Matildas and Everton midfielder Clare Wheeler spoke to pfa.net.au about her role as a KitAid ambassador, the importance of ensuring old kit don’t end up going to waste and getting the messaging out to as many members of the Australian football community as possible.
Clare Wheeler epitomises leaving nothing to waste.
When she steps on the pitch for the Matildas or Everton, Wheeler’s goal is to not waste a single possession.
She expertly keeps things ticking over from midfielder and dictates proceedings from deep. Essentially, for whatever side she’s on, Wheeler is the metronome, conductor and to steal a position from another football code: quarterback.
And off the field, this mantra follows her, leaving no football kit to waste through her role as an ambassador for KitAid Australia.
But how did her role as an ambassador come to be?
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“I reached out David at KitAid, because I thought of how much kit that I have had throughout my playing career has ended up in landfill,” she told pfa.net.au
“I just wanted to do something different. So I reached out and got speaking with David in regards to the work KitAid does, and he’s very passionate around sports apparel, and giving it a second lease of life, and giving it to communities in need and I wanted to help out.
“As an ambassador, it’s just about helping gather awareness for the work they do, and try to create partnerships to help get the kit to where it needs to be.”
KitAid are an organisation dedicated to giving football kit a new lease on life, by distributing them to disadvantaged communities worldwide which helps reduce waste and landfill contributions.
READ: How Australian footballers can support The Great Save through KitAid
This includes communities in Far North Queensland, the Marshall Islands, Tonga and African nations Zimbabwe and Malawi.
KitAid donation boxes have been set up at each of the A-Leagues clubs, encouraging players to drop off any old bits of kit which could be then sent on to a new home in these underprivileged communities, which also comes with its own challenges.
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“As a football industry, we need to take more responsibility for our impact on the environment,” Wheeler said.
“Clean Up Australia provided a statistic that each Australian disposes an average of around 23 kilos of clothing to landfill each year. At the end of every season as a football player, there’s always kit we have left over and rather than that ending up in landfill, it’s about taking ownership and potentially giving it to someone in need.
“We’ve been able to send kit to the Marshall Islands. They’ve recently started their Football Federation out there, and started to play the game. They’re a community that we’ve been able to help by giving football kit and that’s just one example, but there are a lot of communities out there that would appreciate kit.
“A large challenge of that is the transportation costs, so a lot of the communities that KitAit tries to help are located in rural and regional communities. So it’s about the cost involved getting the kit there as well is an important challenge that KitAid face.
Wheeler added: “The best case scenario is to organise donations across the club, so when we can donate kit to communities we have a collection of gear, ideally, you have 11 aside. So it’s great to have a collection of kit and do it across across the club.
“And it’s not just the apparel that’s important, but also footballs and football boots.”
KitAid Australia have partnered with the PFA throughout The Great Save in April, which is an initiative designed to reduce football kit waste both here in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Wheeler hopes the messaging of this year’s Great Save can have a greater impact on the football industry in years to come through promoting discussion within the community.
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“I think it’s great that this initiative with the PFA is there to highlight and bring more attention to the issue of football’s contribution to apparel industry waste and our overall global environmental footprint,” she said.
“I think these discussions are really important also in regards to upcycling and recycling kit.
“But overall, it’s just thinking about what we do in the football industry and how we can do it better and I think the more conversations we have, we’re going to have more ideas of how can improve.
“Without these conversations, it’s only just going to hurt our environment as a whole going forward, and we’re not going to change anything by not addressing it.
“So I think the PFA doing this initiative really helps get the ball rolling and gives these business, these charities, a platform to help reach different communities, different people who maybe want to get involved. And help these charities to hopefully scale up the work that they do and reach more people in need.”
