LONDON, UK. September 17th, 2026 – One hundred and fifty football shirts collected outside Loftus Road on 5 September are on their way to KitAid, the Hertfordshire charity that has now distributed more than 1.25 million items of kit to 55 countries.
The shirts were handed in by QPR supporters during a matchday swap on South Africa Road, part of a blackout fixture in which the club wore its all-black Erreà third kit and sponsors including front-of-shirt partner MrQ Casino going even further; removing their advertising on perimeter boards, reducing the commercial noise, and putting the focus back on the football.
QPR legend Jamie Mackie opened the swap, inviting fans to trade any old shirt, previous QPR kits, rival colours, childhood favourites, for the new blackout strip. Two oversized LOVE and HATE bins decided the fate of each one, drawing a running argument from the queue as shirts were slam-dunked into one or the other.
“It’s more than just a shirt. That’s been our saying for twenty-seven years, and every one of these 150 will end up meaning something to somebody,” said Derrick Williams MBE, Founder of KitAid.
“What’s different here is where they came from. Usually it’s a club clearing out a stockroom. This time it was supporters handing over shirts they’d kept for years, and a sponsor that chose to step back so it could happen. We’d take more of that.”
Adam Ryan, Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer at MrQ Casino, added: “We said we’d let the football take centre stage, and MrQ Casino would take this match to step back from the normal match day branding and LEDs – letting the club shine. A hundred and fifty shirts is a decent return on being invisible for ninety minutes. Derrick’s team have been doing this for nearly thirty years, we’re glad to add to the pile.”
The donated shirts will be sorted by KitAid volunteers in Hemel Hempstead before distribution to projects across Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.
ENDS