Carlisle United's new kits deliver 'phenomenal' sales

The Blues have sold more than three times as many shirts as they did in the same period last year.

United have already put in an order for more of the home and away shirts which were launched last week.

Season ticket holders queued to get their hands on the blue home kit and colourful pink, yellow and black away kit at a launch event last Thursday.

Since then more fans have been snapping up the Umbro shirts.

Finance director Suzanne Kidd said the response to the new strips had been remarkable.

“As of this afternoon, we’d sold almost 3,000 shirts in adult and junior sizes,” she told supporters at Tuesday’s fans’ forum.

“In the same period last year it was just 905.

“The uptake has been phenomenal. Stef [McLean, United’s Blues Store manager] has got a re-order in so for those who haven’t been fortunate enough to get their hands on one, there should be some more hopefully before the first league game.

Suzanne Kidd, United's finance director, said the response to the shirts had been phenomenal (Image: David Hollins)

“So it’ll be great to see the stands full of Fruit Salad and bus seats…[a reference to how the designs have been described in some quarters].”

United’s dark blue Errea home kit for 2022/23 has been described as a record seller, but attracted some criticism for moving away from the club’s more traditional lighter blue.

The new kit has seen Carlisle revert to a more familiar shade of blue with the shirt’s retro design attracting plenty of praise.

Manager Paul Simpson said he was also aware of the widespread response to the new home shirt.

“My eldest son [Joe] works in multimedia channels for JD Sports, and our home kit has gone viral throughout the world, because of the retro look of it,” Simpson said.

“On some platform he was looking at – I saw him in London last week – he said the home kit has been voted the top kit for the summer.”

Director Kidd, meanwhile, confirmed that United’s season ticket sales so far were also significantly up.

“At the moment we’ve done 2,667, compared to 2,197 last year,” she said, adding that the club’s new ticket system had seen many more online sales than before.