👕 Chelsea Kits Thread

[Blue Armour 4,651]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

Chelsea finally ready to agree £45 million deal, far less than what has been floated for years

https://theprideoflondon.com/Chelsea-finally-ready-to-agree-45-million-deal

snip

As reported by Football Insider, Chelsea’s front-of-shirt sponsorship is likely to be worth around £45 million. Talks are “very advanced” and a decision is expected in the “near term”. 

Well, that is significantly lower than the £60 million figure that had been doing the rounds of the media for so long. In fact, it is not much higher than the £40 million-per-year deal that the club had agreed with Yokohama Tyres back in 2015, more than a decade ago.

While other clubs have been successful in agreeing significantly bigger deals since then, Chelsea seem stuck in one spot. And that means falling behind the rest of the pack. Also, one has to question whether extending this sponsorship deal search for so long was even worth it if the best deal the Blues could get was in the region they were always expected to be in the first place.

 

btw

That £40m per annum deal cut in 2015 is close to £57m per annum in late 2025 pounds pounds sterling when adjusted for inflation

Another source of info to corroborate, looks like.

Laughable that after all the gamesmanship of waiting nearly 3 years for 'the right sponsor' ends up with them retreating with their tails behind their legs. 

To once again quote Eghbali for his astute observation:

"Chelsea were quite frankly an asset not terribly well managed on the football, sporting or promotional side"

Well done to Eghbali & co. in making it more 'well managed.'

[mkh 709]

 

The most recent time Chelsea’s away kit was black was in the 2016-17 season, the season in which Chelsea won the Premier League title.

 

[ahmedou 212]

I can't wait to get back to Adidas! Enough Nike...

[NikkiCFC 8,501]

8 hours ago, ahmedou said:

I can't wait to get back to Adidas! Enough Nike...

They massively improved from this season. All 3 versions look great. And also like the look from this potential next season kits. 

[Vesper 30,794]

23 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

They massively improved from this season. All 3 versions look great. And also like the look from this potential next season kits. 

I loved these:

[Fulham Broadway 17,620]

Just found this from 1976 away games

 

[Fernando 6,695]

Looks like we got a new shirt sponsor? 

 

[Vesper 30,794]

Love these

[xPetrCechx 13,598]

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/Chelsea-football-club-selects-ifs-as-principal-partner

 

Chelsea Football Club today announces a multi-year global partnership with IFS, the world's leading provider of Industrial AI. As part of this commitment, IFS will be elevated to Principal Partner with immediate effect, featuring on our front of shirt for the remainder of the 2025/26 season — marking the beginning of a long-term collaboration that places advanced AI at the heart of football performance, operational excellence and fan engagement.

[Pizy 19,180]

That is a HIDEOUS shirt sponsor and it’s also once again just another short term bandaid deal. Of course it had to be some random AI slop company.

For the life of me, of all the strange and questionable things that have happened under BlueCo, them apparently being complete.y unable to secure us a long term, super high profile/prestigious shirt sponsor is the weirdest and most puzzling thing. These guys are supposed to be business and finance geniuses and we’ve scrounged around for FOUR YEARS looking for a sponsor only to end up here?

[Vesper 30,794]

11 hours ago, Pizy said:

Of course it had to be some random AI slop company.

I agree that it is NOT acceptable (and the kit logo looks hideous, ffs), but IFS (formerly known as Indurstial and Financial Systems) is not some random AI firm, it is a 43 year old company, is industrial AI enterprise software-oriented (it is one of the biggest industrial AI independent firms on the planet, (ie not tied to one of the big 7 tech firms: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla), and is, since 2015, majority owned by the 2nd biggest atm private equity company on the planet, EQT.

EQT (majority owned by Investor AB, ie the Swedish ultra powerful and famous Wallenberg family) is headquarted here in Stockholm, and and trails only KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) in the US as to who is the biggest private equity firm globally in terms of funds raised the last 5 years:

Top 5 Private Equity Firms by Global Capital Raised the past 5 years: 

KKR (KKR & Co. Inc.)
EQT AB
Blackstone
Thoma Bravo
Carlyle Group

also,

Hg (a huge London-based private-equity group, formerly known as Mercury, with the 10th biggest PE holdings on the planet) also holds a minority stake of IFS.

 

IFS (again, originally Industrial and Financial Systems) is a Swedish enterprise software company headquartered in Linköping. The company develops cloud-based business software focused on asset- and service-intensive industries, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM), and field service management (FSM).

History

Founding and early years

IFS was founded in 1983 in Sweden and launched its first software product IFS Maintenance in 1985. Five years later the complete product suite known as IFS Applications was launched. In the next several years saw IFS expanding its presence in the Scandinavian region with the establishment of offices in Norway, Finland, Denmark and then expanding outside Scandinavia into Poland. 1993, saw IFS introduced its first graphical user interface and expanded to Malaysia. In 1995, it expanded to North America.

[Vesper 30,794]

The new "multi‑year global partnership" will see IFS move off the front of the shirt in the summer, but the wider agreement will run until 2028. Chelsea are seeking around £65m per season from their next long‑term front‑of‑shirt partner.

[Vesper 30,794]