Last year launched into space, this year Virtual Reality.
Reading’s attempts to stay ahead of the game off the pitch continued with another revolutionary kit launch this morning.
The club had a lot to live up to after last season but with the help of Gate Reality, they delivered another unique experience for 2017/18.
100 fans were invited to Madejski Stadium earlier and through the Virtual Reality (VR) headset, saw Liam Moore and Joey van den Berg walk into the dressing room to show their team-mates the kits for the first time while a number of former players also discussed the new design.
You can view the VR video here
The home shirt is the traditional blue and white hoops but with a twist, using a faded hoop design from Puma, with white shorts and white socks.
The away strip is seemingly a nod to the growing Dutch influence at the club with a bright orange shirt, black shorts and socks. The goalkeeper strip is black with a red trim.
And winger Callum Harriott insists having a good kit can help the team on the pitch.
“It’s different and very comfortable,” he said.
“My favourite I have to say is the orange. I’m definitely looking forward to getting it on.
“I do feel that it does make a difference. You want to feel comfortable when you’re out there playing.
“I think this kit is perfect for that.
“Hopefully it gives us some sort of push. I know it sounds crazy that a kit can give you a push, but it genuinely actually does.”
After launching into space last year, it was always going to be a tough act to follow.
And the club’s commercial director Adam Benson says this launch has been in the planning for a year.
“Last year we sent it up into space and we had a choice,” he explained.
“Do we just leave it at that and do nothing after it or do we try and look for the next thing. But once you’ve sent it into space, what do you do next?
“Every year there are a lot of sports conferences and the buzzword everywhere is VR.
“Lots of clubs in the industry are talking about VR and how are we going to integrate it into what we do.
“So we thought we’d take a bit of a plunge into the unknown and produce it.”
He continued: “It’s been planning since the last kit launch.
“At a club like Reading I think you’ve got to be inventive and you’ve got to try and innovate where you can.
“We took that decision last year to do something different with the kit launch and it went viral, which is exactly what we wanted.”
And Benson is hoping that this can be just the start of a new string of content produced by the club.
“If the fans see the launch and feel like they were part of something that is unique then I can see it being rolled out across a whole host of content that we start producing,” he said.
“There’s no reason why we couldn’t film in the dugout and you’re sat and you watch the game with Jaap Stam in the dugout.”
Some fans have been critical of the kit not being launched until just two weeks before the start of the Championship season with other clubs rolling their kits out way back in May.
But Benson does not feel it has a huge impact.
“You want to try and stand out from the crowd,” he said.
“We haven’t seen that just because you launch it slightly late that it affects sales or take up of the kit.
“Some clubs like to wear the kit in the last home game, some clubs like to wear their kits in the first game of the new season.
“Launching now, we’ve still got two weeks until QPR and a week until the friendly against Vitesse.
“In the last two seasons we’ve launched it later than other clubs but some of the bigger clubs, Chelsea, Spurs, only launched about two weeks ago.
“I don’t think we’re particularly late.
“Maybe next year we’ll take a decision that we’ll launch it in February and see if we get a different reaction!”
Club legend Ady Williams was also at the Mad Stad for today’s launch, saying this year’s selection are “undoubtedly the best home and away kit I’ve seen since being involved at Reading FC.”
The kits will be available for purchase at the Megastore from tomorrow morning.
