Everton's relationship with kit manufacturer hummel won't be affected despite other English clubs having to cut ties with the firm due to their connections to its UK partner, Elite Sports Group.
Last month clubs such as Southampton, Coventry City Oldham Athletic and Fleetwood Town, who all had hummel kit partnerships, were forced to temporarily close both their online and physical retail outlets citing 'significant operating issues' facing Elite Sports Group, with the Saints detailing their understanding of 'business and fulfilment challenges' being experienced by the third-party retailer.
Since then Elite Sports Group has fallen into administration meaning that some clubs have been unable to get hold of hummel stock during the busiest retail period of the year.
Coventry City, who have seen their stadium and city centre retail operations shuttered as a result of Elite's collapse, have stated, via CoventryLive, that they will likely have to seek an alternative kit manufacturer from next season despite the relationship with hummel being tremendously successful and resulting in record sales.
But, as the ECHO reported last month, the Toffees' relationship with Fanatics means that they are unaffected by Elite's fall into administration.
Everton have a kit partnership with Danish sports manufacturer hummel, one that was extended at the start of October to run until the end of the 2023/24 season.
But whereas Southampton, Coventry, Millwall and some other hummel clubs had direct partnerships with Hertfordshire-based Elite Sports Group, Everton have deal with major US firm Fanatics over their retail operation and have no direct link with Elite, due to their long-term Fanatics link-up.
The ECHO were told that there will be 'no impact' on retail operations, either online or physical, as a result of any challenges that Elite are currently facing, with Elite having no direct link up with Everton in the same way that they do with some of the other UK-based hummel clubs. Southampton have since ended their partnership with Elite.
In September of this year Elite were fined £459,000, alongside fines for JD Sports and Rangers FC, for their part in what was found by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to be the price fixing of Rangers-branded kits and other clothing items from September 2018 to July 2019. JD Sports were fined £1.485m and Rangers £225,000.
Attempts by the ECHO to contact Elite Sports went unanswered last month, with the company's press email address no longer accepting external emails.
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