Exclusive: Forest, Chelsea and Inter players join £1.1m boot firm Sokito’s funding round

Players from clubs such as Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Inter Milan have joined a £1.1m funding round for eco-friendly football boot firm Sokito.

A total of 60 players, 44 of whom are new investors, have joined the roster of investors from leagues including the Premier League, MLS and the Bundesliga. Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah is on the list of those who have pledged to the round.

Six female players now invest in Sokito, too, including Danish international Sofie Junge Pedersen (Inter Milan), Jasmyne Spencer (Angel City FC) and Tessel Middag (Rangers WFC).

“To have so many male and female players invested in the business is testament to the strength of our product and brand purpose,” said Jake Hardy, the founder of Sokito.

“From launch, we established great retail partnerships with Lifestyle Sports, Ireland, and Soccer.com in the US. I’m pleased to be adding five new retail partnerships to increase our European presence and enter a new market in the APAC region.”

Nottingham Forest’s Ola Aina said insisted he is excited to join as an investor while FC Cincinnati’s DeAndre Yedlin added: “It’s a football boot that people want to wear that’s better for the planet.”

The firm won an award earlier this year for their campaign Change the Game, which was released in response to the statistic that 12.5m pairs of football boots are sent to landfill every year.