By Friendship Togethered, or soccer association D.V.S. is an association from Aalst. D.V.S. was formed from a merger in 1929 between the soccer clubs O.V.V. and de Treffers. The association has about seven hundred members.

Shortage of locker rooms

According to Marion Didden, secretary of the association, D.V.S. was struggling with an acute locker room shortage. "The municipality recommended purchasing team lockers as the quickest and cheapest solution to this problem. In the Aalst region, there are few to no clubs that have lockers and so we weren't immediately eager to jump on board"; said Marion. "Apparently lockers are much more common in the central and northern parts of the Netherlands."

More optimal use of locker rooms

Eventually, D.V.S. purchased team lockers from Holland Sport Systems. According to Marion, this has the advantage of keeping locker rooms "empty" so they can be used more optimally. In addition, they no longer have to be shared with other teams.

It took some getting used to

"Although things are getting better by now, it took some getting used to"; says Marion. "After all, unknown is unloved.... The advantage is that all clothes, shoes, coats and bags go into the locker and nothing can disappear. Another advantage is that nothing can accidentally end up with another team sitting in the same locker room. What is another advantage is that with can come up with their own code to lock the lockers. Since keys are not used, you cannot lose them either. We have received positive feedback on this in particular".