Sheffield United Junior Blades footballers show off their new kit

Today the Sheffield United Junior Blades 1981 (SUJB81) under 9’s football team debuted its new football kit, funded and designed by community-led mobile network giffgaff.
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Sometimes something small can make a big difference and so, when Sheffield's underfunded SUJB81 under 9’s football team sent out a plea for assistance, giffgaff jumped in to lend a helping hand providing all new equipment and bespoke football kits for the entire team (18 players and 3 coaches).

SUJB81 consists of groups of young people from under 7’s-17-year-olds who are passionate about football with members coming from different backgrounds and areas of Sheffield to unite over their love of the sport. Soley run by volunteers, the club has no direct affiliation 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.

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A true beacon of the community, giffgaff recognised the good that the Junior Blades team was offering to youths around the Sheffield area, picking up the mantle by supplying equipment and custom designed football kits for the Junior Blades under 8’s so the mini sports stars can start their careers in style.

Darren Barker, giffgaff's senior designer and creator of the unique kits states:

“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.

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

Meanwhile, Layen Wisdom, one of the 3 coaches for SUJB U8s and Assistant Manager, Early Years (4-6) Football Development Coach & Fundraising Coordinator was thrilled with the helping hand stating:

“We are over the moon to have giffgaff on board to help the SUJB81 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 and so, we cannot express how motivating it is for them to see a company like giffgaff step in and support their dreams”.

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