Kaizer Chiefs’ commercial success in their partnership with Italian manufacturers has come amid the challenges brought by the counterfeit industry.
Chiefs officially launched their 2025/26 season jerseys on Monday at the club’s base.
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Both the home and away jerseys of the new Chiefs kit are retailing for R1299 at the Kappa stores and at the Chiefs store.
Studio88 has the same jerseys retailing at R1200.
The counterfeit industry, which always hijacks this business space and mostly operates in the bowels of the Johannesburg CBD, has their version at R350.
Prices of counterfeit jerseys tend to drop as low as R150 depending on the quality of the counterfeit product which has various levels of the ‘fong kong’.
A popular building in the CBD with several floors is where some of the suppliers originate from and one of the retailers told this website that business thrives this time of the year.
One of the shop owners said they will be ‘cruising’ with the Chiefs jersey.
The crowd pulling English Premier League clubs and the Spanish giants are targeted the most by this industry which is believed to make millions.
Kappa has enjoyed favourable commercial viability since they reunited with Chiefs in July 2023 replacing Nike.
The 2025/26 season will be Kappa’s third season with Chiefs.
Ricky Joseph, the director and head of Kappa, disclosed that while the new jersey was launched on Monday, it has already been in the country since last month.
"The jersey was ready in South Africa over a month ago," said Joseph when asked about the timing of the launch date.
"So, it is about what dates suits the club and when they want to launch.
"It is also based on distribution because you don’t want to launch a jersey that will then be only available to be bought a few weeks later.
"We still have to get it to the Studio88 and Totalsports so it is more like what we have done in the last three seasons which is to launch and then be immediately able to buy the jersey.
"So, you can buy the jersey countrywide as we speak,” said Joseph while explaining why they have not taken the option of a third kit, like is the trend overseas.
"We do discuss it but haven’t done it yet, simply because there is so much product for the fans to buy.
"Bringing a third jersey will bring more dilemma for the three options.
"What we do for the team is that a lot of the historic reasons for having a third jersey is really for the clash of kits.
"When you have for example a club overseas with red and white which is common, you need a third option.
"With Kaizer Chiefs, the gold and black clash with few clubs.
"In fact, we often have to be forced to wear the away jersey because the gold and black don’t really clash, besides for one club.
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"The players do have three alternatives for shorts but for fans, besides the home and away, there is the warm-up, and the fans apparel.
"So, there are lots of variations for the fans," says Joseph.
Photo: Kaizer Chiefs
