When Aston Villa's kits could be unveiled after Newcastle confirm adidas shirt release date

Fixtures, pre-season friendlies, transfers...and kits. There are checkpoints every summer for those who follow their football clubs to look out for. At Aston Villa, it's been no different this close season - in fact it's as interesting and exciting as it has been for many a year. Villa are heading into their 150th year, and the club have plenty planned.

Villa's president of business operations Chris Heck has overseen the redesigning and releasing of the club's new crest, which are designed to stand out against background. The shape and content of the badge is a revisit to what Villa's shield-shaped crest looked like prior to last season's one-off circular badge - complete with yellow lion, a white star and the club's year of birth, 1874.

This was on the back of the club announcing that they'd acquired a partnership with adidas; Heck worked hard to get Villa out of the Castore deal which they were dissatisfied with. Complaints had been made by players in the men's and women's teams about the quality of the kits and its retention of sweat during a game.

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“Our kit was falling apart on us and I came to the conclusion this was not going to work,” Heck explained. “I wanted a clean slate, so we kicked everyone to the curb that was not a good deal financially.

“We're globalising this club. We’ve pretty much doubled in size over the last 12 months. My goal was, let’s control our own destiny and bring everything in-house. I want to bring in everything possible to control our customer experience, our brand experience and, quite frankly, our revenue opportunity.

“The club was run on efficiency as opposed to ambition. This is the club that’s going to break the mould. Aston Villa was the one that stood out. It’s in a huge market, it’s a club of history and then they hired this magical coach. This is the club that’s going to break the mould and that’s when I was like – okay, I’m in.”

Last year, Villa released their home kit on June 22, so the new kits for next season aren't expected to be unveiled just yet - possibly closer to July again - while the club have been busy organising the termination of the Castore deal and taking on a new front-of-shirt sponsor Betano too. The Greek betting platform will be on their tops, rather than BK8.

"We are delighted to announce and share with fans adidas’ new partnership with Aston Villa Football Club," Nick Craggs, adidas' global football general manager said. "To partner with the club for the first time in our histories is a signpost for an ambitious future together; from the foundation of making the best product for both athlete and fan, to sharing stories and moments that will connect us with Aston Villa fans the world over.”

Newcastle are also moving from Castore adidas Adidas this summer. Their new 2024-25 Adidas home shirt will officially go on sale from Friday, June 7.

The two clubs have joined a host of huge clubs from around the world who wear adidas kits; Manchester United, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus and Inter Miami all have their kits manufactured by the German sportswear giant.

Incidentally, you could say that adidas was always going to be on the cards when it came to Villa and an agreement; owner Nassef Sawiris is a minority stakeholder in the company and owns 6 per cent of their shares.

Villa are set to benefit financially, too; by having adidas on board, it's reported that the arrangement is a 'club record' for Villa and that the deal - of which the length wasn't disclosed in the announcement - is worth multi-millions of pounds, at a time when Villa are looking to move to the next level on the field and off it.