DeeJayOne Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Was going through some old stuff earlier and stumbled across this little gem I'd almost forgotten about. Basically, this was going to be a special Wednesday kit in the 2010/11 season. I don't think theres any harm in sharing with fellow fans as it unfortunately never happened (and never will happen) so it does no damage to share. My idea back then was that a special kit would be produced to be utilised as our 'flip' kit (clubs are allowed to have a change of kit once per season, usually used for adding a charity badge to the shirt to auction off in support of that charity) that year to celebrate the anniversary of the 1991 League Cup win. I helped design the kit with the help of the team at Genesis/Puma and some others at Wednesday. The shirt was to have the famous image of John Sheridan lifting the trophy printed into the fabric of the shirt, like a watermark (remember the old Man Utd shirt around 1997 with Old Trafford embossed in it? A bit like that... but better). For the image to be visible Wednesday would have resorted to a plain-blue shirt for one game only. The Wednesday badge on the shirt would have 'League Cup Winners - 21 April 1991' embroidered under it and had a 'locker tag' stitched to the hem with embroidered details of the game. It was planned to wear this one-off kit for the closest Saturday home game to the anniversary of the cup win (21 April 1991) and so we would have worn it against Hartlepool United on 16 April 2011. We planned, if possible, that the secret would be kept and no-one told about it - the first fans would have known was when the team came onto the pitch for the game wearing it, creating a buzz and getting people talking about it. The stadium announcer would have explained and possibly we'd have had an applause in celebration of the anniversary or something. A limited edition number of one thousand nine-hundred and ninety one (1991, get it?) replica shirts would have been produced and put on sale in the Megastore on the actual anniversary (21 April) for fans to buy if they wanted one. I can't remember if a final retail price was agreed, but I think there was talk of it being £45 (opposed to the usual £39.99 for replica kit) due to the extra expense of bespoke production and the limited nature of the kit. The 'swing ticket' on the shirt would have been bespoke and had the game details and images on, as well as a mini-bio of Sheridan himself. The match kit worn by the team for the Hartlepool game would have all been signed up and auctioned for charity. Alas though, it wasn't to be... Even though the designs were made and production was about to start when we got the go ahead we couldn't get permission to use the change of kit. Hartlepool United agreed to us changing the kit for that game, The Football League gave the go ahead... but unfortunately The FA's rules on what you can and can't have on a kit meant they couldn't give us permission to use the image. From memory, whilst a club can utilise its own badge and trademark imagery as a watermark in the design of a shirt (hence the owl used on the 'silver' Away shirt a couple of years after), other images aren't allowed. We appealed the decision and the FA Executive Board agreed to look into it (we argued our position that it fundamentally was a club image and with examples such as the earlier Man Utd/Old Trafford kit, however the rules had apparently changed since that kit was released), unfortunately they couldn't grant permission for the design and the whole thing was scrapped. :( Anyway, I thought I would share with you the idea for posterity... Thoughts? 6 2 SHEFFIELD SHOP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brucey owl Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Its nice that its a shame we never got to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisCityIsOurs88 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Very interesting read, thanks for sharing that. Shame it never happened, it would have been great to wear as a one off. The FA love to ruin things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EcclesallOwl Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Just when you think you couldn't hate the FA any more.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam779 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Would've been fantastic if that had been pulled off, James. Pathetic decision by The FA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoOn Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Awesome such a shame it didn't happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JC3 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I'd have probably bought one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeJayOne Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 To be fair The FA were very helpful and tried to get around it, they just couldn't get around the rules unfortunately. SHEFFIELD SHOP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_D Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I would have bought one of those if I had had the chance to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groundhopping Owl Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I would have been first in line for one of them, shame the totally moronic FA couldn't see further than their own ego to let it happen :( 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Royds Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 (edited) Would be better if embossed with an image of fishcake. FA would have looked at it more sympathetically. Would sell thousands. Edited March 17, 2014 by M Royds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisCityIsOurs88 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 To be fair The FA were very helpful and tried to get around it, they just couldn't get around the rules unfortunately. Obviously weren't helpful enough, surely they could have exceptions for things like this. I understand that they wouldn't want any old rubbish printed on a shirt, but come on, this clearly has more to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themaskedowl Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Nice one James. Rules can be rather silly at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeJayOne Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Obviously weren't helpful enough, surely they could have exceptions for things like this. I understand that they wouldn't want any old rubbish printed on a shirt, but come on, this clearly has more to it. They were really sympathetic. I got the impression the rules were implemented due to a club previously taking the wee wee. They tried to find ways around it, but it would have opened the floodgates for whatever reasons they sought to block with the rules in the first place. Shame. SHEFFIELD SHOP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelowl Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 tbf that'd make a nice T shirt could you make one up xxl james? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shezza Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Good idea at the time. But why can't we get a specially designed shirt for Wednesday? Seems like all we do these days is go with a standard design everyone with puma and stripea have got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeJayOne Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Good idea at the time. But why can't we get a specially designed shirt for Wednesday? Seems like all we do these days is go with a standard design everyone with puma and stripea have got. Because thats the way kit deals work at our level nowadays. Almost all kit manufacturers are the same (Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc). SHEFFIELD SHOP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eaton_Swfc Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Amazing that, such a shame we never got to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shezza Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Didn't we have a specially designed shirt when Lee Strafford was chairman? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam779 Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 tbf that'd make a nice T shirt could you make one up xxl james? Are you planning to buy one for Neil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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