Ipswich Town’s new home shirt is the club’s fastest-selling of the last 10 years.

Sales of the shirt, sponsored by global superstar Ed Sheeran, have increased 70% on last season. While the musician’s involvement has brought an increase in overseas sales, the club say the vast majority of sales have been to existing supporters.

“I want to thank the supporters for backing us," said new Town CEO, Mark Ashton.

"To have shirt sales up 70 per cent is fantastic and season ticket sales are going great as well.

"Our retail and ticket office staff are working around the clock to deal with the demand so I want to take this opportunity to thank them as well. It’s exciting times for the football club."

The club’s head of retail, Paul Macro, has revealed the Blues sold as many pre-order shirts as they would have expected to have sold by the end of the year under normal circumstances.

When asked about stock levels and whether there will be enough jerseys for all supporters to buy, Macro said: “It’s probably surprising for the majority of our supporters to learn that all of our shirt orders have to be placed at the end of December. So we have to try and forecast six months in advance the position we think we’re going to be in when we launch the kit.

“Obviously it was a very different situation back then. Fast forward to March/April and the Club has had a takeover and a global superstar announced as shirt sponsor. ‘We’re going to need a lot more shirts!’ were the words uttered at that point!

“Within a few days we had further orders going into adidas. However, the stock doesn’t sit in a warehouse waiting for us to order it. There are bespoke elements to our home shirt which means it’s completely made to order.

“That process (from point of order to stock delivery) under usual circumstances is a 16-20 week manufacture time. Throw into that factory lockdowns due to the pandemic and it does become a challenging situation.”

The club are expecting a short period before the end of July when some sizes will have sold out, but all those who have pre-ordered will receive their shirts by the middle of next week.

A pre-order service will continue to be offered with further stock expected in August and then September.

Town yesterday launched their new white and black away kit, similarly sponsored by Sheeran.