FanPost

The Year Ahead and the Year Behind in Kits. (Part 1 of 3)

Hi folks.

I'm a huge fan of the football kit. It's a real powerful thing to see worn and to feel when worn. It's a worldwide cultural feeling of pride and of exhilaration, and what's more, it's a new experience every year. (I myself am currently wearing an '03 kit that just arrived. It looks fantastic.) And I think the annual recycling of kits really keeps the brands fresh and interesting, so I'd like to compare and contrast, and finally decide whether or not these kits improved their club based on their design elements, positives, improvements from the previous year, setbacks etc.

Why? I want to put a smile on people's faces before it's blown off by Man City running train on Newcastle for 90+ minutes. Let's go.

Arsenal:

This Year's Provider: Puma
Best Kit: Third kit
Worst Kit: Goaltender kit

Last Year's Provider: Nike
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: Third Kit

Improvement?: No.

Arsenal, dear Arsenal. One of those perennial teams that show a ton of promise and money and basically hope to backdoor their way past Man U or Man City or Chelsea. Regardless, they do show impressive cohesion as a kit wearing bunch. Mostly the same colors as usual, that's pretty impressive for a team to do after switching from one company to the other. But let's look at the break down of the four groups.

Old vs. New Home: Both are invoking that classic Arsenal red with white sleeves, but where Nike Zigs, Puma Zags. Nike kept it very...very...very simple. The body is red, Sleeves are white, neckline is blue so that it stays very even in the mind. They also had the presence of mind to add a little blue to the sleeves to keep it nice and full. The New home forgoes any sort of blue hue for any reason whatsoever. And while that's pretty nice...it's Arsenal's calling card after all...it does add a few things to the body that I'm not crazy about. Look at those random white lines. WTF are they doing there? I'd understand if they wanted white sides or something to balance the look out but they don't connect to anything, so it makes the whole thing look very uneven and unfinished. This isn't helped by the sleeves, which go up the shoulders...and promptly end just before the neckline. Complete with my least favorite thing sticking on the ends...unfinished sleeve stripes. Nothing on earth pisses me off more than that for some reason and I cannot put my finger on why. All of this together really shows that a classic look is usually the best way to go for most clubs, and as such, The Old is superior here.

Old vs. New Away: Another yellow/blue kit here. The Gunners have at least kept a fairly consistent brand identity across their entire line. The old kit does exactly what is expected of it; be an away that has no consistent coloration with the home. That's good. But other than a few stripes it's not tremendously decorated, which is a shame, because I think it could've used a tad more...well..."evener" colors. The New Kit does that very well, adding a mix of yellow and blue that keeps a very solid look. On the other hand....more of those obnoxious lines. What the fuck are you doing, Puma. Seriously... Advantage Old.

Old vs. New Third: This is where Puma does in fact get it's first nod here. The old third is...well...bland. It's purple and navy hoops that kind of blend together if you're looking at it from far away. It's not bad, but it's unquestionably a "third" kit. Something they won't always wear and won't make a huge deal about it. The Puma kit on the other hand has something in it's favor. Striking. Every stripe you see pops out. it has a border to emphasize the stripey stripeness of the stripety kit. On top of that...they're using three colors that are in somewhat reference to the badge, which is a HUGE step forward to get on my good side. Advantage New.

Old vs. New Goalkeeper: Sweet Jesus, Puma. Who designed this? Who is seriously that enamored with the "[" key you decided "YES. I WILL MAKE A KIT ENTIRELY BASED ON THAT ONE KEY ON THE KEYBOARD PEOPLE USE TO DENOTE ACTION IN THREADS! MY GENIUS WILL BE HAILED THE WORLD OVER!"

...Are you blind? Old couldn't be better.

Aston Villa:

This Year's Provider: Macron
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: N/A

Last Year's Provider: Macron
Best Kit: Away Kit
Worst Kit: N/A

Improvement?: Slight, but yes.

I find it's a weird thing with claret and blue. You can't really....totally fuck it up like you can with other color schemes or design elements. It's pretty easy to do for most teams that wear them, and Aston Villa definitely wears their curious color scheme quite well, so unlike Arsenal, this one was more personal preference than anything else. The fact that I couldn't really decide on a "worst kit" for either tells you about how simplicity is strength, here.

Old vs. New Home Kit: Tough call on this really. Macron does good work on kits and they did very very little to change what was good about the old kit. Really the only thing I found a bit of a reach was the inclusion of sky blue pinstripes. That's not often a color used to create pinstripes, and thankfully they made it seem at the very least tasteful. At the same time, the old kit utilized the blue a lot more utilitarian-ly, putting it on the sleeves and sides, creating a nice effect. It's a slight edge, but Old wins out here.

Old vs. New Away Kit: Now THIS is a tough one because I like both kits evenly. The use of Claret and white is something I didn't know that could look smart. Turns out, they've been doing pretty well about it for ages. But which to choose? Mostly personal preference again, but I think the new one also uses the pinstripes but in a much better way than the home does in the new. The checkered look is fine, but I figure something subtle is always a little more appreciated. Advantage New.

Old vs. New Goaltender Kit: Not a whole lot of change on this front, I'd give it to the New because if you're gonna have a shoulder yoke, might as well get it across the whole shoulder. Macron ditched that for a reference to the old home kit and that really puts it over the edge for me. Cohesion in brand identity is key.

Burnley:

This Year's Provider: Puma
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: Goaltender Kit

Last Year's Provider: Puma
Best Kit: Away Kit
Worst Kit: Goaltender Kit

Improvement?: Sideways progress

This is going to be the first of hopefully few "sideways progress" kits that I look at over the course of this. These kits are fairly...similar. In fact, the change practically was...none. Literally none. Not a whole lot happening.

Old vs. New Home Kit: ...Is the same thing. The same damn thing. How can I make a distinction if it's the same damn thing? I guess the New Kit gets the rub on this one? I can't really make a real good choice on specific changes other than...it has a blue collar. Neato.

Old vs. New Away Kit: A bit of a toss up again, but I'm gonna go for the Away here. I find black kits to be fairly boring, nothing against black as a color in sport but the whole "SUPER CHROME AND SUPER KEWL!!11" thing needs to go. It looks cheap.

Old vs. New Goaltender Kit: Another toss up, but I'm gonna go and say that Puma pulled their heads out of their rears for the new kit and let the color reflect itself nicely. The old one looks good, but it looked a lot better in sky blue. Advantage New

Chelsea:

This Year's Provider: Adidas
Best Kit: Away Kit
Worst Kit: Goaltender Kit

Last Year's Provider: Adidas
Best Kit: Away Kit
Worst Kit: Third Kit

Improvement?: No.

Adidas is a weird company. They'll create a rock simple identity with absolutely nothing blemishing or garnishing it, then follow it up with ALL OF THE NEW AND WEIRD DESIGNS!

Yeah. I don't get it either.

Old vs New Home Kit: The Old kit is absolutely no frills for the blues. Lotta blue, little white to accent it, the stripes of Adidas just to remind you that yes, they did indeed put this together and there ain't a goddamn thing you can do about it. The new kit adds a whole new shade of blue and added increasingly larger gradient lines going back to dark blue or going up to regular blue depending on how you look at it. It's not a bad look per se, but the Blues are the Blues, and quite frankly the simplicity of the previous kit wins out. Advantage Old.

Old vs. New Away Kit: Very simple kits these two, and the personal preference game goes into it. Tradition put yellow as the color for the away kit for Chelsea, and it's very well represented here, with accents of blue to keep this look even. On the other hand, the previous kit has a very lovely white with blue accenting, and a red/blue pencil thin hoop across the chest. Both are very solid but I'm oft very confused by the red stripe. I know red IS in the badges color scheme, but it's so minor that it's inclusion seems a bit out of place. For this reason, Advantage New.

Old vs. New Third Kit: Remember that whole "NEW INNOVATIVE DESIGNS" thing I mentioned here? This is almost the entire principle of it. A black kit, not a wholly interesting kit but it's not awful. It's pretty well done and Adidas does a good job on keeping it from being wholly generic. The new kit is...odd. Not odd in the good way. It adds an unnecessary element that...doesn't even make a whole lot of sense. What the hell ARE these lines exactly? Soundwaves? Earthquake readings? In comparison, the busyness doesn't do a whole lot to point out that somebody is trying DESPERATELY to impress here. Advantage Old.

Old vs. New Goaltender Kit: What the hell are you doing, Adidas. A yellow and black kit looks fairly utilitarian but it's a solid look. The new one?...what the...what is even...WHAT ARE YOU DOING. It's like the designers met with Abrohimovich and what follows created that:

Abrohimovich: "We're really taking off as a club in recent time, i'd really like it if that reflected in our goal kit, if that's alright."
Adidas: "DOES THAT MEAN YOU WANT YOUR GOALTENDER TO LOOK LIKE A BIRD?"
Abrohimovich: "Well...It's alright if you INVOKE a bird's essence into the finished product, but I figure just something that looks like it's..well..soaring, might work."
Adidas: "ESSENCE OF BIRD...FEATHERS. YOU WANT FEATHERS ON YOUR KIT?"
Abrohimovich: "No no no...well, not really...I mean...I want it to invoke something flying but I wouldn't want it all over the kit. That'd be daft. The third kit is uh...well...daring enough as it is. How about just something for the upper chest then."
Adidas: "GOT IT. FEATHERS ON THE TOP HALF OF THE KIT, BUT NOT ACTUAL FEATHERS, IS THIS CORRECT?"
Abrohimovich: "...Yes?"
Adidas: "WE WILL HAVE YOUR DESIGN IN THREE WEEKS. ALL IN FOR CHELSEA FC"

Advantage Old.

Crystal Palace:

This Year's Provider: Macron
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: Away Kit

Last Year's Provider: Avec
Best Kit: Away Kit
Worst Kit: N/A

Improvement?: Yes

Say what you will of Crystal Palace. This year, they'll be impossible to not notice. Having dropped Avec for a more conventional sponsor in Macron, the company set to work on putting a more striking look together.

Old vs. New Home kit: Blue and Red are searing colors. And putting them right next to each other is a real challenge without making it look terrible. Granted, both follow a very simple principle: This is going to be very bright so we might as well see how much we can push this. And I don't think Avec did a bad job on this kit per se. It's a very simple half red half blue with the sleeves matching the other side, and yellow collar and sleeve lining. What puts the new over for me is the fact that while yes, it is much more bright and a bit harsh to look at...it's also very cohesive. Almost every part of the design loops into itself in someway.The red strips connect to the bottom of the shirt, the blue stripes create the collar...it's a very cohesive thing. Advantage New

Old vs. New Away Kit: Say what you will of their form as I've said, at least you will see them this year. It will be impossible to not notice them. The bright searing yellow/cyan combo will burn into your eye sockets and all the way through the back of your head. The Avec look by comparison looks fairly subtle by comparison. A black kit largely, but that blue/red sash looks very snazzy and its a look not many have either been able to pull off or consider, and they look fantastic as a result. Advantage Old

Old vs New Goaltender Kit: More of the similar, but I think the paler green really helps the black stand out in the newer one. It's there in the Avec kit, don't get me wrong, but you'd be forgiven for assuming it wasn't, as it barely creeps across the top of the shoulder from the back. Advantage New.

Everton:

This Year's Provider: Umbro
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: N/A

Last Year's Provider: Nike
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: Goaltender Kit

Improvement?: Yes.

Our first Umbro kit, first of a few. Umbro are professionals at making dead simple kits for teams with even more dead simple looks. And nowhere does "dead simple looks" apply better than Everton.

Old vs. New Home Kit: As the other team calling themselves the blues (though I've heard Toffees and The People's Club a little more), it's pretty clear to see where Everton's going with either look. Lotta blue, little white to even it out. Not a whole lot of frills, but the sponsor on the front is pretty snazzy, right? Well, where Nike tries to keep it a little interesting, Umbro says "No frills whatsoever." That kit is Blue with some smidgens of black, and I think this new look is stark in it's...lack of any ornamentation. Just some small lines here and there and that's it. Pretty ballsy. I like it. Advantage New.

Old vs. New Away Kit: Nike went for a more "WE ADDED YELLER AND YER GONNA LIKE IT YOU TWITS" response to their aways. It was poorly received. If the marketing manager, sponsorship, and the previous crest all get canned in under a year, you know you all have screwed up. The yellow is strong in this one, and it....looks kind of like the USA jersey. Nice templating, bro. Meanwhile, the Black Watch has returned for Umbro. Stark black. I know I said earlier I'm not a tremendous fan but....dang, that history helps validate it. And with a name like the "Black Watch"? That's cool. Advantage New.

Old vs. New 3rd kit: Uhh...Nike? Third kit means You need to try to make it stand out. Now granted, the Umbro kit doesn't do a whole lot of that due to Umbro's idea of "No frills. Just colors." but at the VERY LEAST...it has a somewhat different setup to the previous kit. Advantage New.

Old vs New Goaltender Kit: Nike proved that they still have some work to do in this department, as an otherwise okay black kit is made confusing because....well....WHY ARE THE SLEEVES HALF PURPLE!? The Yellow is bright, noticeable and of course, unblemeshed. UMBRO WILL HAVE NONE OF YOUR "DECORATION" SHIT. Advantage New.

Hull City:

This Year's Provider: Umbro
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: Away Kit

Last Year's Provider: Adidas
Best Kit: Home Kit
Worst Kit: Away Kit

Improvement?: Sideways Progress.

I feel bad for Hull supporters. Their beloved "Hull City AFC" and "The Tigers" were stricken from their shield because their owner is a whiny infant, and by doing so...they unintentionally made their club look very very generic. The switch over to Umbro didn't help matters in this regard.

Old vs. New Home Kit: Not gonna lie. This is a bit of a toss up because in reality both are pretty good. I don't particularly care for the sponsor sticking their logo on the center of the shirt. Your place is on the other side of the badge, you arrogant prick. On top of that, the orange either seems full...or plain dull. Maybe it's the overemphasis of black, but it seems to be paler than the new. The New looks full and rich, brighter and holds to light better. Advantage New.

Old vs New Away Kit: ...These kits suck. Both of them. They are generic in very similar ways. The old one looks like...and I am not being hyperbolic here, a kit you'd give to a youth academy. It's the right combo of colors and elements to look perfectly generic. The new one isn't much better. With the all black with a tad of orange, they do allow their logo to stand out! ...Which is now so perfectly void of ANYTHING other than a tiger, a number, and a shield it manages to look impressively generic. The only reason the new kit gets anything positive is the hints of orange. Otherwise, both of these can go straight to hell. Advantage New...barely.

Later, we finish the Premiere league, starting with another addition from the Championship. Thank you for reading!

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