Giffgaff gives Sheffield United Junior Blades a cutting edge

The head designer at giffgaff redesigned the Junior Blades kits for the season

When Sheffield’s underfunded under 9’s football team sent out a plea for assistance, giffgaff offered to provide new equipment and bespoke football kits for the entire team of 18 players and three coaches.

The Junior Blades includes members from different backgrounds and areas of Sheffield who have united over their love of the sport. Solely run by volunteers, the club has no direct affiliation to the Premier League club and receives no formal funding, meaning that local children are missing out as the club struggles to fund their basic needs, often relying on hand-me-downs or below par equipment.

In answer, giffgaff said it recognised the benefit that the Junior Blades team is offering to youths around the Sheffield area.

Mobile network giffgaff has donated thousands of pounds worth of kit

Darren Barker, giffgaff’s senior designer and creator of the unique kits, said: “The football team is underfunded so we thought as the community run network, we’d help them out and go above and beyond by using our unique approach to design and visuals to design them a kit.

“We aimed to channel the movement and energy of football, using shapes from within our brand digital noise pattern and the word ‘blades’. Plus the Junior Blades red teamed with our black and white logo colours worked really effectively.

“We can’t wait to see them in their kit. Who knows what the budding footballers will achieve in the future.”

Layen Wisdom, one of the three coaches and the team’s fundraising coordinator, said: “We are over the moon to have giffgaff on board to help and were completely shocked when they answered our call for help.

“It’s so important to keep community schemes like the Junior Blades running to give children opportunities they normally wouldn’t have. We cannot express how motivating it is for them to see a company like giffgaff step in and support their dreams.”

Juniors Blades is a collection of football teams from 11 different age groups (under 7’s up to under 18’s). Some have played for a couple of years and others are completely new to the club.