Yahoo News Castore founder addresses Aston Villa kit issue and makes admission
Castore co-founder Tom Beahon has admitted his kit company have lessons to learn in the wake of difficulties experienced by Aston Villa players wearing their shirts this season. Villa unveiled their new strips for this season in the summer of 2022 and, in doing so, revealed Castore as their new manufacturer following the conclusion of a deal with Kappa.
Villa joined the likes of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United, as well as Rangers and a host of rugby and cricket clubs, plus individual sports stars like Adam Peaty and Andy Murray, in turning to Castore, who aimed to 'disrupt' the landscape of the market which has been traditionally dominated by adidas and Nike.
However, Villa players have complained about the weight of the shirts as the season has wore on, plus their apparent inability to deal effectively with perspiration, leaving the 'wet look' tops clinging to the players' upper bodies.
That has extended to the women's team, too. Clearly there was an issue in the earlier stages of the season, and that led to speculation suggesting that Villa were seeking to move away from their partnership with Castore and source a new kit supplier. Having held talks, and with new kits produced and provided by Castore, the matter appears to have been resolved in the second half of the season - but clearly it hasn't been an entirely smooth partnership.
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"Whenever you're trying to be disruptive, I guess bumps in the road are inevitable," Beahon told the Price Of Football podcast. "The difference between reading about it and doing it is going through those bumps. There's no other way of coming through them other than to grit your teeth, bite down on the gumshield and come through them.
"You firstly need to have a level of humility. It is an interesting balance as an entrepreneur to be firstly very ambitious and to have huge, deep self-belief, but also to have the self-awareness to acknowledge when you do need to improve. We've grown Castore from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue in a short space of time - you don't that perfectly.
"Nobody does, so you do need to acknowledge where improvements can be made. We've tried our best to do that. I did say, tongue in cheek, when asked by a journalist recently if it was affecting Villa's performance, and I said if it has then we need to do that for all of our teams because Villa are having their best season in a very long time!
"Clearly, there is a serious point where you have to learn from these things. You can't be hard-headed and say that that is not our fault. You have to learn from them which we've tried to do. Equally, it's fair to say that all teams change brands in this market. It's been well documented recently that the German national team have moved from Adidas after 77 years.
"There's been noise around Barcelona at the moment, and Nike. These things happen and if they happen to Nike and Adidas, there's no logical reason why they shouldn't happen to Castore. It's a competitive market, we play to win, we win more than we lose but it doesn't mean you're going to be perfect and you have to learn from those experiences."
Villa, it's reported, are set to wear shirts produced by Adidas for the 2024-25 season onwards after agreeing a 'long-term, multimillion-pound' deal. Adidas are part owned by Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris.
