get-your-coat-on
Player Valuation: £8m
this nice to but it’s the other one i want
Daytripper
Player Valuation: £40m
We launched last seasons third kit the week of the 23rd August so maybe it will be around that time again for this one.
Charles Hawtrey
Player Valuation: £50m
These people are supposed to have genius designers on staff. This year is all about the BMD/Dicky Hill. Close to the Mersey, docklands seafaring past etc. Going forward I'd like to see them design kits based on the clubs history or the city/region's history. The black watch from Hummel was fantastic(despite Davek and the colour palette). What chance next year a Beatles kit or Mersey Ferry inspired? Seaforth cranes, old badges embossed in the weave etc. - get creative!
Daytripper
Player Valuation: £40m
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Inside the biggest kit deal in Everton’s history
In an exclusive interview with The i Paper, Castore's chief commercial officer pulls back the curtains on the brand's record partnership with the Merseyside club
inews.co.uk
Inside the biggest kit deal in Everton’s history
In an exclusive interview with The i Paper, Castore's chief commercial officer pulls back the curtains on the brand's record partnership with the Merseyside club
August 07, 2025 5:00 pm (Updated August 08, 2025
When Everton's third kit is unveiled in the next few days, it will mark a big change of direction in the Friedkin Group era.
The alternative strip – described by Castore’s chief commercial officer Danny Downs as “radical” with “colour pops” – is the first time the US ownership group has become directly involved in the design process.
In the era of profitability and sustainability rules, where revenue is king and growing it allows you to spend more on players, this sort of stuff increasingly matters.
The club’s new executive team have been told to turbocharge commercial income to match the Friedkins’ ambitious on-field targets of being in the mix for Europe within two seasons.
A big part of that is getting more involved with Castore, who signed a club record five-year kit deal last yeur-lonur-long chat about Castore’s relationship with Everton.
“We thought third [kit] was done but the new owners felt very passionately about a version of the design that we may not have gone with but they wanted to resurrect. It also gives us a nod to what the future design process will look like. Without being rude to the previous owners, they trusted [sports merchandising firm] Fanatics, but the new owners are going to be front and centre in the design process.
“It’s been fun. If you get more people in the design process it can take longer, but you’ve also got an exponential amount of passion, and that’s where you want to be.”
It is not often you get to peek behind the curtain of such an important business deal for a club, but Downs is well-placed to offer that insight.
Before he joined Castore, he was the international general manager of Fanatics, the US firm who actually own and broker Everton’s kit rights.
That means he was the man who signed off deals for Le Coq Sportif, Nike and Hummel to make club strips before they moved to Castore, the firm founded by Merseyside brothers Tom and Phil Beahon in 2015, a year ago.
“The deal was actually five or six years in the making because they pitched in 2018 when we went with Hummel,” Downs says.
“When that relationship ended, they were the first through the door.
“It’s an underdog brand. If you think about where Everton are, where they ought to be, they see themselves as a reluctant underdog. I’m a Manchester boy, a Man United fan, but in the Eighties they were the team to beat along with Liverpool.
“Tom openly describes us as trying to carry the fight to the absolute giants in our industry and that’s what Everton want to do. They’ve been there, it’s about the journey back. We see ourselves as trying to power and support that journey back so it’s a good fit.”
Downs says Everton are “right at the top” of a portfolio that includes England’s rugby side, 20 per cent of the Premier League and Bayer Leverkusen, and there was significant investment from the Beahons in what was lauded as a club-record deal at the time.
There was a new manufacturer uplift in sales last year and the premium pro kit, which retails for £115, was also a surprisingly strong seller.
“There’s lots of numbers out there – I’ve not read an accurate one yet,” he says of reports that the contract is worth £20m-a-year.
“Given that the five-year period included the farewell to Goodison, the hello to Hill Dickinson and the 150-year anniversary of the club, there would have been something wrong if we couldn’t drive a good deal and there’s been investment on both sides of it.
“Tom and Phil make a thing of not working with as many brands as the giants, or even a brand like Macron who have a very broad portfolio but they’re investors.
“They want to show their commitment to the club but they also back themselves to drive more volume through strong designs, a premium quality product and that’s what we’re seeing [at Everton].”
The five-year partnership with Castore is reportedly worth around £100m in totkitkits are almost signed off – Downs says the club are looking to do something bold with the blue home kit to match this season’s Mersey wave design – but thoughts are already turning to the 150-year anniversary in 2028.
“It’s quite a lot of pressure and responsibility because they’ll only turn 150 once and they’re doing it before almost every team in world football,” he says.
“In a nice way, that pressure weighs quite heavily on you.
“We’ve been having conversations about it for a while because – without canvassing so many opinions it becomes unwieldy – you do want to try and bring in as many opinions as we can about what it looks like.
“Just having the privilege of saying that 150 will forever be associated with Castore and our wings – that’s an incredible feeling.”
There are plans – not yet signed off – to launch a fourth kit later in the season as well as what Castore calls “hype” ranges, with bolder, edgier designs.
It will also be expanding the lifestyle range and, in the longer term, want to make use of the fact it now also has rights to use the Umbro brand to move into the flourishing retro shirt market.
“There’s nothing on the drawing board at the moment but Umbro has a great history with Everton – it was the 1995 FA Cup final kit – so if we can make something work there we will,” Downs explains.
Castore’s journey has been far from straightforward, with the brand suffering a hit in 2023 when Aston Villa complained about a kit that quickly became soaked with player’s sweat. Downs admits that was a “painful lesson”.
“The founders are 32 and 35 years old – the brand is nine years old,” he says. “They’ve crammed a lot into those nine years.
“What the owners deserve credit for is they fronted up at the time and said ‘We’ve produced a product that isn’t standing up to the test’ but they pivoted very quickly and created a product replacement rapidly.
“There was probably already a desire [at Villa] to move away at that point, speaking diplomatically.
“As a six, seven-year old brand, as opposed to a heritage brand like Adidas or Nike, who have decades of credit in the bank, you are very nakedly out there to be shot at.
“I think the way the brand was shot at was pretty bloody harsh – I’d like to think we’d get behind our own British brand a bit more than we did – but I look at the pivot.”
The brothers learned lessons, had a grown up conversation with Villa and both went their separate ways.
“What we got from that was probably a decade’s worth of learning in 12 months or less,” Downs says.
“What was great was that a club like Everton, in the midst of all that, still trusted us so we were still able to pick up marquee business.”
The deal is only a year old but Castore already wants to extend that.
“We’d love to,” he says. “This is a bucket list club for Castore and if it becomes a long-term partnership, it suggests we’re doing something right.”
Gallaeo
Player Valuation: £5m
Up there with the best of them alright, with the salmon pink & navy!
Big Sams Undies
Player Valuation: £20m
Said it a few times, all the gear I’ve bought my lad since the start of last season has been spot on.
Think that leaked 3rd kit looks decent as well!
Think that leaked 3rd kit looks decent as well!
Im not usually bothered about kits but I think this year's home kit looks class.
Might buy one for the kids (snide obviously, I'm not made of money).
Might buy one for the kids (snide obviously, I'm not made of money).
Struggling to get my head around Fanatics role:
Before he joined Castore, he was the international general manager of Fanatics, the US firm who actually own and broker Everton’s kit rights.
So do they pay us a fee then decide how they can make the most money from which manufacturer?
Before he joined Castore, he was the international general manager of Fanatics, the US firm who actually own and broker Everton’s kit rights.
So do they pay us a fee then decide how they can make the most money from which manufacturer?
barneygumble
Player Valuation: £60m
Castore make our shirts.
We have a distribution partnership with Fanatics, meaning they are responsible for selling the kit more or less.
When it was Kitbag, they were extremely archaic and it was Everton stores and their website only.
Couldn't tell you the figures, but you'll probably find that if you applied for a role at any everton store, youd be employed by Fanatics.
The deal Elstone originally spun for us, was shambolic. But there's a lot more flexibility nowadays.
Welcome
Join Grand Old Team to get involved in the Everton discussion. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free.
Shop
