Everton launched their new home kit for the first ever season at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium home
Iliman Ndiaye wears Everton's home shirt for the 2025/26 season
Iliman Ndiaye wears Everton's home shirt for the 2025/26 season
Everton have revealed their new kit for the 2025/26 season. Their first campaign at their new 52,888-seater Hill Dickinson Stadium, the shirt takes inspiration from the club’s waterfront location.
Its wavy design is a nod to the River Mersey the club now resides alongside, and it is the latest shirt release to come from the club’s partnership with Wirral-founded sportswear brand Castore, with the company also having come on board as one of the first ‘founding partners’ of the club’s new stadium, providing another commercial boost.
The Castore deal that arrived last summer, which was a club-record for a kit partnership, arrived at a time of financial tumult for the club as the ongoing takeover saga between former owner Farhad Moshiri and the long-doomed US investment firm 777 Partners hit the rocks.
The outlook at Everton has improved significantly over the past seven months, with the takeover of the Toffees by The Friedkin Group having ushered in a new era of hope for fans, with the club now moving past its financial stresses and PSR issues and looking forward to long-term success in a venue that will generate revenue streams the likes of which they haven’t been able to rely on before.
New kit release day is always one for the calendar for fans, and it kicks open the window to an important period of sales for the club when it comes to merchandise, something that impacts revenue streams significantly.
Castore have taken a long-term approach to their partnership with Everton, arriving at a time of great risk but with a significant potential upside.
Speaking to the ECHO last month, Castore CEO Tom Beahon said: “It was probably two years ago when we were actually meeting the club and negotiating the deal. Two years ago the club wasn't in a great place but as I looked at the club, the potential was huge.
“Without being disrespectful to any other teams, you can't manufacture or buy the history and the heritage that Everton has got. You can't manufacture or buy the catchment area and the high calibre of young talent that has consistently come through Merseyside over very many years and decades. So if you look at those fundamentals, you can't manufacture a fan base that's got the passion and depth of passion that Everton has.
“We then combined it with what was difficult to see at the time, but trying to look through the noise, which is my job, and say, ‘OK, well, if there is some form of takeover, if this stadium move does occur, there is the potential here for this to flip very quickly’. That was the view I took at the time that we did the deal and, thankfully, it has played out.
“We've seen a massive uplift in positive sentiment this year, particularly since David Moyes came back in as manager. I'm incredibly excited and looking forward to next year as a kit partner and a local brand as well.
“I'm born and raised in Merseyside. We started in Liverpool, our first office was a 10-15 minute walk from Bramley Moore Dock. To be associated with what is a genuinely historic moment, it's a great privilege to make the kit that the team is going to wear in that stadium for the first season.
“A lot of people said to me at the time that it was a big risk, but we felt it was a massive opportunity.”
Beahon expects the fan sentiment around Everton, under new ownership, with a new stadium and having moved themselves clear of the financial issues that had dogged them for so long, to be considerably higher this summer heading into the 2025/26 Premier League campaign.
“This summer will probably look significantly different to the previous summer, just because there was still so much uncertainty around, but now it's the first time in a long time where everyone's looking very much longer term as opposed to short term and putting sticking plasters over things where it's hard to get emotionally involved in that in a really deeper sense,” said Beahon.
“Having met the new ownership group, having been to that new stadium, there is a palpable sense that there's now a long-term vision here and there's the commitment to stay the course to achieve that vision that, with no disrespect, was not there under the previous regime. So, it's a very exciting time for the club and we’re proud to be part of it.”
For Beahon, the partnership with Everton is one that has been struck with an eye on the future. The club pines for silverware, and Beahon, who co-founded the business with his brother Phil in 2016, knows how impactful success can be for both club and brand having experienced it when the Castore-partnered Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga in 2023/24. The hope is that domestic success this season could offer a similar lift.
Said Beahon: “We've experienced it directly already, so Rangers qualified for the Europa League final a couple of years ago, Bayer Leverkusen have been in the Champions League and won the Bundesliga, and Athletic Bilbao reached the final of the Europa League.
“In other sports, England Cricket, playing in an Ashes series has been massive. It's not just brand awareness that you get from that, the volume of eyeballs that see your brand is huge, but as importantly, the connection that people have to your brand, you're perceived in a very positive way. Success begets success, so consumers associate you with success, other teams associate you with success, so it's a very powerful thing.
“It's tangible and real in two ways, so you will sell more, for example, on the back of Leverkusen winning the Bundesliga wearing a Castore jersey, that shirt will now go down in history, that will be a famous retro jersey forever, so, you'll sell more of that product, not just this year immediately, but for a very, very long time, so that's very powerful financially.
“But in addition to that our own brand Castore revenue spiked significantly in Germany off the back of it people know your brand they associate it positively they associate with all the great players that have lifted that trophy and done those amazing things so the halo effect that transmits to the Castore brand is very powerful and real.
“We’d dearly love to experience some of that with Everton in the future. It would be good for everyone involved.”
Even without success this season, in years to come the shirt worn in the first ever season at the club's new home may come to have some significance.