More one-off Cork jerseys likely to be seen in the future

Cork will be back in red and white this weekend and for the remainder of the season – but more one-off kits are likely to be seen in the future.

In both the Allianz HL Division 1 Group A game against Waterford a fortnight ago and last Sunday’s Allianz FL Division 2 clash with Kildare, the Cork teams wore their black and red training kit.

While the move was not universally popular, Cork County Board secretary/CEO Kevin O’Donovan told Tuesday night’s monthly meeting that there had been a boost in sales as a result. Such initiatives are part of Cork’s kit deal with O’Neills and, while the traditional red – or the white alternative – will remain the choice for championship, different hues may be seen in occasional league games.

Cork’s kit deal sees a new jersey launched every second year, with the current model introduced at the beginning of 2023. In the alternate years, Cork will wear one-offs.

As part of our agreement with O'Neill's we have an arrangement to wear an alternative strip for one league fixture in the even numbered years in order to promote sales

“In addition to the regular royalty payment from O'Neill's, Sport Direct contribute an additional royalty for such alternative jerseys,” O’Donovan said.

“Also, our development squad players wear these jerseys at training and so on as they earn their way to wearing the blood and bandage as fully fledged county players.

“This strip is not to be confused with our official ‘away’ strip which is, of course, white. This will continue to be worn in the event of any colour clashes with our primary red and white jerseys Both O’Neill’s and Sports Direct have been great supporters in recent times and have always stayed loyal to our primary colours in our main and away kits.
“All jerseys must be approved by Croke Park in advance. The required permission was granted in advance of the two games in question.”

In 2016, Cork wore a blue and saffron kit, reminiscent of that used a century previously, in a hurling league game against Kilkenny. Then, in 2020 a black strip, commemorating Terence MacSwiney, Tomás Mac Curtain, the burning of Cork and the Kilmichael ambush, appeared in one game in each code.

Both of those were flagged in advance, in contrast to the recent kit. That may have contributed to some of the negative reaction, O’Donovan accepted.

"We understand that this particular jersey has caused upset some of our members,” he said.

“This has perhaps due to the unique design as we had no such issues when releasing the respective black and blue commemorative jerseys in similar initiatives previously.

In this context, all marketing and sales advice before and after the games has been that it has been a big hit with the younger demographic at whom it was targeted. 

"A major spike in sales was noted following the team’s wearing of the jersey.

“We may communicate the context of such jerseys more widely in advance but all commercial endeavours continue to pursue financial stability and the promotion of our games and teams. 

“Sometimes, there must be some give and take and fortunately our teams grabbed two vital wins while wearing the somewhat controversial kit, which will now return to the training field and hopefully the streets of Cork.”