Designer explains new home shirt
Many Pompey fans have asked us about the meaning of the wave on our new home shirt, which is now available for fans to pre-order.
Well, who better to provide an answer than Sondico designer Kenneth Meyer?
He said: “I was utterly delighted when the guys came to me and asked me to design a kit that would win the hearts of fans.
“Pompey are a famous club and I felt a real stirring of pride at the thought of being asked to sum up their new era.
“People might think that you just sit down and draw. However, there is a lot of research and thought that goes into it.
“The guys at Pompey gave us a really strong brief. They told us that the club was about a new era which represented their tradition, combining that with smart new thinking and a new way of doing things – tradition with a twist of style.
“What I knew was that the kit had to be the right blue. It had to be classy and comfortable. No gold piping. No red on the shirt.
“The people who made Pompey great thought boldly and built on their strengths: the navy, the dockyard, winning trophies.
“The combination of blue, white and red was emotionally very important, with the red socks being added to symbolise soldiers lost in wartime. You don’t change those things.”
So why the wave?
“Portsmouth is the city from which Britannia ruled the waves,” explained Meyer. “Yet it is also at the vanguard of the new wave of fan ownership.
“Their fans achieved something people believed was impossible for such a big club and in doing so they created a whole new brand.
“In doing what they did, they created a powerful wave of energy and euphoria. I want people to be instantly confronted with that riff on tradition and smart innovation.
“I wanted to delight people and challenge them with the new Pompey.”
Pompey engagement manager Micah Hall said: “We gave all the potential replica kit manufacturers a really strong creative design brief to work with.
“Sondico went away and nailed it in one. We saw some good designs, but for us this one said it all.”
Fans can pre-order the new home kit here and choose whether to collect it from the new Pompey shop on June 27 and 28 or have it delivered prior to June 28. It goes on general sale in the new shop on June 29.