English club to wear shirts made of coffee waste

Forest Green Rovers have put a new spin on grinding out a result by launching a new shirt partly made of coffee waste.

The shirts, which the club says are a football first, will be worn by players when they face Colchester on Saturday and will be available next season.

Players already wear shirts made of bamboo, but owner Dale Vince says using leftover coffee grounds makes them more eco-friendly and lighter to wear.

“It’s just about not using a virgin material,” he told BBC Sport.

“The shirts are a combination of coffee grounds and recyclable plastic bottles, which is a special process, so everything in them is recycled or organic.

“We think it’s lighter than the bamboo, and apparently it breathes better, which is a surprise to me, but there is a performance benefit from minimizing plastic because you sweat more and get hotter.

“But you need that blend because the shirts also need to be super tough.”

The shirts are the latest move by the League Two club, which was recognized by world governing body Fifa in 2017 as “the greenest football club in the world” and in 2018 the first to become carbon-neutral, as certified by the United Nations.

It first introduced its part-bamboo kit almost two years ago, serves vegan food to its players, and is planning a new stadium made entirely out of wood. Last year Arsenal defender Hector Bellerin became an investor.

In recent seasons, other clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Juventus, and Real Madrid have started making shirts made out of recycled plastic bottles, and in some cases from plastic found in oceans.

Vince, who founded a green electricity company in 1996, added: “Taking plastic out of the ocean and using it to make clothes is a great thing to do.

“I don’t think it will be long until all clubs are using recycled materials for their kits.”