As part of Wolves’ 150th anniversary celebrations, consultations have now started between the club and its supporters as to the design of the 2026/27 kit.
Wolves will be marking 150 years since formation during the 2026/27 season and together with official technical kit partner SUDU and supporters, preparations are already underway on the kits which will be worn by all the club’s teams during the anniversary campaign.
A kit consultation evening was held at Molineux recently as SUDU met with 40 representatives from the Fan Advisory Board, the club’s fan focus groups, 1877 Trust, Wolves DSA, Her Game Too, Punjabi Wolves, Molineux Connects, Pride In The Pack, Golden Black and OGP (Old Gold Pack).
Peter Crump, club historian, started the evening by providing a brief presentation on the history of Wolves’ kits, starting from 150 years ago until the current day. As well as his informative and engaging presentation, Crump also provided several historical shirts so attendees could look at and feel the material to help the decision process.
Comparisons on the gold colours which have been used throughout time were made and context was given around the different variations of colour throughout the club’s history, while SUDU also provided details on the process of creating a Wolves kit and how initial work and designs started on the 2026/27 edition back in November.
Ahead of the design process beginning, staff from SUDU also spent time with Crump learning about the fascinating history of Wolves to ensure designers from the kit partner understood the importance of the anniversary and what it means to everyone involved with the club so that could be incorporated into all stages of the process.
Crump said: “Towards the end of last year, we took SUDU’s design team on a guided tour of the museum and looked at all the various shirts and kits we have in there. It was really interesting for me and great to see all the SUDU staff really interested in the history. It was also a big learning experience for me with regards to the kits and what actually goes into making them.
“We looked at the different types of Wolves kits, the different shades of gold, and the general designs that we had around the museum, while I also offered them my ideas of lines they could potentially incorporate into the kits and celebrate the heritage of the club as well.
“Then earlier this month, we invited the fans to Molineux for a consultation evening, which was absolutely brilliant and an extremely useful exercise – and something I believe we should do as a club more often.”
The largest point of discussion on the evening was around the colour of the Wolves’ kit, and it was established that there are three distinct colours which have been used throughout history – the rusty brown gold, which is where the club’s Old Gold nickname derives from, used between 1931 and 1954, an orangey gold which the club wore throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, and the current brighter ‘yellowy’ gold.
“All fans have different takes on what is their favourite shade of gold,” Crump added, “but it was interesting to get the fans’ point of view and I hope those who were involved took something away from it as well. I’m really looking forwards to seeing the kits, but I understand that it’s a difficult one for SUDU as the providers and it’s difficult for the club, because it’s impossible to please everyone.”
Although no concrete decisions have yet been made on the 150th anniversary kits, Joe Poole, head of partnerships at SUDU, stressed the importance of consulting with supporters before any designs were drafted.
“We don’t feel many brands are engaging with fans in terms of kit designs and we want to be different,” Poole explained. “There are so many stakeholders in a football club, and we feel the fans are up there as the most important stakeholder, so for such an important year and such an important anniversary that the club will mark with these kits, we felt it wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t engage and consult with the fans.
“There was a diverse mix of people in the room and as Wolverhampton is such a diverse city, it was great to see a large mix of genders, age groups, ethnicities, so we feel we’ve had feedback from a very good cross-section of the football club and it was a very productive evening for all of us.
“We are currently in the design phase of the ‘critical path’ and we will present our initial designs to the club at the end of March for sign off, before the sampling phase begins. This is when we will share fabrics, colours, trims and swatches, so the club can see what it looks like if there was a print on it.
“After that we’ll have proto samples and production samples ready to be approved, until the kits eventually go into production at the back end the year.”
During the consultation evening, supporters discussed what they believed were the most memorable kits (home, away and third) from the last 150 years, the most iconic moments in the club's history and how these can be interweaved into the anniversary shirt.
Attendees were encouraged to be as honest and open with their thoughts as possible, with a varied range of ideas and values shared back to the club and SUDU to consider.
Russel Jones, Wolves’ general manager for marketing and commercial growth, said: “The 150th anniversary is such an important milestone for the club, so we wanted to make sure the kits we wear during that season are as well received by our fans as possible, while also being commercially viable.
“The supporters who took part were amazing and it was evident they’d come prepared and had several ideas to share with us – and they weren’t shy in coming forwards with their opinions, which was extremely useful for both the club and SUDU.
“We had a fantastic, very diverse group of fans which represented many of our different fan groups, and it was really encouraging to hear the positive feedback from the fans who really enjoyed being part of the process.
“We wanted to make sure we were collaborative in our kit designs with supporters, so we understood what is most important to the fans, and from that feedback, we’ve given the biggest inspiration and mood board possible to the designers at SUDU to work from.
“Now we will see what the SUDU team can create, but it would be great to engage with some of these supporters again to make sure we’re on the right track throughout the later stages of the process.”
