Northampton Town Football Club are pleased to announce a major new partnership with Sheinman Opticians.
The Abington Street based opticians has been in business for over 100 years and have progressed to become one of Europe's largest and most respected optometric practices.
The partnership will see Sheinman Opticians sponsoring the North Stand at Sixfields for the next 3 years, as well as looking after the eye health of the players and providing offers, competitions and advice for supporters.
"We are very happy to announce this major new partnership," said Chairman Kelvin Thomas.
"We are always pleased to partner with a Northampton based business, and we are particularly delighted to be linking up with Sheinman Opticians.
"Both the club and Sheinman Opticians have a big presence in the local community. Both have been in existence for more than a century and with such an extensive grounding in Northampton we can work together for our mutual benefit.
"Some of the players and Clarence have been regular visitors to Sheinman Opticians in recent weeks and we were pleased to recently help open their new in-store family area.
"We have a proud record of working successfully with major brands and we are really looking forward to this partnership."
"This is another great example of a fully integrated marketing partnership which we pride ourselves on delivering," said Commercial and Marketing Manager Caroline Lucy.
"Sheinman Opticians will be providing plenty of competitions and offers for supporters including advice on eye health, glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses.
"They will also be monitoring the eye health of the players and supplying glasses and contact lenses as and when required.
"Clarence will be helping explain the importance of eye health to our younger supporters, and he visited Sheinman Opticians recently to have his own specially made glasses fitted!
"The Sheinman Opticians Stand marks the beginning of a fantastic partnership that will benefit the club and our supporters and we are very grateful to everyone at Sheinman Opticians for their support."
Head of the Sheinman Eyecare practice John Sheinman is delighted with the partnership. He said: “We are all proud to be associated with Northampton Town Football Club and the new partnership will be another major sporting venture for my company who have a history of supporting Northampton’s outstanding sports teams."
As part of the partnership a visual tribute to former manager Dave Bowen will be erected at the club. Bowen played for the Cobblers in two spells between 1947 and 1960 and in the 1960s managed Northampton Town to the top flight of English football, as well as holding a number of other roles in a long association with the club.
Kelvin Thomas went on to say: “As well as this being an excellent opportunity to improve the club commercially, we feel it is also appropriate to properly honour what Dave did for the club, rather than just display a small plaque on the wall of the North Stand as is the case currently.
“In addition to the visual, pictorial tribute to Dave on the stand we will also be commissioning a bust of him which will sit at a prominent place at the club, telling all supporters, especially our younger fans, more about his achievements. We feel this will provide much more of a lasting legacy and is the beginning of a programme of further improvements around the ground to highlight the club’s heritage and history.”
Martyn Street from Sheinman Opticians said: "We are really pleased to be partnering with Northampton Town and we are very excited about the future working together. Many of our staff and customers are supporters of Northampton Town and are really looking forward to this partnership.
“Partnering with the club allows us to help spread our message about the importance of eye health to people of all ages. This will be a vibrant, active, developing partnership that will see us support the club, the players, the supporters and even Clarence, who has created a lot of excitement during his visits to the practice!
“Given the progress the club has made in the last couple of years we think this is an ideal time for us to be partnering with the club and we are excited to be playing an active part as we wish the Cobblers every success for the 2017/18 season.”