'World's greenest football club' unveils home and away kits made from 50 per cent bamboo mix
Forest Green Rovers FC has today revealed its new football kit for the upcoming season is partly made from bamboo, in the latest move by the League Two outfit to position itself as "the world's greenest football club".
The "dazzling" new kit was unveiled this morning and has been hailed by the club as the first in the world to be made from 50 per cent bamboo.
The move means players and supporters will be able to wear club colours next season that use significantly less plastic material compared to standard football kits.
The club, which is owned by Ecotricity CEO Dale Vince, is also working with its kit designer PlayerLayer to further develop the approach in order to create "100 per cent sustainable high performance sportswear" in future, it said.
The team's home kit, which has a striped green and black zebra pattern, and the black away kit are both made from the same 50 per cent bamboo mix and will last for the next two seasons.
"We've taken inspiration from nature with our new kit - from the zebra stripes to the sustainable materials," explained Vince. "I was pretty shocked when I found out that modern sportswear is actually made from plastic - that feels wrong to me, not just from the sustainability point of view, but for performance too.
"This year's 50 per cent bamboo is a stake in the ground (no pun intended), we plan to move beyond that," he added. "The aim is 100 per cent sustainable high-performance material."
The back of each shirt features the logo of the club's marine conservation charity partner Sea Shepherd, which it is partnering with to launch an all-new third kit next month to help raise funding for the organisation.
And, for the first time, club sponsor Oatly - the plant-based milk firm - will have its logo emblazoned on the back of new kits' shorts, said FGR.
The partnership with Oatly is particularly appropriate as Forest Green Rovers has famously provided only vegan food and drink for players, staff and supporters since 2015.
Forest Green Rovers was officially certified as 'carbon neutral' by the UN last year - becoming the first football club in the world to gain certification - and is powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity.
The team narrowly missed out on promotion at the end of the 2018/19 season after losing in the League Two play-off semi-final to Tranmere in May.