Rotherham United are incredibly proud to be producing a special edition warm-up top that will proudly carry the Rotherham Hospice logo and be worn prior to the club’s Sky Bet Championship showdown with Birmingham City.
The connection between the Millers and the Broom-based charity has never been stronger than it has throughout the course of the 2023/24 campaign, with the strength of that relationship never more in evidence than when six ‘Diamond Partners’ selflessly pledged a considerable financial outlay to facilitate the club’s kits carrying the Rotherham Hospice logo as the main sponsor for the season.
It is certainly agreed locally that the impact made by the Diamond Partners has been realised and appreciated but the opportunity to further showcase our support and highlight the fantastic work that the hospice carries out both before and during a second tier fixture was too good to turn down.
With that in mind, the Millers have enlisted the help of our long-term kit suppliers Puma Teamwear to produce a one-off training t-shirt which will be worn by the first team squad at AESSEAL New York Stadium as part of the final preparations before the game with the Blues.
Millers fans may remember a similar collaboration which brought great success for another local charity - Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice - back in the 2022/23 season, when the pair came together for the #StrongerTogether campaign.
As was the case with the special edition shirts for the aforementioned meeting with Blackpool in 2023, the special edition jerseys worn prior to the meeting with Birmingham City on Saturday 20th April 2024 will also be sold following the event, with all profits going to the chosen charity – which this time will be the Rotherham Hospice.
A total of 120 shirts will be manufactured. 20 are to be worn and signed by Rotherham United players during the warm ups prior to our April 20th hosting of Birmingham City, and sold via MatchWornShirt.com. A further 100 unworn and unsigned shirts to be donated to Rotherham Hospice and sold via their channels. More details on when these will become publiucly available for purchase will follow.
It would be remiss of us not to thank our official trainingwear sponsors Guardian Electrical Compliance and their Managing Director Richard Roebuck for their continued commitment to charity. It is with their blessing that we have been able to substitute the Rotherham Hospice logo for their branding onto the front of the trainingwear for this fixture.
The shirts will be sported by the Millers first team players prior to the game and subsequently signed by the wearer. Further details of this will be released in due course.
Rotherham United Commercial Director Steve Coakley said: “We said when we kicked off the 2023/24 campaign that our commitment to the Rotherham Hospice would remain at the forefront of our priorities throughout the course of the season and, to this point, it is thanks to our Diamond Partners that we have done that with the Hospice branding proudly adorning our kits both home and away this season.
“As a club, we have tried to ensure that we have maximised exposure for the Hospice whether that be via commercial events, through our media output or in our community work and the feedback that we have received from the people there has been really positive in respect of raising awareness of the fantastic work that they carry out.
“For us as a club, it has been particularly telling to see just how many of our commercial partners and sponsors have wanted to support the hospice through their involvement with us and this agreement with Puma Teamwear, which wouldn’t have been possible without the selflessness of the people over at Guardian Electrical Compliance, is just the latest example of that."
“Having noted how popular the #StrongerTogether warm-up shirts for Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice were and the subsequent amount of money they raised for the charity, it felt appropriate to once again collaborate with our long-standing partners at Puma, this time in the Rotherham Hospice’s name.
“Whether you are an avid collector of limited edition shirts or just want to pledge some further financial support to the hospice, this commercial arrangement provides fans with the opportunity to do that, whilst also serving as an eye-catching visible reminder of our own association with the Rotherham Hospice – whose logo we are very proud to wear on our shirts.”
