The club will unveil the new home shirt early next week and fans will be able to pre-order the new kit from Wednesday, ahead of its official release date on July 17th.
Although signing a deal with Puma is a substantial leap forward for the club, thousands of fans who purchased last season's home shirts will be left fuming by today's announcement. They will have to pay £40 if they wish to be seen wearing the latest replica top, despite already paying out that amount just twelve months ago.
This time last year fans bought what they thought was the '2003-05 home shirt' only to today find out otherwise. However, the club's terms and conditions state that the kit will be used for two seasons but a "change of sponsor or manufacture may make this impossible to guarantee".
Nevertheless, for those on low incomes, today's news is a bitter pill to swallow. Royals Chief Executive Nigel Howe tried to look to the positives, stating that the deal has many benefits for the club.
"Puma recently offered us an opportunity to work with them over a number of years. This is a great deal which will benefit the Club in a number of areas," explained Howe, speaking to the official site.
"It will increase the profile of Reading Football Club, as we will be working with an exciting brand, renowned for their stylish designs, and it gives us the best possible products in terms of technology and performance.
"Puma will also be providing all Academy training wear, pro-wear and playing strips for 130 Academy players, as well as all items for the first and reserve teams. This will save the Club £60,000 a season," he added.
Offering an olive branch out to supporters Howe suggested that: "We have been able to keep the price unchanged for the sixth consecutive season". Yet given that replica shirts have remained fairly static at £40 for adults and £30 for children over that six year period at all clubs, suddenly the '£40 deal' loses some of it's gleam.
Furthermore, at many larger clubs it has been possible to purchase shirts on the cheap, with large sports stores offering some replica shirts for as little as £25.
Whilst the 'spend money in the megastore and we can spend money on the team' argument no doubt applies, given that the Royals can expect to earn a fair deal of extra cash this summer with a new home shirt and higher ticket prices, the free transfer signings of Glen Little, Paul Brooker and the little heard of Ibramina Sonko are unspectacular.