Rockets and Staffs boost kitround campaign with more than 100 items between them

All clubs, players and coaches are being invited to bring along pre-gamed kit they no longer need that can be sold on and given a second lease of life, helping others to enjoy the sport in an environmentally sustainable way.  

Items donated over the course of the 2024-25 season will help generate income for the sport, with a Volleyball England Foundation hardship fund to be set up from the proceeds received.   

Sports footwear, tops, t-shirts, shorts, socks, tracksuits, hoodies and knee pads – in fact, any sports kit you have that still has plenty life left in it – are all welcome and can be placed in bins (as pictured above with the Rockets team) at all major events at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering. 

Bins will also be taken to other events around the country, such as the Super League Live weekends and Student Cup Finals. 

Once collected, the donated kit will be listed on the kitround website, in a dedicated VolleyStore shop where it can be purchased. 

Rockets gathered 77 items of kit and Staffs 44 to give to the cause, where people can “de-clutter, do good”. 

As a reward for their efforts, the club will be respectively sent 10 and five new Mikasa V200W indoor volleyballs. 

Rockets Treasurer Ancel Mitchell was pleased to be able to put old kit to good use and said: “We have accumulated quite a lot of kit over the years and we wanted to pass it on, but never really knew where to do it. 

“It can be a particular challenge when it has your logos, so to find something like this where the kit is able to be re-used and passed on is great. 

“For us as a club, we’ve had a lot of kit in the cupboard for a while and no-one has really got round to auditing it, so it’s been good to free up that space.  

“Hopefully it will encourage other teams to do the same when they get to the point of getting a new kit and no longer need their old one, whether they are re-branding, having a new design, or players are growing out of it.” 

Volleyball England Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Ford hopes that other teams can follow the lead of the Rickets and Staffs by digging out items that they no longer need. 

“It was a fantastic effort from both the Rockets and Staffs to bring along so many items of kit and give the start of this campaign a real jump start,” he said. 

“So much kit lies unused when it could be recycled, and this is a fantastic way of doing that, not only to help the environment, but also raise money for those who want to play volleyball but may not be able to afford kit as easily as others.”