Wherever possible, used and surplus kit is reused or redistributed, helping to reduce waste and extend the life of the materials we use.

Thanks to the efforts of our Arsenal in the Community team, hundreds of training shirts and other pieces of clothing have been donated to communities across the world, including a number of consignments to Bore, for the workers in our Arsenal Forest and the men’s and women’s football teams we support in that region. One area of kit, however, has proven more difficult to redistribute – our matchday stockings.

Our players wear specialist high-performance socks underneath the team-coloured stocking that maximises the grip in their football boots. Once separated, the outer “footless” stockings can be challenging to repurpose. But that challenge presented an opportunity.

Ray Coventry, The Arsenal Hub duty supervisor, who plays a key role in recycling and redistributing kit, identified an unexpected solution: donating the stockings to Redwings Horse Sanctuary.

The sanctuary is now using the socks in a variety of ways, including as dressings for horses and donkeys recovering from surgery, and they will be invaluable as the weather gets warmer to keep insects off any sores on our equine friends’ legs. It’s a simple idea with tangible impact: reducing waste, supporting an organisation carrying out vital work and ensuring more of our kit continues to serve a purpose beyond the pitch.

Nicky Jarvis, head of veterinary and care at the Redwings Sanctuary, said, “We are so grateful to Arsenal for their generosity to the charity, and we are always more than happy to reuse and recycle when it comes to supporting the wellbeing of our rescued residents! The socks have already proven invaluable at our Horse Hospital in Norfolk for our rescued horses and donkeys, helping our animals on their road to recovery.”

For more information visit www.redwings.org.uk.