THE verdict is in. The Morton support has spoken — and Telegraph Sport can exclusively reveal that their choice for the Cappielow club’s 2016-17 home kit is option four: the pin stripe hoops.
Exactly 1,185 fans poured into local sports shop Smiths over the weekend to cast their vote before polling closed at 7.30pm on Monday evening.
The competition quickly became a two-horse race after the early favourite, the Tartan hoops, fell away as voters turned to alternative options after viewing the prototypes in person.
In the end, the pin-striped jersey outstripped the retro design, favoured by skipper Lee Kilday, by over 100 votes and will now be worn by players and supporters alike in the upcoming campaign.
The final voting results are shown below.
The club say that after taking feedback from the comment section on the ballot paper into consideration, there are a number of slight alterations that will be made to the final design.
The Millions sponsorship logo will be set higher on the chest to ensure it is situated within the white hoop and may now be sublimated into the material of the kit rather than machine pressed.
With the embroidered crest, the club’s year of formation will be stitched in white due to the fact the original blue was difficult to make out against the background of the hoops.
The shorts will be white with yellow side panels and a blue trim along the bottom with the club crest on the right leg and 1874 on the left leg.
The socks are white with a blue stripe down the outside of the leg and the club crest positioned on the front.
There will be one difference between the SPFL-submitted pro shirt and the replica shirt, and this is a panel of blank space on the back of the players’ kit for a name and number to be clearly displayed.
Supporter versions will not include this feature, with the blue and white pin-striped hoops going unbroken around the body of the shirt.
Ton director Warren Hawke told the Tele: “The response and turnout was absolutely phenomenal. We had 1,185 votes in total and that’s probably double what my best estimate was.
“There were a good 100 votes between first place and second place and then a further 200 between first and third. From the club’s point of view, we saw how passionate the people of Inverclyde are about what kit we play in.
“Myself and Stuart Rae were often ins-tore speaking to supporters and that was a valuable experience. We got excellent feedback, and even if I wasn’t talking to people, I was hearing debate and that helped me to get inside the mindset of a lot of supporters and learn what was important to them.
“There is stuff that in the future that I will try never to do because I’ve heard things and there are other things that are far more important to supporters than I myself realised.
“It was good to get that communication and feedback first hand and I’ll be feeding that back to the rest of the board.
“Ultimately, I feel we’ve opened up an excellent communication stream with the supporters and we feel this will continue in months and seasons to come.
“With regard to the kits that will mean taking the lessons from this whole experience on board moving forward and provide bespoke designs that the fans want.”
Provided by Vision Outsourcing, the kits are expected to be launched in the middle of July with the aim being to have them on sale prior to the first competitive League Cup tie on July 16. Sizes will range from mini kits for 18 months plus to XXXL, with adult shirts priced at £45 and juniors at £38 while costs for infant kits – a package including shirt, shorts and socks – are yet to be confirmed.
However, there will be early-bird reduced prices whereby fans will be able to purchase the kits at last year’s prices of £40 for adults and £35 for kids if they order through Smiths’ online shop before the launch date.
Explaining the prices, Hawke said: “This kit hasn’t been ordered out of a catalogue because if you do that you haven’t got as much say in the design. Bespoke designs and marginal tweaks to that design based on comments and suggestions ultimately has an add-on cost.
“We’re aware that some clubs’ strips this year are selling for £50, £55, £60 and some international strips are going for north of £75.
“That is not something we want to entertain, but there is additional cost so the RRP is £45 for adults and £38 for kids.
“However, we are rewarding those who get in there early and make a pre-order on Smiths’ website before the launch date by freezing last season’s prices, which are £40 for adults and £35 for kids.
“Those shirts will be available for collection at Smiths on the day of the launch. Alternatively, for people who don’t live within the area and can’t make it in, we will post out with an at-cost postage and packaging fee to anywhere within the world.
“For people within the UK we will try and post out the day before the launch so they will receive on the launch date. Worldwide it will be as soon as possible.”
Finally, the club have confirmed that one lucky fan will be drawn from the 472 who voted for the winning shirt and will be presented with the first replica free of charge at the official launch.
The final voting results were as follows:
Option 1: Ajax-style Nike - 40 votes (3.37 per cent)
Option 2: 1874 hoops - 31 votes (2.62 per cent)
Option 3: Retro hoops - 370 votes (31.22 per cent)
Option 4: Pin stripe hoops - 472 votes (39.83 per cent)
Option 5: Tartan hoops – 272 votes (22.95 per cent)
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