One match, one band: Sparta – PSV

Saturday evening, Het Kasteel, Sparta against PSV. The captain walks onto the pitch with a band you can read from the stands: Sparta's crest on the left, PSV's on the right, and the date between them. Not a band from the stockroom, not a band that goes on again next week. One match, one band.

After the final whistle a band like that does not go in the laundry basket. It is signed, or deliberately not, and gets a place next to that evening's shirt: in the cabinet by the entrance, in the boardroom, or at the player's home. A season later there is a row of seventeen. You see at a glance who was played, and when. A programme does the same, but a band really was on the arm that won the toss.

Clubs in professional football order per home match. The design is made once: the club's own crest is fixed, the colours are fixed, and per match only the opponent's crest and the date change. The kit manager sends the fixture list at the start of the season, we make the bands per round and deliver them a week before the match. Usually two per match: one for the arm and one in case the captain is substituted — or for the opponent, when the club thinks that a nice gesture.

Less than you think. A match band is an ordinary band with two crests and a date on it: it starts at the standard price, and whoever orders per season pays the tier price. A club gets its own club account with us: the design sits there as a template, per match only what has to change changes, and the orders go on invoice. No kit manager's credit card, no receipts.

You do not have to be a pro club. Amateur clubs do it for the derby, the cup final, the anniversary or the last match of a coach who is stepping down. Pick a band from the collection or start empty, put two crests and a date on it, and a week later you have a band that goes on once — and never has to leave after that.