Betting company PaddyPower have embarked on a mission this season where they have called on brands to stop sponsoring football kits - including fellow betting companies.
'Unsponsoring'
The Irish bookmaker has started 'unsponsoring' football shirts, starting with their popular Huddersfield campaign. Since then, Motherwell, Newport County, Southend United, and Macclesfield Town have all revealed shirts without sponsors.
Nowadays, many kits are designed with the sponsor as an integral part of the strip, and sometimes taking away this element can make the outcome much worse.
Welcome to the Macc life - lovely to have added Macclesfield to the #SaveOurShirt stable https://t.co/R4up5ZtZLU
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 26, 2019
Today, Macclesfield Town announced the shirts that they would be wearing for the 2019/20 season. Only, their away kit is nothing special. The away shirt is just a plain Nike training shirt, but it looks empty.
Great to have you, @SUFCRootsHall! https://t.co/ixRsskMJjK
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 23, 2019
The same has happened to Southend United's shirt, only this time they have replaced the space of a Prostate cancer charity with - nothing.
The entire #savetheshirt campaign has gathered controversy for the way that it has worked out on some shirts. For Huddersfield and Motherwell, it was a blessing - but for others, is it a curse?
Copy-paste kits
Teams nowadays have shirts made from the same carbon copy design, and the sponsor is something that can sometimes make a difference to it to make it something special.
Maybe PaddyPower's 'unsponsoring' of shirts is just a more elaborate marketing ploy than even pasting a sponsor on to a jersey to start with.