what it is. Can only ignore it now.

[479Villan]

1 hour ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Oh wow. That’s greet news. I know where I’ll be Thursday afternoon!

Jealous!

[Anything11]

Received two emails saying my shirt is delayed. I ordered within the first few hours too.

 

[Jas10]

Quote

Villa used to play Black Sabbath’s Paranoid as their walk-out music and that’s why we used it,” says Charlie Parker, creative director at Homeground, the creative agency Adidas entrusted with launching Aston Villa’s new home kit.

“Nowadays, the song is Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne. We reached out to Sabbath’s team and said we would like to use Paranoid and they said, ‘If you’re going use it, we would really like to be in it.’

“It was amazing. I went to Hollywood to see Ozzy and he was great. He is not as big a Villa fan as Geezer Butler but he was saying how he used to live closer to the stadium than Geezer. He was talking about how he used to get paid to wash people’s cars outside of Villa Park as a teenager.

“Deep down, I think Ozzy was doing it because he knew how much it would mean to Geezer. He told this amazing story about Sharon Osbourne’s dad being the manager of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). Geezer walked in one day and Ozzy was playing an ELO vinyl. Geezer went mental and said, ‘You can’t play that because they’re Blue Noses, Birmingham fans’.”

Seven days on, the video launching Villa’s 2024-25 home kit has racked up 4.3million views on X. In the first three days, it was watched 6.5million times on Instagram, surpassing other Adidas teams including Manchester United (4.8m), Newcastle United (3.7m) and Arsenal (1.7m), all of whom had already launched their home kit.

The kit announcement has earned wide recognition and praise. Innovative and sharp-witted, it is intrinsically Villa and is sprinkled with stardust thanks to Black Sabbath frontman Osbourne and guitarist Butler, the 75-year-olds who have sold more than 75million records worldwide with one of the most impactful heavy metal bands of all time.

---

The video starts with Osbourne, sitting in the new home shirt, calling Butler and insisting they played at Villa Park together. In the shot, Osbourne has his dog, Bugzy, next to him.

“There was a pitch to us from Homeground, which we finessed before I took it to Sabbath’s team,” says Neil McSteen, an agent at Create Artists Agency (CAA), who coordinated the partnership between Black Sabbath and Homeground. “It was Ozzy and Sharon’s idea to put their dog in the Villa kit.”

 

Quote

Intricate, knowing flourishes only a hardened Villa supporter would recognise then followed, with a fan praying to a picture of Paul McGrath — known as ‘God’ in his playing days — a group of men and women practising Unai Emery’s high lineand a male supporter, who was among the several Midlands-based actors Homeground hired from a casting agency, inside the Villa Park changing rooms with the players.

“We needed to pay homage to the long-standing fans,” says Parker. “We had little detailed references in the film, such as the traffic cones as a reference to the fancy dress of away fans. Dressing up as traffic cones had become a folklore thing. 

“Then we had bandanas, which was the cult story about Savo Milosevic and when he wore the bandana for the first game and Aston Villa printed loads of them for his debut. He never wore it again after that. Then you see Tony Daley, who is now a personal trainer and we did a quick shot of him doing sit-ups. We call them the ‘Easter eggs’ — those little things only you can spot.”

Quote

The finer nuances of the film were helped, in part, by Parker’s fellow creative director Jonny Marsh, one of two Villa supporters who work at Homeground, a company of 15 full-time staff. Marsh led on the subtle references that would appeal to the fanbase.

“We would read and research a lot but there were more clues that didn’t make the cut,” Parker says. “But when you get something that helps your reach globally with Black Sabbath, it helps the video travel. They show what Birmingham can do, where working-class heroes become rock stars.”

“We were approached on May 13,” says McSteen.”Sabbath and their team got it (the idea) straight away. They’ve always been Villa, especially Geezer. From the Villa badge he wore on the cover of Sabotage to his Aston Villa bass guitar — the only words he said when Sabbath were inducted at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were, ‘Up The Villa’. The best thing about this project was seeing Geezer and Oz talking like old mates.”

Quote

Adidas is among Homeground’s main clients and was tasked to lead the creative process. Homeground had worked on several of Adidas’ kit launches, including Arsenal’s first collaboration with the German company in 2019. It has done the photography for Villa’s upcoming away and third kits.

“When Adidas got the partnership with Villa, we got a little nod and a wink to say something exciting is coming our way,” says Parker. “Then we went through the usual process of establishing what the angle would be. Kit launches are special. We wanted a theme or a story. When you’ve got a sleeping giant like Villa, we were lucky they gave us the storylines because of what they achieved last season.

“Our first work with Villa was the Adidas partnership announcement where we did the crest with the Adidas logo and came up with the ‘Prepared’ motto. That was in February but because Villa terminated the deal with Castore (Adidas was only confirmed in May), we had to do things really late because we weren’t allowed to legally shoot anything.”

Homeground and director, Jake Erland storyboarded the initial outline of the film but, due to the late and staggered filming, the project faced logistical challenges. 

“You never know how the clients are going to react so we had backup plans, but Villa were on board with everything,” says Parker, who filmed first-team players at the start of May, before they went on holiday and the transfer window opened and Villa extremely active in the market. “We had scenes that we had to cut, due to the time we shot them.”

Osbourne was filmed at the start of July, while Homeground only managed to shoot Emery and Butler two weeks before the kit announcement.

“It was very unusual and there was pressure,” says Parker. “It was tricky. With Unai, he had gone on holiday and we knew we had to get him on the film. When we shot Geezer, he said he wanted to be as close to the football as he could, so we took him to Bodymoor Heath, Villa’s training ground.

Quote

“He is a global rockstar who had played with the Foo Fighters a few weeks before at Villa Park and he said that was his dream. When he walked into Bodymoor, he got his wife to take a photo of him in the boardroom. 

“He was reminiscing about Villa winning the European Cup in the 1980s. He told us he was listening to the match in a phone box while on tour in America. He had called a roadie and made him hold the radio to the phone. Where we filmed, he was overlooking the gym and all the players were coming back for pre-season. He was in awe watching them.”

---

In true homage to Villa’s partnership with Adidas, Osbourne shouts, “Sharon! Where’s my Preds?” His Predator boots, as it turns out, are on the feet of an older woman sitting at a local bus stop. It is witty, full of verve and indicative of a turbo-charged video that, Parker says, had been trimmed from three minutes to one minute and eight seconds to ensure it maintained “energy and spirit”. The final cut was quickly approved by Osbourne and his team.

“We wanted the idea of Ozzy shouting ‘Sharon!’ as he did in The Osbournes reality doc, as we felt it would be extremely funny,” laughs Parker. “I had to explain to him what ‘Preds’ were. Then he said it was all good and he just did it. Him and Sharon were so easy to work with.

Quote

“Ozzy wanted a small crew of about five of us. It was a 48-hour round trip to his house in Hollywood and back. I was the only one from the agency. Sharon insisted we put Bugzy in a shirt and got him in the video. It was an hour shooting and Ozzy was an absolute pro. He brought little bits and flavour. I was fortunate to talk to him and Sharon after for half an hour and they were reminiscing about when they lived near Villa Park, how important football is to the city and how much Geezer loves Villa.”

The video ends with fans, former players, Butler and Osbourne shouting, “Up the Villa!” before a closing shot of Emery and a young girl, Atalia, holding the shirt.

“We got Atalia from a modelling agency,” says Parker. “We tried to get as many local people as possible and Atalia and her uncle are massive Villa fans. On the day of the shirt launch, a screen was playing the video next to the queue. There is a great photo of Atalia holding the shirt her uncle had just bought, with the video in the background of her and Emery.”

“Birmingham is a place built on industry and Villa Park is like that,” he says. “That’s why the atmosphere is electric and why Villa are so good at home. Villa fans have this distinct grit and we needed to give it the justice it deserved. Adidas is our client and two giants met. The fans know that because this is the fastest-selling kit in Aston Villa’s history.”

 

Edited July 30 by Jas10

[villa4europe]

there's so many great bits of info in that, straight away I'm surprised it was adidas and not villa who did it

[CarryOnVilla]

Should have known this was made by Homegrown. 
 

Seems like Homegrown has the UK Adidas Football video/ad deal. They’ve made some great video for Arse and Manure too. It’s great that we’re getting the same service 

Edited July 30 by CarryOnVilla

[ThunderPower_14]

9 hours ago, Anything11 said:

Received two emails saying my shirt is delayed. I ordered within the first few hours too.

 

Same, also in Aus.

I order a plain kids kit and then an Adult Large with the CL badge and Watkins name and number. I'm guessing it might be the CL badge or name and number that has delayed it for us, but hard to be sure.