Forest Green Rovers fans have hit out at their ‘horrendous’ new kit after the club unveiled the ‘world’s first’ vegan strip.
The National League side, who dropped out the English Football League last year, released the bright pink and green kits, which are fully recyclable, on Tuesday.
They will wear them for two seasons as the club looks to reduce waste and ‘lower the burden on fans to purchase a new design every year’.
Both the home and away kits include a leopard print design and will be broken down and remade into new products, in a ‘practical solution to help tackle the millions of tonnes of textile waste generated by the sports industry each year’.
The Gloucestershire-based outfit, who recently appointed Robbie Savage as manager, worked alongside charity the Vegan Society to create the fully certified vegan kit.
But despite their reputation as the country’s most sustainable club, fans were quick to blast the new strip.
‘Well these are absolutely vile, one wrote.
‘Genuinely didn’t think it could get any worse than our previous home kits but that tops it, absolutely horrendous,’ another added.
A further fan said: ‘Bold!? Lads that’s not bold that’s just horrendous.’
‘How can I unsee something,’ another wrote.
Supporters will be forced to cough up £50 for the kit, described as ‘fabulous’ by chairman Dale Vince.
He added: ‘We like to push the boundaries on sustainability issues, including what our shirts are made from because the materials we use to make things really matters.
‘In pursuit of the most sustainable football kit we’ve experimented in previous seasons with both bamboo and with coffee grounds.
‘This season our new strip pushes the boundary again – we’ve created the world’s first fully certified vegan football kit, by making sure the dyes we use, which are an often overlooked ingredient, are plant-based.
‘Our new shirt is also fully recyclable and will be turned back into future items by Reflo. I’m really pleased to unveil our bold, bright new kit that’s inspired by nature and helping nature – that’s pretty fabulous.’
Forest Green will spend their second consecutive season in the fifth tier, having failed to achieve promotion back to League Two at the first time of asking.
The club reached a record high of League One in 2022 but suffered consecutive relegations, ending their seven-year stint in the English Football League last year.
Forest Green became the world’s first vegan club in 2015 under Vince, while there hasn’t been red meat on the menu at their stadium, The New Lawn, since 2011.
They also became the world’s first carbon-neutral football club.
