Kit Round Up 15 June

Wow – its been quite an eventful few weeks in the football kit world. Prompted by the buzz that comes about this time of the year when new kits are launched I’ve resurrected what I hope will be a weekly round up of kit news and a couple of topics of interest. One of the things that slows down the process of adding new posts is producing kit illustrations but with an eagerness to discuss with you all whats happening at the moment I’ve decided to plough on without always necessarily a full suite of accompanying illustrations.

Right….first on the agenda…

Liverpool 13-14 kits

Goodness me – whats going on at Warrior?! Has there ever been a more schizophrenic approach to kit design that what is emerging from these previously relatively unknown company? This year’s strips are following a similar vein to last: classy, respectful, understated home kit clearly constructed by people that have an understanding at what makes a good football outfit. This is accompanied by, lets be frank, a complete dogs dinner of an away outfit.

I must state I have no aversion to bold, controversial designs. Designs that challenge the thinking of the average football fan and re-write the rule books as to what a good kit should be are to be applauded as far as I’m concerned. I’m also ready for a return to patterned designs that liven up a kit world that has in the past decade or so been dominated by single colour, plain designs. Clearly the competition with sponsors, manufacturers logos and ever intrusive competition sleeve patches is growing but a well considered, thought through and skillfully rendered pattern on a shirt can really add something to a strip.

Unfortunately Liverpool’s recently launched away kit (and if the leaked photos are to be believed, the third as well) have none of these qualities. They are quite frankly a mess ‘plumped up’ by ridiculous PR/marketing spin that attempts to justify the design. The red neck is apparently inspired by the red v-neck of the classic Liverpool away kit of the late 70s/early 80s – nonsense! Its red. Thats where the similarity ends. The garish pattern at the bottom of the shirt is inspired by the club’s late 80s silver away kit – nonsense! Both include a diamond shape. Thats where the similarity ends. Top all this off with dated red flashes, mismatched manufacturers logo and club badge and you have a very poor kit indeed.

My biggest problem with all of this though, as my Twitter follows will no doubt testify, is the complete lack of unity between all three of the club’s kits this year. OK, not every away shirt has to be a reversed version of the home but there should always be some sense that they belong to the same set of kits for the same team in the same sport. Warrior’s away kit is so alien to the home it could easily belong in another sporting sphere altogether.

I have heard that the home kit and the away/third kits have been designed by different design teams within Warrior. This doesn’t surprise me and goes some way to explain the lack of cohesion between the strips. I’ve also heard that the person responsible for the away kit ‘left’ Warrior a month or so ago. My suspicion is that everyone knows this is a very ill-considered and amateurish design but the process has progressed so far there was no way back. Either way, all of this reflects very badly on Warrior and the club themselves for rubber stamping this strip.

Its not often I speak so forthrightly about a kit as I try to look for the good in all designs and as a graphic design fully realise that design is subjective – there is no right or wrong. But….I am struggling to see the good in Liverpool’s approach to kit selection. I would love an opportunity to find out from the horse’s mouth quite what the strategy is behind these designs.

Fan Power

Whether its testament to truly bad decisions or simply a reflection of the growing power of social media, there has been several instances in recent weeks of supporters standing up to, demanding and GETTING change to kit decisions.

Everton badge – the new Everton crest doesn’t work in my view. It appears to have been designed without any flair or dynamism and appears to be simply a few elements plonked within a shield. Apparently it draws inspiration from history (the old PR spin that is often wheeled out to appease supporters) but in fact omits several key elements beloved to Toffeemen –  the latin motto and the wreaths. Apart from the fact that as a brand the design is weak, its the fact that no consultation with Everton supporters has occurred is what has caused problems. Everton fans spoke out and after a 22,000 people signed an online petition the club have agreed to review the badge for 2014-15. Everything has progressed too far for them to withdraw it for 2013-14. If they had previewed the change some months ago before the promotional/marketing machinations kicked in I am sure it wouldn’t have been approved.

cardiff-h-13-14Cardiff City Shorts – Following the furore of the club’s switch to red last year  the club were planning to do battle in the Premier League for the first time (did the red work?!) in a two tone red design. I’ve often thought different tones of the same colour could work in a kit, provided its handled correctly. This doesn’t appear to be the case with Cardiff as the red shirt is unbalanced and unsettled by a darker tone of red shorts. The fans again were in uprorar and the club backtracked, allowing a vote for supporters to choose on what colour shorts would best suit the shirt. The options were white, black, or red (in the same shade as the jersey). The fact that most Cardiff fans would probably vote for white shorts (provided its accompanied by a BLUE shirt) will be food for thought for Cardiff’s owners.

bolton-h-13-14Bolton Wanderers Sponsor – Like so many people I am unsettled by the growing prescence of ‘payday loan’ companies. And I can only imagine the unease of Newcastle and Hearts fans considering buying their team’s new shirts adored with a large Wonga logo. It was then very refreshing to see that Bolton Wanderers have backtracked on their decision to go with Quickquid as their sponsor for 13-14. Again this was due to fan pressure and comments made by local and national politicians. Top marks to Bolton for taking this route of action and for understanding the feelings of the community. Unfortunately the logo of new sponsor FibrLec, a company set up to commercialise the University of Bolton’s smart material, should really have gone through some alteration and enhancement to work efficiently on the new shirt but never mind!

Middlesbrough Sponsor

Speaking of sponsors logos causing a problem on the shirt, another example of fan power influencing aesthetic decisions came at the Riverside where Middlesbrough sponsors Ramsden agreed to tone down the impact of their logo. It seems Boro supporters felt the large green block was overly intrusive on the jersey. Now the Ramsden brand is represented by a much neater white logotype. I personally didn’t have a major problem with the original but its interesting to note that people were aggreived by the visual appearance of a colour other than their own.

Design by committee does not often work. I know this from experience. However football clubs, in many ways, ‘belong’ to the fans. Representatives should be consulted in some way about key designs to avoid these sort of issues.

Thats it for now – loads more to discuss but if I went on any more I’m sure you wouldn’t get to the end of the post! Let me have your views on the above and the way kit design is shaping up for 2013-14.

1,357 Replies to “Kit Round Up 15 June

  1. John,
    Excellent as ever. I totally agree with your views about the Liverpool away. When I saw it for the first time I couldn’t believe my eyes…It looks to me like mid 90’s Umbro, when they went through a strange period of psychedelic trim, completely at odds with the rest of the strip. I’m sure most Liverpool fans would wish for a more sedate white/black/white away, with a yellow third, but apparently the third kit is going to be purple and black, so who knows!
    Cardiff shorts: As I’ve commented before on these pages, two tones of red CAN work. There was a Kappa home kit for 1.FC Kaiserslautern a few years ago that had reversed seams acting as the barrier between the two colours, with the darker red beginning on the side panels and continuing seamlessly onto the shorts, and an adidas kit for Hamburger SV’s away shirt that did a similar thing. I’m still not ‘OK’ with the thought of the ‘Bluebirds’ playing in red, but at least black shorts will co-ordinate better. Another cracking template from Puma, too.
    Fan power: As a fan of Bayern Munchen, I can say that the club / adidas do listen to feedback from the fans. Apparently the metallic gold / anthracite away of 04/06 and the all navy away of 08/10 were not so popular, so both colours haven’t been used on the away strips since. Bayern seem to favour white aways, but who knows, maybe they’ll do a swap in a year or two to freshen things up. After all, the dark Euro shirts have all been big sellers.
    New kits: With the exception of Warrior, it looks like we’re in for a golden season. Even Macron, who I have been a critic of recently, have done a smart pair of kits for Aston Villa. The home is retro without being dated, and the away is an unusual colour choice that I think works well. The fit looks better, too – last season their kits seemed to overly baggy. adidas have come out with some smart kits, and our home, with the Bavarian diamond shadow pattern, is a smart piece of design. Chelsea’s home too, is very classy (although I agree with Denis’ comment elsewhere that it should have had red as a trim to co-ordinate better with the gorgeous away). Don’t like Man Utd’s new home – and the marketing gumph about it being a tribute to Cantona’s mid 90’s upturned collars is insulting. For a start, its button down. But at least they’ve toned the Gingham down! Man City’s home is a different matter – as a new contract for Nike, it was an important kit, but they’ve pulled it off. Overall, some encouraging signs of a slight return to form for Nike after a few bad years.

  2. It’s so long since I saw the mock of the Liverpool away kit that it’s almost lost its power to appall. It’s vaguely reminiscent of a old Middlesbrough away kit from the 90s – Leeds had something similar in blue and yellow too.

    My concern about Warrior’s away kits so far, apart from their being absolutely hideous, is that they haven’t provided sufficient ‘change’ when used. We’ve had to mix and match shorts and socks which is completely unacceptable when you have three kits to choose from. In short, the kits are simply not good enough.

  3. Ultimately, although Liverpool fans pointed out that the Warrior deal was worth more money to the club than the adidas one, at least adidas provided some logical solutions…Their first kit upon returning to Liverpool in 2006 was white and green away with a yellow third. I know it’s a constant irritant of TC discussions, but I totally agree – the rumoured Liverpool third kit DOES NOT offer a viable contrast – although it is darker, the psychedelic vomit all over the bottom of the away shirt actually makes it appear much darker than it is, meaning we will be moaning next season when, at Villa Park or Upton Park, for example, none of the kits will offer a complete solution. Sigh…

  4. Interesting to note only 16 teams out of the 92 Premier League/Football league teams have shirts made by British brands for next season.
    Sondico have 5, Vandanel have 2, Avec have 2 while Carbrini, Kukri, Samurai, TAG, Tempest, MiFit and Mitre have 1 each

    Nike, Adidas and Puma have 50 contracts between them. Errea, Joma, Fila, Macron, Diadora, Under Armour, Lotto, Kappa, Warrior have 26 contracts. The British companies have the remaining 16

    No Umbro, Admiral, Bukta or Reebok in sight

  5. As a Manchester United fan i’m dreading Warrior kits! Rumour is they want the contract when its up with Nike and are prepared to pay big bucks.
    The West Ham away looks great by the way.Proper old school shirt.

  6. Watching the FIFA Confederations Cup at the moment and couldn’t help but notice the mismatch of Mexico’s kit because of some stupid FIFA regulation which has come in ever since World Cup 2006. Green shirt, red shorts and red socks, against Italy in all white. So what was wrong with Mexico wearing white shorts and Italy having blue shorts, like it was when they played each other in World Cup 2002?

    The FIFA kit police have gone over the top, next we will possibly see all teams in Brazil 2014 wearing one colour (shirt, shorts and socks) kits!

  7. @ Fred (#11) The contrasting rule doesn’t bug me so much but the choice of colours by the teams in avoiding clashes does. Surely Mexico should have Green shorts and socks in such a scenario. A green top with red and red just doesnt look right. Perhaps if they wore a white top with red shorts and socks then it wouldnt be so bad (With Italy reverting to Azzurri colours) but that combo last night was utterly horrendous

  8. It’s the consistency that bugs me. For some games, great lengths are gone to to avoid any clash at all, yet the Euro 2012 final was between two dark-shirted teams and the ’08 final had a shorts clash.

    Incidentally, despite all of the perceived clashes, Germany never seem to wear their home shirts with anything other than black shorts and white socks.

    Was this (1978) the last time they modified their home kit?
    http://www.tz-online.de/bilder/2009/11/10/524632/2069738165-trikots-deutschland-3R09.jpg

  9. That game from the 1978 WC was odd. Why didn’t Mexico wear Green cocks to avoid a clash? They would have matched their shirts and its a combo the wore in another group game anyway.

  10. I think FIFA are O.T.T. with their policing of kits, this block colour nonsense is one of the most absurd policies on equipment I’ve seen. I’m certain they will put it down to TV purposes but I never had an issue watching, for example blue/white/blue vs white/blue/white in the past.

  11. First, i don’t think the Liverpool away is as bad as people make out. (if the leaked third is legitimate then that is vile). Secondly i always thought there was a designated home team in world cups. Yet there are so many examples of both teams changing. one match in 74. Saw Brazil play in blue and Holland in orange. also why did England not wear white shorts against Argentina? Bugs me to this day that kit.

  12. That was completely bonkers…where was the logic? For a start both kits in their first choice configurations don’t clash AT ALL; then both change shorts? Back in the ‘good old days’ (sounding old now!) a team only changed shorts if there was a DIRECT clash…so what is all this about? Germany never change their shorts these days, so if they play a team in dark blue / black shorts next year, will FIFA make them wear their away kit, just because?

  13. By the way, re. leaked pics of ‘all white’ Germany home : Don’t think it’s accurate. The silver stripes and adidas logo, probably yes (so it appears at a distance like they’re not there, thereby going for a retro look); but the trim? not likely. If adidas are going for a retro look (40 years since the ’74 World Cup win), then it’ll either be plain black round collar or have gold trim on it – all German kits going back to the mid 80’s have had some representation of the tricolour somewhere.

  14. …And – the ’74 World Cup was the last time they wore white change shorts in a tournament (against Poland), so the leaked images might be showing the AWAY shorts, which if the away shirt has silver stripes on it will mix and match seamlessly.

  15. Denis,
    Sorry to be pedantic, but…The ’02 home shirt had a horizontal strip of trim showing the colours of the flag on the back, underneath the collar and above the player’s name. Plus, the three stars marking the World Cup wins were (L-R) black, red, and yellow. The trim technique was repeated on the away shirt, which was a curious shade of grey/green, coupled with white shorts.

  16. Didn’t realise that Martyn.

    The new Celtic home has the green hoops split into seven smaller hoops, in honour of great number 7s.

    Interestingly, the official press release (which has since been corrected on the club website), mentioned Jimmy Johnstone as being a wearer of the “famous no. 7 shirt”.

  17. New kits coming out in the Bundesliga – some gorgeous efforts so far. Plus Augsburg have an interesting approach to kit unveilings…Search for ‘Augsburg unveil 13/14 home, away and third shirts’ and see what I mean…

  18. Re. Cardiff kit and mismatched shorts – Jako have released the Hannover 96 home kit today, which is dark red with light trim on the shirt, light red shorts with reversed trim, and dark and light red socks. And it works, unlike the Mark 1 Cardiff kit. Jako have done some seriously nice kits recently.

  19. Dont mind the Celtic home shirt.Good to have it altered.Even rangers have moved away from just blue from time to time.

    Liverpool might own the ugliest away kit of the season in 2013/14. Its like a style that has mixed the arcade games Space Invaders and Phoenix.

    Home kit aside warrior has been a disaster for the pool.

    Looking at the rest of Europe I doubt there is much Joma love around here but Valencia’s home and away kits are nice. The away kit may not be to everyones taste but I like it.

    http://www.footballshirtculture.com/13/14-kits/valencia-cf-2013-2014-joma-home-football-shirt.html
    http://www.footballshirtculture.com/13/14-kits/valencia-cf-2013-2014-joma-away-football-shirt.html

  20. Valencia kits are nice – prefer the away though, because the crest is coloured, whereas it doesn’t look right on the home in black and white – Joma are another company (like Jako) that are maybe not as well known – but should be.

  21. It doesn’t matter which site I go onto, there seems to be a lot of over the top hate for adidas’ 13/14 templates. Why? to me they’re all nice – the two as illustrated above, the lopsided chest yoke as used on the Swansea away, and the ‘big V’ which is being used on a lot of their teams. If we all follow John’s logic above, about daring trim that draws a line before getting too garish, then I’d say they fit the bill. Has anyone seen Schalke 04’s third? Gorgeous (looks like a standard template until you look closer at all the extra bits of detail). And the West Ham home is stunning – everything I think Hammers fans hoped for when the contract was announced. So come on people – where’s the love for adidas?

  22. I don’t mind the adidas stuff Martin, although I’m not a fan of the two-tiered system.

    Interesting approach by Stockport County (one of the last teams left with Umbro!) this season – the home is the traditional blue shirts and white shorts, but the away kit is harking back to the Argentina-style worn in the early 80s, and will literally be an away kit, as Portsmouth did in 2003-04.

    There is a gold third kit to solve clashes.

  23. Warrior have excelled themselves with the new Liverpool thirt strip. Odd socks! One has a purple turnover and the other a back turnover. Truly awful, I bet Wearethetwins love it!

  24. Having just seen the new Liverpool kit released on the official club website I quickly searched ‘True Colours football kits’ to find out what your take was, John. I wasn’t disappointed! You’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head, quite how the away and third kit designs made it beyond the drawing board is beyond me. Surely they have market research to test the designs with fans? Clearly not.

    John, have you ever done, or considered, a post about the worst kits of all time? If not, I think you’ve found a couple of top contenders this season.

  25. With this, the ubiquitousness of Nike teamwear and Brazil wearing white shorts, I’m left quite depressed by kits at the moment. Thank goodness Arsenal are getting a nice away strip.

  26. I like Brazil in white shorts, as I’ve said before.

    What made the Cardiff shorts look terrible was the white trim on the shirt. If accents/trim on the shirt had all been in the darker red (badges/sponsor could’ve stayed white) then the shorts would have looked fine and fitted in nicely.

  27. Jay,
    As I said before, check out the new Hannover 96 strip – two tone red throughout, with no other colour on the whole strip except from the sponsors logo and the badge. Works well IMO.
    Be interested to see what John thinks about the Liverpool third…Quite possibly THE worst kit I have EVER seen (even worse than the away, if that was possible). For a start it’s a horribly mismatched shirt, the purple added almost as an afterthought…nothing works, the trim and colours seemingly thrown at it in the vain hope that they might work. However, all of that pales in comparison to the socks…Hideous, truly hideous. Whoever dreamed up the ‘bruised banana’ kit at adidas in the early ’90’s can sleep at last, because Warrior have topped it.
    Twice.

  28. @Jay – does the kit pass muster with black shorts, in your view?

    I’ve come to the conclusion that the Warrior designers are p***ing themselves laughing at the outrage, wondering how they can top it next season

  29. @42…

    Surely showing the kits to fans for feedback would be strange as it’s leaking them out…

  30. Denis, a big fat “Meh”. I s’pose red shirt with black shorts is their “traditional” look as the Cardiff Red Dragons or whatever they’re called now.

    I don’t think anyone’s laughing, Denis. John has some insight but this is not a cause for hilarity. An ugly kit will sell, an ugly kit that’s confirmed ugly by the media at large probably won’t do very well at all, I wager.

  31. It’s not ugly, it’s BEYOND ugly…It is in a new galaxy of ugliness…
    I can’t believe people still slag adidas off if Warrior produce monstrosities like this…Seriously? What is wrong with templates if ‘unique’ kits featuring psychedelic vomit or migraine inducing socks crawl out of the woodwork?
    I will never again criticise the use of gingham ever again (especially as a lover of German football with BVB’s new home shirt carrying a checked shadow pattern…).

  32. I like the return of navy shorts, wouldn’t be keen on the neck design and would prefer a yellow away, but very nice overall.

    I like the new Arsenal away, though I’d prefer wider hoops on the socks and I hate the new font for cup competitions

  33. You’re quite correct Andrew, that’s one to chuckle at on Thursday nights, or maybe even get everyone at WHL cheering about when Arsenal don’t concede a goal.

    I also liked how Spurs’ navy is the darkest ever to ramp up the monochrome look in honour of the last title victory being in black and white.

  34. Excellent sentiment from Under Armour to bring out a monochrome strip to celebrate those Tottenham title wins from all those years ago (just the two, I believe….). My own opinion is that it looks like a baseball shirt which is not a good thing at all. Arsenal away in yellow and (the correct) royal blue is, of course, fabulous.

  35. Like the new Spurs kit but that collar is just odd…And before everyone starts picking on them, just think how Pompey or Huddersfield fans feel!

  36. Forever in our shadow? I think you’ll find each club has had periods of dominance over the other. I recall several baron spells for the Woolwich Nomads when Spurs ruled the roost.

  37. Best PL kits so far: West Ham home (adidas); West Ham away (adidas); Aston Villa home (Macron); Man City home (Nike)…

  38. Only a photo that shows about half of it…looks pretty good though. I’ve always had a soft spot for 70’s style twin side bars or sashes – the new Wolfsburg home is a stunner, too (white with black trim and a green sash). My favourite Bayern kit from the 60’s and 70’s is the white one with the red and blue side bar and trim (brought back as a Euro kit by adidas in 95/96 – but the original is best)…Similarly, Borussia Monchengladbach’s early 70’s kit with a green and black side bar is a timeless classic too.

  39. West Ham’s kit are simply stunning, a green and white version of them would have been stunning for a hibs kit but sadly we’re lumbered with poor Nike teamwear

    Going to make a brave statement by saying that I don’t find the Liverpool change shirts to be that bad, there’s something about them that I like, however they should have been paired with more sensible shorts and socks for example if the white shirt was paired with plain black shorts and if the third didnt have those ludicrous socks with different coloured turnovers

    Glad to see Spurs back to what in my mind is a ‘proper’ combination with navy shorts and socks, not a fan of white socks and especially white shorts

    And in line with my against the grain opinion of the Liverpool change kits I also quite like the Adidas ‘bat wing’ template that seems to have had a bit of a bashing

    Another kit I’m a big fan of is the Swansea away good to see something different tried

    I’m shocked at myself at my thoughts as I’d normally consider myself a traditionalist!

  40. I like the new adidas templates, so I’ve been swimming against the tide too – glad to hear someone else thinks as I do!
    The Liverpool kits are an example of a designer ‘over egging’ by adding too much additional trim. However, the comparative similarity between the two away kits is again a worry, just like last season. That heavy patterning at the bottom of the away shirt will make it very dark, meaning that unless Warrior come up with an alternative pair of shorts, we’re going to have the ‘double clash’ syndrome again. But those socks are the worst I have ever seen…

  41. Just had to do a double-take. I know these are merely friendly games but just noticed that Singha All-stars wore Nike against Manchester United and Adidas against Chelsea. Maybe the home team’s kits were supplied by the away opposition!?

  42. Saw a snippet of the Chelsea v Malaysia friendly earlier – could have sworn Mark Schwarzer was playing as an outfield player for Malaysia!

  43. Anyone see the Copa Libertadores final second leg? For me, a pretty bad clash which I’d liken to club Gaelic football. Black and white stripes, black shorts and white socks plays white shirt with black horizontal band on front, white shorts and black socks.

    http://goo.gl/fbK5HH

    The socks were reversed in the first leg which made it just about ok but it’s terrible that the Champions League final equivalent is burdened with an overall clash.

  44. You are always gonna get clashes in Brazil, 6 of the 20 clubs in last seasons top flight wear white shirts the 14 others all have white away shirts.

    Also 6 of the sides have black or black & white striped shirts

  45. Just caught the last knockings of the Bayern Munich v Barcelona kickabout the other night. Both teams showcasing new away kits. I noticed that the new Bayern shirt is still carrying 4 stars above the crest, each (I thought) representing their European Cup / Champions League wins. Now, I might be barking up the wrong tree but shouldn’t there be 5 stars now??

  46. Without bothering to check, Ronan, I’d guess it’s 40+ German titles. Isn’t there a rule about not having stars denoting European Cup wins in domestic competition? I may be wrong.

    Andrew, it was a Brazilian team against a Paraguayan team. Regardless, some teams wearing white and others having a white change kit isn’t reason enough to put up with clashes.

    Going back to the Bayern-Barça game, both teams changing is massively annoying. UNLESS Barça view that Catalunya shirt as an alternate “Home” which they intend to wear against Real. Now THAT would be cool.

  47. Ronan,
    Bayern were awarded a fourth star by the DFB (German FA) in 2008 for winning 20 Bundesliga titles. The allocation is 3 titles = 1 star; 5 titles = 2 stars; 9 titles = 3 stars; 20 titles = 4 stars. Dortmund and Monchengladbach both carry 2 stars above their badges for 5 titles, and Stuttgart and Hamburger SV have 1.
    Schalke and Nurnberg were both a bit miffed when the DFB announced the system because they won the old Deutscher Meister titles (forerunner of the Bundesliga) enough times to earn stars, but the DFB said that only Bundesliga titles counted.
    As far as the kits go, I think it was just the case of both clubs unveiling new kits in a suitable friendly…In an actual competitive game I think Barca would wear their third shirt, which as Scott says I believe is going to be black.

  48. What happens when Everton play at Chelsea? Err, get beaten is probably the most realistic answer.

    Strangely that Nike design looks uncannily like one introduced by Adidas last season and will be used by Fulham for their away strip (red, white on top) – which, ironically, has a lot of the white at the top. Yet the Daily Fail decided not to mention it – presumably because Fulham aren’t a “northern club outside its readership demographic” I’d imagine? Shoddy journalism!

  49. A rotten article by the mail! Definitely agree with the Liverpool kits John. The 3rd is bizarre, looks like a child created it using fuzzy felt. There is nothing wrong with patterned kits but Liverpool need a proper yellow one again. Too many black kits in the Prem these days.

  50. I would think even Nike would have a yellow change short for this type of situation…I like the kit though. Personally the biggest concern is what on earth Liverpool/Man Utd/West Brom are going to do when they play Palace this season…

  51. love the everton away and i will whisper it quietly but like the new badge…
    does it have too much blue on it?

    United are retaining last years white as a third kit so have a good range of kits to avoid any clashes.

  52. Yellow shorts and no problem at all, or last years black kit as a third, terrible article, no way would I consider that shirt to have too much blue it to mean a clash with Chelsea, as ridiculous as the ‘sleeve clash’ between Aston Villa and West Ham a few years back

  53. E137 – Think the fuss about the new badge was to do with removing the club motto and the laurel wreathes. Probably a little ill advised, and maybe putting the motto on the back of the collar would have worked better, but I don’t really see that much of a problem…clubs change their badges all the time. My club, Bayern Munchen, have changed their club crest several times, though not since the late 60’s (unless you count removing the e.V from the club badge, which was done in 2002).
    Going back to the strip, there is such a large area of yellow that only the shorts will be a problem – but given the recent over fussiness about shorts, who knows? some of the bizarre (FIFA) imposed changes in the Confederation Cup, maybe they will make Chelsea change too…

  54. It will be fine for away games at City, Villa & West Ham, they could also wear it against Brighton or Sheffield Wed in a cup game. They’ll obviously wear the third kit for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

  55. I’m sure West Brom’s away kit from last season a darker shade of red with navy trim, but anyway it seems rather curious of them to register an all-red third kit considering how much red is in their away kit. And in the same Adidas template as the away kit they just replaced.

    Shame they didn’t take the opportunity to re-use their home and away kit template in yellow and green to revive an old favourite change kit from the 70’s. Certainly would have solved any clashing problems.

  56. Yeah you could be right Denis. The first world cup in a while where Adidas doesnt supply the hosts kit (Italia 90 the last I think)

  57. On the subject of addidas templates. did any other team British or otherwise ever wear the same template as man utd 1984-1986. the one with the white shoulder panel.

  58. Just thought you all might like to know about the changes to the Premier League badges and numbering for this upcoming season:

    ttp://www.soccerloco.com/blog/soccer-news/english-premier-league/weight-premier-league-lettering-numbering-modernized/

    So flock numbering and lettering is no more. It seems a real shame, as I’m a huge fan of the current design, especially when executed so beautifully in flock material. Oh well.

  59. ciaran/Dennis,
    USA in ’94 wore adidas – it was the bizarre denim blue one with the white stars, paired with red shorts (not one of adidas’ finest efforts).
    E137,
    I think that one in that form was unique to Man Utd – Bayern and Hamburger SV had a similar design the following season, but it was a straight white line (used on the away kit in HSV’s case) with no trim that was a bit lower down, and when seen from a distance, a bit thicker, could almost be this seasons ‘wing’ template.

  60. hmm, so Villa wore their white and “blackcurrant” kit at Arsenal today, I’d have expected them to wear the lime green kit to be honest.

    what you make of that one Denis? clash or no clash?

  61. Just a quick question – why so much hate for adidas in 13/14? Not neccessarily on this site, but there seems to be a lot of vitriol aimed at the marque, particularly the ‘wings’ template. I understand it’s a bit ubiquitous, particularly in England, but is it really so bad? Templates have always been around, have always been (mostly) interchangeable, so what IS the problem? I would say in the entire history of the PL, there hasn’t been a single season where some elements of various kits didn’t crop up elsewhere (maybe a few of Man Utd’s kits in the Umbro days), unless of course we’re talking ‘one shot’ suppliers like Dri-Fit and the like. So I get it, people don’t like the ‘wings’, but what is worse, that template, or the Nike ‘two tone’ and ‘Kimono neck’ ones (used on Barca’s and Man Utd’s away respectively last year and now the ‘teamwear’ templates)? As a Bundesliga follower, there are not many worse kits than the two new Freiburg ones for this season…

  62. I just thought on paper logically speaking if claret and blue clashes with Arsenal, then what about claret and white….. though given that it’s “blackcurrant” and white, a pinkier shade, well, yes. Though I was unsure about ÄŒech wearing yellow and black against Hull yesterday, considering he’s got last season’s green kit as second choice which would have made more sense.

    Fulham’s third kit is quite good, not sure what all the backlash about this “bat wings” template is all about, it’s not that bad surely? I think their home kit isn’t too clever though, not so much the design but the decision to pair the shirt with mis-matched socks, surely white with black stripes would be better?

  63. Martyn, let me answer your question by giving my opinion on adidas.

    Firstly, let me preface what I’m about to say by stating that I love some of adidas’s recent kits. Last season’s Chelsea and Bayern home strips I really, really liked, and there have been others to win my fancy – not least the magnificent UCL-winning kit Chelsea sported in ’11-’12. Nor is my opinion measured against other manufacturers necessarily. It is simply my take on the brand as it stands.

    I’ll start by saying that on the whole I hold the conviction that as a company when it comes to football kits adidas are unbelievably complacent; of creativity, of innovation, and of variety of design they rank lowly on every count.

    Adidas, by example of its creative output over the past decade can be said to be almost wholly reliant on the strength of its brand to drive its success; that is to say, the omnipresence of its ubiquitous three stripes, and the uniformity of their application.

    Yes, adidas has received trenchant criticism over its wings template, but such criticism in its specificity misses the point: they’re ALL templates. Look at the latest Chelsea and Bayern home strips: tack on individual team badges and logos and away you go. No variety, nor semblance of creativity.

    The aforementioned Chelsea home strip of 2012 was so exquisite because it managed to merge hallmarks of the adidas brand with elements from Chelsea strips past – those in the ’80s and ’90s – as well as modern design elements and fit, a wonderful harmony. The current incarnation, while nice – yes, I actually quite like it, all said! – lacks such inspiration.

    In any case, those bemoaning the wings template strips are quite right, by any objective measure: it’s rubbish! The design itself belongs to the turn of the millennium, as does the cut of the shirt – or, if you’re being cruel, even further back than that. That adidas have lumped, well, almost all teams within their English roster with this lamentable template is insulting.

    If I could describe the attitude conveyed by adidas by way of their design output over the last few years I’d call it complacent at best, arrogant to the point of contemptuous at worst. Chelsea were issued sock designs that bore little to no difference to each other for a period of five years and four kit changes from ’05-’11 – 5 years! Hey, let’s stick three stripes on the turnover – what d’you reckon, think they’ll notice? Yeah, let’s do it!

    You’re right about templates long being a feature of kit design. Umbro have done it for decades; Puma; Nike too – the latter’s total 90 close to the nadir for that brand. But name a brand, and they’ve done it. Even the ’90s players like Asics did so. The trouble is, none has corporate branding so prominent as adidas, nor features it so frequently within templates.

    So what would I like to see? Well, less of the three stripes, for starters; perhaps their being employed more economically, or at least some variation in their use. I recall from my childhood Liverpool and Rangers strips that featured the stripes horizontally on both shirt and shorts to great effect, and incidences of their use being minimal on sock designs, too – France ’98 strips and socks circa ’05. Surely at least for the big clubs, the strength of the respective brand of both club and manufacturer should be enough to shift shirts?

    I would love to see adidas pare down the use of the famous three stripes, while retaining their usage – let’s face it, it’s a fantastic trademark. Sometimes, a shirt might not feature them at all, and their subsequent later reintroduction would bare the trace of novelty.

    It’s time for a change. Why do we let them get away with it? They’re a huge company, and have the financial muscle and clout to dedicate time and resources to create more inventive designs.

    I’ll leave you all with one thought: were adidas an emerging football brand, newly introduced into the sporting market, would you all tolerate strip designs so brazenly formulaic?

    That’s my two-penneth. Sorry about the essay! Just had to get that off my chest.

  64. Nick,
    Thanks – I do love to see a constructive debate, so here goes:
    Firstly, the Bayern shirt is entirely bespoke – it has a shadow pattern of the Bavarian diamonds, and the collar, while granted, similar to others, has a different layout of internal trim. The away shirt introduced last season was mostly bespoke too, with a standard collar but exclusive shadow stripes, and this season retained with a change in sponsor logo. And the new third kit shares its collar only with other strips – the ‘staggered’ stripe layout is unique.

    So, the three stripes…Firstly I would have to disagree with you – from 91-95 the adidas Equipment era saw the stripes represented as large blocks over the shoulder, while the stripes returned for the Euro 96 templates, though sometimes placed in unique areas – eg Spain running through the badge, and Newcastles battleship blue with the stripes added to the chest band (Palace and Fulham also used some similar designs around this time). The marque went through a dip in form until ’02, when the World Cup templates featured drastically shortened stripes. Following that, the ’04 templates ‘pointed’ the ends of the stripes into a ‘claw’ like design, and since then, the length has been steadily dialed back, allowing for ever more elaborate tournament logos.

    As a Bayern AND adidas fan, I always look for the three stripes, like a rock to cling to in a sea of mediocrity, but the simple answer is this : If people object to them so much, don’t buy them. adidas is a business like any other – if they noticed a dip in sales, they would change their strategy.

    Bear in mind, as covered elsewhere, IMO being too radical with a strategy is what did for Umbro. adidas will sell an enormous amount of shirts across their roster this season, so will have no need to change their direction. And before I hear the ‘club loyalty winning out over design sensibility’ argument, I wouldn’t buy Bayern shirts if I didn’t like the designs, colourways etc. Fan will always think with their feet (figuratively speaking).

    In closing, variety of templates is at least offered, with the ‘Big V’, ‘Wings’ and ‘Chest Stripe’ used this season – would you rather we went back to the late 70’s, with one interchangeable designs with only the colours varying? at least the different elements are mixed up these days.

    Don’t diss the three stripes!

  65. Adidas is my favourite brand (Arsenal, Cork City and Ireland all had it in 1990, my year zero!) so I see both sides here.

    Re Nick’s point about subtler branding, I think Fulham’s 01-02 efforts were good in this regard, just tiny flashes of the three stripes at the bottom of the sleeves and shorts. And Martyn, I loved Bayern’s 04-05 shirt, which didn’t have them at all!

    I would say that adidas are better than Nike in terms of templates, not least the fact that some designs offer (shock!) a third colour!

  66. Denis,
    Not to correct you, but the one you refer to was the 05/06 – the 03/05 was the Arsenal-esque all red with white sleeves. But yeah, that was a curious one, obviously designed to create the impression of a retro shirt (using the late 60’s/early 70’s badge design for one), where in fact it wasn’t actually based (directly) on any previous strip – the white shorts and socks also being a curious anomaly. adidas obviously had second thoughts, as in it’s second year of use it was radically remodelled, adding the three stripes, restoring the modern badge, and doing away with the white shorts and socks, returning to red. Personally one of my favourites would be the 07/08 with the three white bands on the front.
    If you’re talking the Republic of Ireland, I loved the away strip from the ’94 World Cup, with the orange trimmed green stripes fading out halfway down. A stunning piece of design, and much more subtle, and stylish, ironically than Germany’s own from then.

  67. Hi Martyn,

    On your first point – yes, the shadow trim featured on Bayern’s current home is a nice touch, but my point is that the central elements of the design, i.e. collar, trim, stripes, are essentially identical to the Chelsea home. The details you mention are mere window dressing around the main template, which in itself, on a superficial level, isn’t greatly different to the templates of the ’70s.

    I don’t see the adidas ’90s era as any kind of halcyon years – far from it. The templates that marred WC ’94 are pretty monstrous, as well as the proliferation of template kits in itself; and that France and Rangers shared EXACTLY the same shirt design appalling. But that was very much the way the brand operated during the ’90s. In fact, there isn’t a single era that I would deem ‘golden’ for the brand in terms of design, or in underling my examples. In citing those Liverpool and Rangers strips, I was merely pointing out instances where adidas were at least willing to play around with the positioning and usage of the iconic three stripes, if not remove them altogether.

    Both you Denis cite strips that underline my point about subtler branding, even if used as a template across a variety of strips – the Newcastle ‘denim’ shirt of the Dalglish era, and that Fulham home of the first PL campaign – welcome experimentation.

    Your penultimate paragraph neatly underlines the very complacency of which I speak. Does the fact that people still buy adidas’ produced shirts in huge numbers excuse a lack of creativity? Thousands of WBA fans will purchase this season’s home strip, yet it doesn’t mean it’s any good. I share your attitude towards buying kits – but are most people as discerning? Fans can be sheep when it comes to this kind of thing. Look at some of the fans of my team, Manchester City. Willing to fork out in the region of £50 for a vastly inferior product, one that pulls all to easily. Granted, I’m sure some of them actually like it.

    No, I wouldn’t prefer a return to the ’70s. But are the two eras really comparable? For one, a replica shirt market didn’t exist then. Secondly, templates that seldom changed were in vogue across all manufacturers then – see Umbro and Admiral.

    As I said in my earlier post, I’m not letting Nike off on the template front by any means, nor comparing adidas to other manufacturers necessarily. This is simply my analysis of the brand.

    I stand by my point, that adidas could afford to play around the three stripes and their usage, and on the occasional strip, do away with them altogether.

    I LOVE the three stripes. It’s just how and the frequency with which they are used that I take issue with. Were they to disappear from the odd shirt for a season or two, then we would all (myself included) be calling for and then hailing their subsequent return.

  68. Nick,
    Yes, the 90’s were a rough era for adidas, despite my love for the marque. The pyschedelic Germany home is arguably the worst one they ever produced, and was just as bad when carried over as a template post WC ’94. The Arsenal bruised banana…need I go on? They did however have a partial return to form from ’96 onwards, though the kits of this era were far too crowded – extra collar trim, little tags, shadow print everywhere…The red and blue striped Bayern kit of 95-97 (used in almost the same form by Crystal Palace in England from 96) was on the surface a good idea, but was marred by too much ‘over thinking’; but the nadir was reached from 98. Whoever had the brilliant idea of putting Bayern, a team nicknamed ‘Die Roten’ (the reds) in midnight blue as a HOME KIT…hang your head in shame.

    The 90’s was a golden era IMO for Umbro (some classic kits for Man Utd, Everton, Forest, Chelsea, and Man City) ; Nike, who overcame a shaky start to produce some stunners for Arsenal amongst others ; Asics, who are sadly missed; Reebok; Puma; Kappa; and even some of the smaller suppliers like Le Coq Sportif…The over proliferation in England of adidas is surely down to these companies either losing inspiration or vanishing altogether.

    But moving out of the 90’s, and using Bayern and Germany as twin examples, the 99/01 Bayern home, with it’s large areas of blue classily trimmed with white piping and, yes, three stripes, was a design classic, as was it’s successor, the maroon and navy (though it was a little on the dark side), and then there was the 02/04 Germany home, for my money one of the best international kits of all time – simple, restrained, elegant. Bayern then had the Arsenal-esque all red with white sleeves (actually based on a kit from the early 70’s), which WAS a bit pedestrian, followed by the overly retro kit as discussed previously, and it’s ‘too little, too late’ rehash a year later. Then adidas hit a creative brick wall in 04, with the black sleeved, peculiar collared Germany home, and Bayern’s metallic gold away shirt (which I have heard was one of the most unpopular aways worn by the club).

    But then, we had 06 – my second favourite Germany kit of all time, with the organic ‘swooshes’ over it – the club templates that followed were stunners too – Bayern had a white away used from 06/08 with red and blue flashes, and Leverkusen had a black away strip with yellow trim (Liverpool used a black, white and red version).

    OK, the international templates from 08/10, Germany included, were a bit uninspired (apart from the gorgeous red, black and gold away), but Bayern had the all red with white bars on the front, which does divide opinion, followed by a navy and white away (one of my favourites). The cut of these two was good too – the scalloped sleeves a nice and different touch.

    10/11 – the short lived all red home with the perforated fabric, followed by, a season later, the red and white striped, which didn’t work for reasons out of adidas’ control (the ‘T’ from T-Mobile’s simplified logo meant seating it within a white cube that didn’t line up properly with the stripes…nightmare. Germany meanwhile paired a nice but not spectacular home with one of their best aways – the black, red and gold was mean and menacing.

    12/14 – I’m still not sure that pairing the red Bayern shirt with gold stripes and trim was a good idea, but it was comfortable to wear, with it’s wide collar, and Germany, despite being lumbered with another slightly pedestrian home, had another stunning away – back in emerald green for the first time in nearly twenty years.

    So up to now – study the Bayern home and you’ll see it’s subtly different from Chelsea’s. Similar, yes, but NOT the same – Bayern’s for one is a V-neck reinterpretation of a strip worn in the late 60’s, which had a round neck back then.

    Phew! I’ll just say in closing that maybe adidas’ only failing is that they wear their heart on their sleeves – they know if they DO crash and burn (which as detailed previously, does happen), well, at least they tried. Better that, than coming out with a misguided new marketing direction and blaming everybody else when it fails miserably.

    NB. Denis – as a Gunner, does the famous red shirt being worn for the first time with anything other than white shorts make you weep? I really feel football is dying a slow, FIFA strangulated death when one of the last bastions of football kit integrity is swept away…couldn’t Fenerbahce wear their home (which if they do their usual thing is white)? Paired with dark shorts, would mean Arsenal wouldn’t have to change…Wouldn’t it?

  69. Most Liverpool fans would love to have this year’s Chelsea adidas kit – in red of course! Really like the adidas Entrada kit trailed above, the one with 3 stripes around rather than down the sleeve – it’s surprising that adidas has used that style so rarely.

  70. Liverpool themselves (and Bayern for that matter) used something similar in the mid 90’s, so yeah, why not?
    I still think that Warrior has had an horrendous start. But Macron have improved after their own shaky start, so I suppose anything is possible!

  71. Well, I never thought I’d ever see the day Arsenal wearing anything other than white shorts with the home shirt. Must be the first time in what, 30 years or so?

  72. Martyn – I don’t think you can say that the 90s as a whole was a golden era for Umbro – 94-95 kits were, almost entirely, terrible.

    I didn’t mind the Arsenal shorts, my initial fear when I read blue would be worn was that it would be the away shorts, which would have been terrible!

  73. Indeed, almost the same combination worn tonight as per that programme front cover Denis!

    Doubt we’ll see Arsenal wearing navy shorts in the Prem any time soon however.

  74. The blue shorts worn against Everton that day had the green trim (from that season’s fabulous away kit), didn’t look good at all. When Denis informed us that blue shorts were being worn this evening I also thought it would have been the new away shorts which indeed would have been terrible. I mentioned this to Mrs Smith who appeared totally disinterested unfortunately (‘Emmerdale’ being “a bit good” this week apparently..) looked well though and they definitely won’t be seen again!

  75. Apparently Emmerdale’s been that good this week even my own town got a mention on it. Looks to me like the navy shorts worn tonight are a standard pair that you can find in any good old teamwear catalogue, just with an Arsenal badge sewn on. Though reading some of the comments doing the rounds tonight on the interweb it seems as if some Gooners think the shorts should be used again just because they won 3-0!

    We’ll be seeing Celtic, Liverpool or Real Madrid wearing their home kits with different coloured shorts next!

  76. Jon at 128. Liverpool originally wore white shorts until according to i think it was either Emlyn Hughes or Ian St John (or perhaps neither of those two) recalled Shankley introducing the all red to make them look more intimidating.

    I think Celtic may have changed to green shorts when they played Leeds back in 1970 in the European Cup.

    Clashed really only arises where there is a contrasting shorts or socks colour to the rest of the kit. In Real’s case if they meet a team with too much white on their kit they normally change kit though they have probably changed shorts in the past if truth be known.

    UEFA and FIFA are gone too far. What’s really needless is the totally solid coloured back on shirts. A simple patch to accommodate the name and number would suffice rather than spoiling the likes of the hoops on the Celtic shirt

  77. Yeah I remember reading about Shanks changing it in 1964 for the European Cup against Anderlecht if I recall, and of course a kit institution was born……. but I seriously doubt they’ll wear any other coloured shorts with the red shirts again. I remember at Watford a few years ago they wore their white third kit, though ironically it was against the same club that I do recall the last time they wore red shirts with different coloured shorts – in this case, black, back in the mid 80’s.

    Celtic most definitely wore white shorts against Leeds for both legs of the European cup semi in 1970 – they had to change socks however and borrowed a pair of orange socks for the tie at Elland Road. But whenever they face a team in white shorts, particularly in Europe, they tend to wear their change kit, just like Real like you said. I remember one time Real Madrid played at Xerez, who wore blue shirts and white shorts, so they turned up in navy because of the shorts clash, which in my opinion was more of a clash of shirts!!

    Totally agree about the UEFA/FIFA rulings on kits, the solid back on stripes/hoops has been enforced for about 10 years now and I still disagree with it, and even though the regulation seems to have been relaxed for shirts of dark tones (such as Barça) or light tones (Argentina in the World Cup for instance), the likes of Celtic wearing plain backed shirts disgusts me. And they say it’s to help make shirt numbers stick out more in order to recognise players on TV? Well I’m sorry but I never had a problem picking out Celtic players in televised matches during the days when they only wore numbers on the shorts! And the one-colour kit that FIFA seem to like the idea of at present is a massive bugbear of mine.

  78. I stand corrected on Celtic Jon. Liverpool had a horrific Red-Black-Yellow combo v Watford in the 70s which if anything could have confused matters considering all 3 are Watford’s colours.

  79. Jon – there is a bit of confusion re the Celtic socks at Elland Road, apparently Leeds offered Celtic the choice of red or blue (!) and Jock Stein said that the red would look orange under the floodlights and the fans would think it was a nod to Ireland. We need Allan Clarke to come back on and tell us!

    PSV wore all-red at home to Milan (all-white) last night even though their anniversary kit is supposed to red-white-white. All-red in the CL or just pandering to UEFA’s rules?

  80. regarding odd shorts, Celtic wore green shorts with the hoops when they played at Highbury in The Paul Davis testimonial in july 1991.

  81. Good spot Scott, I had always thought a) I’d imagined that (only place I saw a picture was of Charlie Nicholas on a set of Top Trumps) and b) that they were black shorts

  82. 139. Id agree with you Andrew. Red would have been far better especially with the red socks i would have thought it would have made more sense.

    134. Cheers Scott. I remember now seeing that video recently enough but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how i was convinced Celtic had wore green shorts in the past with the famous hoops. I was getting mixed up with that European Cup clash with Leeds in 1970 where i read they had changed something.

    It would seem that total contrast is the done thing with FIFA/UEFA from now on and yet they have no goal line technology in the big competitions. Theyve been pushed into it rather than embrace it.

  83. It would appear that the Arsenal navy shorts were the ones from the training kit if the photo of Podolski and Frimpong on their Facebook page today is anything to go by…..

  84. I think we all agree that this whole ‘no clash’ thing is a load of rubbish…It’s not quite as bad in Germany, where sensible choices do (mostly) reign. That said, however, Eintracht Braunschweig have the most bizarre kit set – amber/mid blue/amber home; all navy with yellow trim away…Defies belief, but then the culprits ARE Nike. Thankfully they have a plain white third to cut through the insanity. Reminds me of several teams in England that have had lighter blue homes and navy aways in the past…

  85. Jon Barcelona also wore the white shirt’s at Ipswich in the cup winner’s cup in 1978. The Celtic green short’s at Arsenal was the last time they wore that kit as the following sunday they played Spur’s at home wearing the people’s ford sponsored kit. It probably was all they had left of cr smith kit.

  86. One other thing I really dislike is that the shorts for the adidas goalkeeper template don’t have matching stripes with the shirt.

    I’ve noticed that the yellow and navy kits have white stripes on the shorts when the colour doesn’t really feature on the shirt. Sloppy, but they did it last year too.

  87. On the subject of mis-matched adidas kits – Swansea wearing purple shirts, yellow shorts and WHITE socks at Spurs right now.

    Still, can’t be as bad as Man City wearing blue at Cardiff*… shocking!
    (* yes I do still find this re-brand thing an absolute disgrace)

  88. Alternative socks seem to be a late afterthought these days – it was well into last season before adidas gave Bayern an orange pair to alternate with the white away…that seems to be the rule with a lot of kit suppliers – even mighty Nike don’t give a bespoke pair of home change socks to Man Utd (the away kits pair are usually worn). ENOUGH WITH THE adidas BASHING ALREADY!!

  89. That was presumably the case, though if purple clashed with navy, it was odd that Vorm was allowed to wear a charcoal shirt, from behind it was hard to tell him apart from the outfielders

  90. Somehow Olympiakos managed to use fully red and white striped shirts in the CL in 2011-12 as at various points in this video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wwaSUpur3w

    Not sure how they got away with it – presumably argued that black stands out sufficiently on red and white – but they’ve reverted to plain backed shirts since.

    A bugbear of mine remains teams wearing their away kits unnecessarily and creating a greater clash with the home team than if they’d worn their home kit. Newport wearing white instead of yellow at Scunthorpe whose kit is predominantly light blue this season was a bad example on Saturday.

  91. Personally I think if Swansea wore their home kit at West Brom it would have been more of a clash, given that their shirts are the same template with a white sleeve and dark coloured “bat wing”. I think its fair to say the West Brom kit is more “predominantly white”, but to tell the truth they could have done with a third kit.

    Ever since the Jacks have returned to adidas they only seem to have two kits, when there have been occasions where a third kit could have been necessary in each of their three seasons?!

    P.S. another potential (maybe) colour clash unexplainable – why did Joe Hart wear a yellow kit against predominantly amber Hull City on Saturday, when his usual first choice kit is green? Odd.

  92. Jon,
    I could be wrong, but I thought Swansea had worn the all black last season instead of the ‘Wales’ away – possibly against Sunderland?

    And in other news…
    What do the regular TC contributors think of Bayern’s new away kit?
    As a Bayern fan I’d have to say that first and foremost, any critics of ‘standard’ templates on the shirts, leave now. The only ‘shared’ element is a tiny bit of green piping down the side. The collar – bespoke; shadow pattern (of ‘Bavarian’ style checks) – bespoke.
    So…brown…I’d have to say that normally, in my eyes (apart from St Pauli who have a subversive reputation and probably use the colour ‘just because’), brown shouldn’t belong on a football kit…however, Bayern (which means ‘Bavaria’ in German) take their roots and heritage very seriously, so in that context it makes sense. At first I wasn’t sure, but it’s growing on me. My only misgivings are that 1860 got there first last season (though that was only a short term special).

    Conclusions? Well, hopefully those who have criticised adidas for not being daring enough and not thinking ‘out of the box’ should look at this kit and reasess their views of the company.

    Me? as a Bayern fan, despite initial misgivings, its growing on me, and is unlike anything previously worn by the club. And for that, it should be applauded.

  93. As a boring traditionalist, I think all Bayern aways should be white with red trim, maybe navy occasionally. Is this the first time Bayern have changed the away after just one season?

    Swansea wore all-white at Sunderland last season, no real clash IMO

  94. Regarding that Bayern kit, I happen to have written a news story on the launch on a popular kit news website and also had fun sharing pictures of the Alpine jacket and hat they’ve released. I think it’s great – particularly the, on the face of it, mismatching shorts and socks.

    Interestingly, the official release was brought to my attention by a friend seeing the adidas tweet and once I had published the story I went and chatted with him. He’s not a massive kit design fan and asked me “How often do adidas/Nike do those parody kit launches?”

  95. Swansea wore their home kit at Sunderland, and wore black change shorts and socks with the home shirt at Stoke. They also wore that combo at Crawley too in the League Cup, with Crawley wearing what I’d describe as a “reverse Ajax” or for those of you who’ve watched before my time, a red equivalent of the Birmingham “penguin” shirt. For me a third kit would have made sense.

    As for the Bayern away kit it has to be my favourite of the season so far, wonderful design and very original, full marks to adidas!

    As for Everton’s third kit, hmm let’s take the away shirt, swap yellow for white, blue for navy and bingo………. call it done.

  96. Bayern Munich away kit – Wunderbar! Just excellent, however it is a slight shame 1860 got there first last year but much better than last years fluo orange effort

    I also like the new Everton third kit, also am I right in thinking that the designs are bespoke to Everton (granted the home kit is based on Arsenal design with a different collar)? Maybe the bonus of being Nike through kitbag compared to Just Sport like most other non A-Grade Nike teams

    IIRC was last seasons white Everton third shirt not the same template as the black away shirt? Albeit paired with different shorts

  97. Nah, the design of the Everton change kits is also used by Montpellier, but in navy and orange…… which in turn resembles a similar design by adidas last season.

    Also, yes the Everton third shirt last season was the same template as the away shirt.

  98. Is anyone else using the same design as the Everton home shirt?

    May well appear in Nike’s 2014 teamwear catalogue

    Either way at least they have got matching gear, especially compared with the away monstrosities Just Sport have have provided Dundee United with, mainly the black shirt with white sleeves and tangerine shorts of about 2 years ago and this seasons white and black shirt with tangerine shorts

    I’m sure there’s a couple other teams who have had some unfortunate mis-matches through Nike/ Just Sport

    That’s what I like about the Adidas ‘B-Grade’ sides who and Puma/ Genesis as they still use clubs’ bespoke colours and will slightly alter designs for teams

  99. Denis,
    Good question! Over to stickerfreak.de again, and as far as I can tell, the last time it happened was a couple of times in the late 80’s/early 90’s, though it was just a change of collar on those occasions, rather than the total remodelling that has occurred this time.

    They did have two away kits in 95/96, and the white one used then (which used the same template as Liverpool’s yellow third kit from around the same time) was superceded after one season, though strictly speaking it was a third kit (used when Bayern beat Forest 5-1 at the City Ground).

    Glad to see the feedback on here is mostly positive – yes, it might not be ‘traditional’, but as a celebration of Bavarian local patriotism and tradition, it is second to none.

  100. I used to see that quite often on Football Italia back in the day, they wouldn’t allow shorts/socks clashes like that now would they?

  101. I always remember when I was little rather than wear the same shorts/socks as outfield players the Hibs GK would wear a yellow shirt with the black and purple away shorts and socks, of sorts this happens today as the GK shorts are the away shorts and when made to change the GK wears the home shorts so maybe not something that’s completely dead

  102. Watching the Scotland game tonight and a couple of issues regarding kit

    First of all still glad that Scotland have chosen to change to white/blue/blue (finally wearing the correct socks at about 4th attempt!) rather than wear change socks with the home kit, which we tend not to do, which I like, only time since 2002 that I can remember us changing home socks was Spain away in 2011 and of course we changed to blue shorts v Croatia as we couldn’t wear white away

    However Macedonia have a couple things which bug me,

    First of all on their shorts the logo’s are the ‘wrong’ way round, never think it looks right with manufacturers logo and number on right leg

    And secondly I don’t know why this annoys me so much but I can’t stand it when a team in red have a GK outfitted in orange, surely black, yellow, grey or green (if Scotland weren’t already using that colour for GK)

    Last season in the English Championship Bristol, Hull and Middlesborough all done this many a time

    I know it’s not the worst clash but surely a better choice could be made!

  103. @Denis that’s madness, surely a contrasting GK kit would be available to the ROI to use

    Still not as bad as my own team Hibs last season having a dark green home kit paired with a light green GK kit whilst having a perfectly contrasting pink GK kit available which was only used in 1 game all season and no doubt had a third GK kit (as we always do) which didnt see light of day either on pitch or in club shop!

    I’m not quite FIFA/UEFA regarding clashes but some common sense should prevail in GK outfit choices when clear alternates are available

  104. I’d imagine there must be a second option David, though on the FAI official site there are no GK shirts for sale (quite a change from the days when you could buy full ‘Packie Bonner kits’!).

    You often see bad GK clashes in FL72, as Sky now want us to call it, whether it’s the keeper of a white-shirted team wearing silver, or else, say, a black-and-white striped team with a solid black back and the keeper in navy or dark grey

  105. Thank you Denis for mentioning the Silver/White shirt clash, so often they are listed as Grey but the shade used is so light it is clearly silver.

    It’s a common issue I have in parks football on a Sunday. Trouble is they often seem to think I am joking, I’m not!

  106. I’m just a strong believer in GK’s being totally contrasting from outfield players, that must be very frustrating Andrew! I seen pics of a friends Sunday league team last week and his GK was in pink and the opposition was in red!

  107. In 2010-11, Arsenal had four different goalkeeper shirts, one pink, and that was used more with the red shirt than with the yellow. John had a feature on these four kits at the time

  108. Law 4 states “The goalkeeper must wear a jersey with colours that distinguish him from the other players, the referee and the assistant referees” So shorts and socks can bee the same as team mates or technically the opposition.

    If both keepers have the same colour jersey, and no alternative can be found the referee shall allow play to start.

  109. 190. – “A lot of people have lucky colours. For example, Arsenal have always been lucky in yellow,” Jim Pearson, of Nike, said.

    Not just in yellow Jimbo, they’ve always just been lucky!

  110. Interesting – Fulham and West Brom are wearing almost identical adidas shorts! That’ll get a few kit people frothing no doubt!

    Also nice to see Cardiff City are in their proper colour today, even if it is all blue with red trim.

  111. Any reason given for that, Jon?

    Interesting to see Man City’s white socks allowed away to Stoke, who have hoops this year. I recall in 1994-95 that Tottenham Hotspur had to wear navy socks at Highbury when Nike had given Arsenal hooped socks

  112. Jon/Denis,
    No specific reason for Bayern wearing the away kit at home, but it was announced that that would be the case when it was unveiled. Possibly because it has such close ties to Bavaria, but it was planned. It certainly has nothing to do with Hannover’s kits as their home is red/black/red, away (which was worn) is green/white/white, and third is all white.

  113. seems as if a little something from Umbro is still living on at Man City – tonight they wore the white third kit with the Umbro serif numbers (a font called “Prestige 12” for you graphic designers out there!) that they had used in cup matches for the last few seasons.

  114. oh no doubt about it, every European team, particularly from the Eastern Bloc, were described as a “crack outfit” 🙂

    I see Celtic are doing their best Norwich City impression at AC Milan tonight, despite the fact the Rossoneri have no green or white in the shirt at all. Oh it’s the shorts!!!

  115. Dennis (197),
    Oktoberfest starts in a few weeks time; despite the marketing saying it was ‘inspired by’ the Oktoberfest, they’ve also been stressing the Bavarian tradition – then again Bayern always unveil new kits a bit early these days (witness the new home kit being worn for the last few matches last season).

    Re. GK shirts – watched Man Utd/Leverkusen the other night, and I know things are getting REALLY silly, when even the ref has to wear change socks! though curiously, if they were worried about the black clashing with Bayer, then I don’t understand why they didn’t change their shorts too…If Man Utd was the problem, didn’t anyone tell the refs that they wear white socks in Europe? oh, I GIVE UP!!!

  116. Jon (203),
    Milan have a tiny bit of green trim in their strip; perhaps under new regulations, that constituted a clash…?

  117. No surprise that Celtic wore yellow last night, still much better than in 2007 when they played in the San Siro v Milan, where they wore a dark green kit, which clashed much more than the home shirt would have due to the dominant black in the Milan kit of the time and the green being so dark, and if I remember right Celtic used special away change socks in that game which were identical to the home socks of the time with the Nike swoosh in dark green instead of emerald, common sense should have dictated that Celtic would have worn their white ‘European kit’ with green shorts

  118. interesting that the Millwall Keeper David Forde wore an all black kit today at Charlton while the Millwall team wore all navy – is that a clash or what?

  119. The Football League is very bad for ones like that, john.

    Sock-clash in La Liga now, Valencia in white against Sevilla, whose sets have a bit of red at the front but are mainly white.

  120. I would have thought that competition rules would have prevented team mates from wearing different sponsors from one another with the Swindon keeper wearing the FIFA 14 sponsorship, I always presumed that teams who had different home and away sponsors would have had GK kits produced with both sponsors?

    Also regarding sock clashes am I being too pernickety by thinking the Hull v Huddersfield game came into this category? with Hull wearing black and amber hoops (black definitely predominant colour) and Huddersfield in black with white trim

  121. What about Birmingham wearing their home Blue shirts/white shorts v Swansea’s Purple shirts/Yellow shorts – another crazy clash

  122. Just seen it on SSN John and came on here straightaway!

    Brum have the ‘penguin’ style this season so understandable that Swansea would have to change but amazed they didn’t have a third or even last year’s away

  123. As Birmingham’s shirt is predominantly Blue I would have been happier for Swansea to wear white if they had to wear one of their kits. Personally I’d have made them wear Birmingham’s Yellow away shirts. It was more riduclous that they wore the purple socks, when you consider they changed to white v Tottenham earlier in the season.

    I wasn’t all that happy with Watford v Norwich, as both teams had black sleeves, how can the officials correctly judge a contested handball with any certainty?

  124. Have to agree that Swansea wearing purple was crazy, the red away from last season should have been given another outing, quite right too as it was a cracking kit as well

    I don’t see fuss about Watford v Norwich, sleeve clashes aren’t much of an issue that would be like saying Arsenal or Hibs can’t wear green or red against a team wearing white

    What I did find strange last night was Falkirk wearing white v Aberdeen at home, can only assume it was for promotional/ commercial reasons as there are no parts of the Falkirk kit that is red, even the first choice socks this year are white (which they wore last night) instead of red which was used last year

    Again noticed some kit inconsistencies in Scotland as at the weekend Motherwell used their black away shirt with white home shorts and change white socks, as Dundee United have black shorts and socks, last night they played Livingston in the cup, they wore all black despite Livingston wearing black shorts, so apparently back shorts only clash when work with black socks

  125. I think this whole thread is getting rather pedantic now…FIFA/UEFA might be muddying the waters with their rediculous ‘no clash, not even the shorts with the opposition shirts’ policy, but really? I started watching football in the mid 90’s, when sock clashes were not always an issue, because the clubs/officials recognised the law of common sense above all else. IE white and yellow is most certainly not a clash, sky blue and navy is not a clash…back then, GK kits were always so garish that only two were needed on a given season (I remember Schmeichel almost always wearing green because it was a ‘lucky’ colour for him, similarly Barthez with black). If clubs are going to be issued with three or even four GK kits per season, the chances of clashing with the refs/opposition outfield goes up exponentially.

  126. Ajax have played Barcelona and Milan in the Champions League this season and first-choice shirts have been worn in both games, with Milan wearing black shorts last night.

    This is good to see, it shows that common sense can sometimes be applied.

  127. Be interesting to see what Ajax will wear in Milan though as Ajax’s away kit is black and they usually do not put different colour short’s with the home shirt.

  128. In the European Super League from Moscow we have Anzhi in all yellow v Tottenham in all white. That’s frequently considered a clash these days in international football. (With some exceptions I know)

  129. I didn’t get Newcastle changing to their navy away kit at Cardiff. The only element that clashed was the shorts (not an issue) but the navy ones they wore we’re just as much of a clash.

  130. Aggree with the above post. Seemingly unnecessary change for Chelsea today. White instead of blue against Norwich’s Yellow/Green. Cech in goal was (imho) a little bit of a clash.

  131. Socks!!!!
    I am trying to work out the socks Man Utd wore at Sunderland. I know they where white but its the colour of the band, was it black (home change socks) or blue. If it was blue then Utd have a different set of white socks for each kit and will have worn 5 different sets of socks already this season (navy blue and Black being the others)

  132. As far as I’m aware, the stripe was black (matching the black used on the gingham pattern on the shirt), with the same socks being used as home and away alternative sets.

    Surely nothing will match 09-10 for sock-based frivolity from United – two blacks and three whites.

  133. Australia in all yellow v France in all navy last night. Another example of the over zealous FIFA policy IN A FRIENDLY.

  134. Australia actually wore gold-green-gold last night.

    However one thing I have noticed from some leak from an adidas photo/video shoot is Argentina’s home kit with WHITE shorts and Spain in an all-red kit…….. if that is what the kits are going to be then that is really taking the proverbial. For me Spain have always had blue shorts, whether it be royal blue or navy blue, and Argentina always had black shorts (save for the Reebok era of navy shorts – but never first choice of white shorts). What next, Germany in all-white?

    Though the new adidas Mexico kit does, thankfully, retain the green-white-red tricolour…… though whether FIFA and their truly pathetic policy (right up there with sock tape colours – don’t get me started!!!) will force them to wear all-green or that horrible green-red-red combo as seen in the Confederations Cup remains to be seen.

    Think I might sell my HD television set and buy a 14″ black and white box to watch football on.

  135. I stand corrected Jon. I had seen a quick sort of birds-eye view of Giroud’s chip goal and for some reason i though the Aussies were in all yellow.

  136. I’m doing a Spurs podcast on Weds and we’re talking kits, best/worst Spurs ones and worst kit since the Prem began. I’m not a fan of either the Liverpool away or third kits from this season but rank Newcastle’s 97/98 Blue, Green & Orange away kit as the worst, what do you guys think?

  137. That Newcastle one was a shocker, others I’d consider would be Manchester City’s silver away from 01-02, Arsenal 92-93 away and Chelsea 94-06 away (obviously, almost passé to include those now) and Liverpool’s 04-05 away.

    I think Spurs’ best kit was 08-09 or 11-12, worst I’d be picking from 93-94 third (90s excess), 97-98 away (shorts), 05-06 away (not a bad design but not Spurs) or 06-07 third (brown).

    As a set, i thought the 04-05 kits were magnificent

  138. Sunderland changed from black to red socks at Swansea yesterday. Even though it looked far better there was absolutely no need for the change as there wasn’t a clash.

  139. All yellow will look good if that’s what they go for, i do sometimes wonder if Nike have ever manufactured red shorts for arsenal and they have just never seen the light of day, as obviously there have been plenty of occasions where teams have had change items produced (even full kits) that have never been used on the pitch

    Talking of change items, am I right in thinking that the shorts Man Utd wore against Sunderland the other week were identical to the home shorts bar the colour of the badge? If so I think that’s completely ridiculous, however Man Utd are no stranger to that sort of thing when they had the chevron kits the had 2 identical pairs of white shorts and socks except on set and a red stripe and the other had a blue stripe

    Keeping on the topic of Man Utd I see that with Fellaini’s move that they definitely stopped providing regular long sleeve tops to their first team players, sad to see as I bag fan of the long sleeved shirts as more and more teams seem to be only providing short sleeves with compression shirts underneath, I was happy to see that bucking the trend are my team Hibs who hadn’t issued a regular long sleeved shirt to a player (and continuing to sell them as a replica) since season 08-09! have this season started to let players wear long sleeve shirts so maybe the death of the long sleeve isn’t quite so imminent!

    What was also strange about Hibs not using the long sleeve shirts for players was that the kit room were definitely still taking delivery from the supplier of the long sleeve shirts and just choosing not to use them which I find really bizarre and wonder if Man Utd and others have stacks of long sleeve shirts at the dark end of the kit room!

  140. David, Arsenal had change versions of the 08-09 away shorts and socks which were never worn, there are examples for sale on http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk.

    United in 09-10 were even worse than you describe, as they had a third set of white socks from the third (08-09 away) and also two sets of black shorts and socks, only differing in terms of red/blue trim.

  141. David I too only get long sleeved shirt’s. I get Ipswich and Celtic shirt’s. I got annoyed that Celtic did not sell the white anniversary shirt last season in long sleeves. I have since got a player issue shirt so I am happy to have that shirt. Ipswich this season are only selling the white sleeved home shirt with long sleeves so at the moment I have not got the red and black away shirt. I am hoping that the Ipswich players have been issued with long sleeved away shirts and with Ipswich likely to be leaving mitre at the end of this season be able to get one. David McGoldrick became the first Ipswich player to wear a long sleeved shirt on Saturday, which pleased me as most Town player’s have worn the lycra shirt’s under the shirt. Did anyone else see Barcelona away at Osasuna ?. They wore the red and yellow away shirt and what looked like last season’s yellow short’s. They also wore plain yellow sock’s with a red nike tick , though it appeared the sock’s had the red/yellow stripes on the back of the sock at the top.

  142. Had a look at Barcelona v Osasuna, looks like they shorts are different I last seasons as there was only a blue stripe down the side, last seasons on had red and blue

    Talking of Barca, I see that the players who wear compression shirts are given blue, when the long sleeves end in red from elbow down, is it not UEFA rules that under garments should continue in the same colour that the sleeve would be below the elbow ie red?

  143. Ha. Denis gave me a heads up on this one. Messi on the cover of FIFA wears a blue baselayer and I assumed it was just EA using a photoshopped image from last season – which it probably was – but it seems Barça/Nike have got it wrong themselves.

    It probably looks better that way actually – do you know if they’ve done the same with the Away, because I’m sure that would.

  144. The undershirt should be the predominant colour of the sleeve, not the cuff.

    The only time there can be a choice is if there are stripes or hoops of equal width, and if that is the case all players (that wear them) should wear a matching colour.

  145. But Andrew, David and Jay’s point is that the rules state the undershirt should match the appearance of the regular long-sleeved shirt.

    The Barcelona kit in long-sleeved format has the blue-changing-into-red effect with the red continuing to the cuff.

  146. Nasty (IMHO) mixture of kits for Schalke at home to Chelsea today in the U19 CL. White away shirt with home shorts sporting a lighter blue trim plus unknown white socks, all bearing in mind the senior team have a specific home CL kit in green and black or they could have worn their blue/ white kit and forced Chelsea in to their third kit. Just don’t get it! It’ll be interesting to see if the senior team do the same thing in a few hours.

    http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3506027/title/uefa-youth-league-report-schalke-0-chelsea-2

  147. Was there not a regulation ‘anomalie’ in reference to Nike GK kits last season, and an example would have been Szczesny for Arsenal, he had a green shirt with dark green sleeves above the elbow which the long sleeve version had lime green under the elbow however he wore a dark green compression shirt

    I think the Barca shirt does look better with blue below the elbow which is hard to say as a dedicated long sleeve shirt fan!

  148. David, it would have been easy to have made the gradient cuff one that, er, recedes again on the long-sleeve shirt so then, like Arsenal and Everton shirts, the s/s shirt and baselayer combination would more or less resemble the l/s version.

  149. I’m trying to get my head around those Barça Away change shorts and socks. I understand why they’re the way they are – as an alternative to the standard Away versions as well as following the logic of that kit – though I suppose you could argue the Swoosh and “Barça” legend on the socks should be blue.

    That kit looks so much better with the change items and the long-sleeved shirt would be much nicer with yellow long sleeves and/or yellow baselayers – I don’t think anyone wore a baselayer in the Osasuna game did they?

  150. I always wonder why the big clubs such as Barcelona and Man Utd etc don’t make replica versions of change items, even as ‘limited editions’ as people would buy them!

  151. Then again if clubs brought out every change piece of kit the media would have a field day of fans being fleeced and would also give clubs more of a moral obligation to wear every piece of kit produced if it were being sold

    And more to the point what would us kit geeks have to be excited about if we didn’t find unused and rarely used bits of kit :p

  152. The stockings of the Eagles are mostly blue with a bit of red and yellow trim, so the Gunners really should change to mostly yellow stockings.

    On the subject of Palace shirts, Im I the only one who thinks that Palace should revert to white shirts with a red and blue sash, for the reasons that its instantly recognisable as Palace and is a great look? Im not a fan of the current psuedo-Barcelona look they are sporting this season.

    In other news, the first shots of the new puma kits for the world cup have been released, and most of them look wonderful. The home kits for Uruguay, Ghana and Ivory Coast look awesome, and the change for Italy is not bad looking too.

  153. So Andrew are Arsenal the probably the only team ever to have won a North London and South London derby the same season 😉

  154. Watching NUFC v Sunderland. This is a prime example of where there probably isnt a clash on paper but side by side on pitch ther certainly is!

  155. Southampton v Fulham yesterday.
    Both Goalkeepers in IDENTICAL Lime Green Adidas kits.

    Spiderbait – where have you seen images?

  156. Have to agree Mark. Although at least there was no sunshine to make matters worse.

    Similar incident with Bolton in 2012 aswell IIRC.

  157. I saw the images of the new Puma WC shirts at Todosobrecamisetas.blogspot.com. Puma has come up with some great designs for Cameroon, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and they are using 3 or so different templates for the kits, so there is quite a bit of variety, in contrast to nike, who look to be using just one.

    On Palace shirts, Im I alone in thinking that the white shirt with a red and blue sash should be the first choice for the Eagles?

  158. Regarding keepers wearing identical kits, why does anyone have an issue with it? How often are they stood together to creat a problem? I don;’t even have an issue with the clashing with the Officials.

  159. What if a keeper entered the oppositions goal in the last minute of a game and something controversial happened.

    Different shirts would be an absolute must for me in the event of situations like that Andrew.

  160. You’ve got me there Andrew!

    Although you could have an incident like one I mentioned above sometime in the future.

    It’d be like Fr Ted when he claimed no one would ever need a pair of joke arms under any circumstances!

    Wearing Green isnt a bad idea but the executives at Adidas, Puma, Under Armour etc might not see it that way.

  161. Speaking of goalkeeper shirts: I forget if it was here, but recently I saw someone (probably Jay) comment on a variation in Manchester City’s goalkeeper shirts this season, with the white stripe changing position.

    As you can see here by clicking on one of the thumbnails, the yellow stripe on the Arsenal GK shirt should be near the cuff http://arsenaldirect.arsenal.com/home-goalkeeper-kit/adult-201314-home-goalkeeper-shirt/invt/542831b but before tonight’s game the Sky Sports graphic showing the teams had Szczesny in one with the stripe near the collar

  162. Probably due to my experience of Gaelic games, I always like when a GK shirt complements the outfield one, as Ruddy’s did, though I do understand your sleeve concerns as a referee Andrew.

    Also, did anyone notice that Lee Cattermole seemed to be wearing a shirt a size or two too big? It looked very baggy on him.

  163. The abiding thing I notice about lee Cattermole is his shirt tucked in and shorts pulled up to the armpits look he goes for!

    Seen a teaser for the new Scotland Adidas shirt today, cannot wait for its unveiling, I think Adidas have do far done a brilliant job with Scotland so far and hope it continues, I’d definitely rate the current (outgoing) Scotland home top to be the best we’ve had since the 94-96 Umbro tartan one

  164. I s’pose their argument would be that it’s tonal/gradient, and watermarks are technically a combination of various shades of the same colour too. And are white and black colours or neutral? I would guess they would have to be classed as colours, in which case this is surely an issue? http://goo.gl/tpuiV2

  165. Actually, re the Germany shirt, it’s not shown in that mockup but I believe there’s silver on there too. So even if we ignore the different tones of red, they could be exceeding the four colours.

  166. I fully expect Brazil to be an exception. In fact, are their yellow shirts considered “light”? In which case, could their shorts be lightened so they are considered to be wearing a “light” kit? That would mean some good coming out of all this.

  167. I like the Wales and Northern Ireland kits adidas have revealed today. Can’t think why Wales have gone for all red though? FIFA only made teams who’d actually qualified for tournaments wear one colour kits!

  168. I should have said, Matthew, the Sky Sports graphic with Szczesny had him in an LS shirt and the stripe near the neck.

    Tonight, we almost witnessed something big which would have set Jay off, but alas it was a near miss:

    Jakub Blaszczykowski started for Dortmund wearing a yellow baselayer http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/arsenals-spanish-midfielder-mikel-arteta-and-dortmunds-news-photo/187132204 but he had gone off by the time Julian Schieber came on wearing long sleeves http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/dortmunds-midfielder-nuri-sahin-reacts-after-the-uefa-news-photo/187147079

  169. That’s right they would wear yellow ones in the BL but isn’t their away kit black? So is imagine they’d have a set of black ones kicking about anyway?!

  170. Jakub Blaszczykowski was wrong to wear a yellow undershirt, he should have worn black. “if undergarments are worn, the colour of the sleeve must be the same main colour as the sleeve of the jersey”

  171. Yeah that’s the point I was making.

    Also, the officials in the Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea games all had black shirts and shorts, but in the United and Chelsea matches they had yellow socks and black in Arsenal Dortmund.

    I know you said above that sock-clashes were not being taken into consideration, but surely it must be the case?

  172. Going back to the World Cup shorts thing, Colombia have launched their kit, which was semi-traditionally yellow shirt, blue shorts and red socks and is now yellow shirt, white shorts and white socks (with yellow and blue top half). This leads me to believe that my theory on Brazil is correct – that they will be wearing the very light shade of blue shorts that we associate with the teams from their first three World Cup wins (albeit possibly due to poor photography development/reproduction techniques).

  173. You must have walked out in disgust when you saw it Den. Nemo Rangers and Douglas under lights back in September was bad aswell.

    German kit isnt great.Surprising at its nearly always been nice in the past.

    Impressed with the new Scotland and Japan kits.

  174. Totally and utterly disgusted with Germany, can’t believe they have sold their soul to FIFA’s one colour policy, what a disappointment this World Cup will be with just solitary colours, hopefully this is a brain wave of Blatter and will disappear when he eventually goes

    On a positive note, I LOVE the new Scotland kit, the blue shorts work a treat with the red socks, like they did in Croatia, in 2 years time if like to see white shorts return but for a one off I love it!

  175. The new Scotland kit is great – Apart from the one colour crest, quite often monotone crests rob a crest of some meaning, and considering the colours on the Scotland crest have quite a bit of meaning, it was a bad move.

    “Brain wave of Blatter” is an oxymoron in my view, and Im totally against one colour kits in most cases. The new Spain shirt would work much better with navy or medium blue shorts, as would the Japan shirt with white ones.

  176. Its the most absurd kit ruling since some bright spark (also within FIFA) had that idea that striped kits had to have plain backs all so the number could be “more visible”.

    I may as well watch next year’s World Cup on a 14″ black and white portable TV, make full use of the contrast. Ho hum!

    P.S. Denis, that Downfall parody proper made me laugh, nice one! 😀

  177. No problems there for me anyway.

    Nice Chile shirt. Pehaps not as memorablle as the Reebok shirt of 1998.

    2nd 2-0 win in a row at Wembley against England.

  178. The previous one always reminds me of Marcelo Salas. Not sure why that jersey only had half the Reebok logo though, whereas Russia had the full one, maybe FIFA clamped down on the rules?

    Something I noticed last night, by the way – Arsenal wore long sleeves at Old Trafford last week (after captain Thomas Vermaelen had decided on them) but Mathieu Flamini cut off his

  179. Only realized that the kit worn against England in 1998 was different to the one worn in that years world cup.The one worn in wembley was a far better shirt really.

    Youd associate Salas with that shirt becuase of that wonder goal I suspect.

    Its noticeable how baggy Chile’s shirts were back then.

  180. Staying with the international scene Nike must be worried about France now.

    They will surely pull out all the stops to keep Man Utd if France dont make it to the World Cup next year.

  181. I had no idea the England shirt of 1998 was different to the World Cup one, what was the difference?!

    I do remember Scotland having the purple diamonds removed from the sleeves and shorts of the 1996 tartan kit for Euro 96

    I’m finally getting round to watching last
    weeks MotD, 2 issues regarding kits so far, firstly who do WBA wear the wrong colour of compression shirt, I should be white with home and red with away and the sleeves are plain other than the bat wing so it’s fairly obvious!

    Also Hull have changed their red away socks v Southampton as they have red socks, but Hull changed to white socks which makes no real difference as the Southampton socks have white hoops and Hull DO have blue change socks for that kit as they wore them pre-season!

  182. Ah! Helped if i read it properly!

    And quite right Flamini got in bother for cutting sleeves off, it’s one of the good traditions and football and he should respect the club policy

  183. The Hull issue was strange as they wore blue socks in Portugal in pre-season. The most annoying part was that they went out looking just like Chelsea.

  184. @ Davidr1986 (post number 326).

    Tell you the truth Dave i think if the players want to wear short sleeves then they should have the choice. I realise its a tradition and all but to be honest im not sure the end to such a tradition would be so bad.
    Personally i prefer short sleeve shirts while i respect many others would prefer long sleeve.

  185. I see Argentina did wear a more traditional representation of their home kit in last night’s friendly against Bosnia.

    Though I think Denis would have had a word or two to say about the kit clash.

  186. When I saw your post Jon, I was ready to go off on one about ‘paper’ clashes, as I presumed that Bosnia had worn royal blue, which I wouldn’t have had a problem with.

    What actually happened, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t consider it ideal

  187. I actually would say it’s ok, but a close one. Generally I think blue and white stripes v white shirt is ok (assuming no back panels) but Argentina’s blue is very light and Bosnia’s shirts had too much blue to not be controversial.

    It’s very reminiscent of the Auxerre-Olympique de Marseille match from 2007-08, when l’OM took their Argentina-styled Away kit and ended up having to wear some brown and pink monstrosity of the home team.

  188. Yep, too much blue on the England shirts, the shorts blue. I think England in all white – one of the plainer kits – may have just about been passable but, as I say, the Argentine blue is very, very light.

    By the way, I was talking about Bosnia-Argentina, not England-Argentina.

  189. I know you were, I was just putting an example out there of white v sky blue/white stripes. I had perhaps naively always assumed that everybody accepted that that was a clash.

    This is the game from the other night – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_dKdlgiy8 – maybe some might say it’s passable due to the black shorts and socks. I just feel that it’s too problematic on long shots.

  190. Hmmm, yeah it’s not great. I think if the Bosnia numbers were in red, for example, it’d be better. My first reaction was it was equal to Uruguay v a team in white but when players came together it all got a bit light/dark/light/dark (with the darker blue Bosnian numbers combined with the Argentine shorts and socks) too.

    Probably a clash, yeah, you’ve convinced me. The Argentine sleeves are a big problem.

  191. Like to see a team turn-up wearing a suit, Hibs done it during the Mowbray years and signed a deal with Ted Baker only for John Collins to take over about a month later and he preferred track suits. Even to last years cup-final track suits were used which I found particularly disappointing

  192. Very, very, very good article. What he seems to allude to – though isn’t explicit about – is that the over-25s don’t matter a jot. We don’t buy shirts anymore, we’re getting disillusioned with the sport through ageing as much as anything else and, in football marketing terms, we’re dying out. The target markets don’t feel as strongly about one-colour kits so there’s nothing to lose.

  193. In my game today, only 4 of the away side had matching shirts. Navy & White hoops, 3 wore England shirts, 2 white t-shirts and one in the white Woolwich third shirt from 09/10. Imagine my surprise, when making a double substitution, both subs already had the proper shirts on under their tracksuit tops!

  194. That must have made you ‘six’ to your stomach, Andrew, though I don’t think the Laws of the Game actually specify that shirts should be the same, rather than teams can be distinguished?

    Also, can you elaborate on your opinion that Argentina and Serbia wasn’t a clash even though both had white sleeves?

  195. Denis, I would say the Serbia Argentina game was OK for the same reason Spurs & Arsenal have played 170 odd times without an issue.

    You are right about the distinguishable shirts but it doesn’t bode well for the game if they are such a disorganised rabble that don’t have full kit 3 months into the season.

  196. Been taking a look over old world cups on Historical Football Kits. This dark versus light has been around a while but I did come across some anomalies. In Group F. Egypt had a dark green and dark red Kit. Forcing other countries to always wear white (Holland and Ireland). They even wore an away kit when not necessary. I don’t know if the red or green was home. WHY?
    Argentina Romania was both lights (light blue/white stripes v blue) as was Soviet Union v Cameroon (white v yellow) yet Cameroon wore green v Argentina and Romania wore red v Soviet Union.

  197. I’m aware of that, but both changed on the understanding that there was a clash.

    England-France was white v dark and changed to dark v white.
    USA v Czech Republic in 2006 was another example of this.

  198. Someone should tell FIFA that black and white TV’s are only still used in about 1% of the world population. Absolutely no need for this dark vs light nonsense.

    This isn’t NBA,

  199. I see Arsene Wenger said he was not
    Happy about Flamini doing it again

    I’m also at a loss as to why Chelsea wore away specific socks last night? Surely the home socks would have been sufficient as the they are white and blue and the alternate away socks are white and blue whith a touch of red being the difference!

  200. Good on Wenger – so Flamini should wear long-sleeves like the rest of them. I’m not even an Arsenal fan, but while the tradition might seem quaint or strange to some I think it one worth having, and as such all players should adhere to it.

  201. Don’t see the problem with one colour strips. As a follower of German football, the side played in all white for several years in the early days anyway. But that aside, the away shirt will apparently have black shorts – the trick being that when there is no clash (in FIFA’s eyes) the teams will revert to their ‘traditional’ colours. So therefore, expect Spain’s away when unveiled to be all dark blue/navy; Argentina to be all navy/black, and so on. It might annoy the purists, but what I’m saying is at least wait for Brazil 2014 itself before you all start throwing your arms up in protest – after all, it has been the norm for several years now for new strips/strip combinations to be unveiled in friendlies. And even if Germany do end up wearing all white, IMO the strip is a thing of beauty anyway.

  202. I think I seem to be the only person who really doesn’t like the new German shirt!

    Maybe I’m just prejudiced against it because I just don’t like the colour red, seen the new Argentina shirt in the flesh for the first time, now that is a thing of beauty…..just a shame about the first choice colour of shorts

    Also while I was waiting at Birmingham International departures I saw the Aston Villa away shirt in the flesh for the first time and I think by far that’s my favourite of the season, the colours are excellent and the design great, unfortunately I was there 2 days before payday as if it had been after I might have had to have it!

  203. Whilst I preferred the two strips that preceded it, I love the new Germany strip, although like many I think it would look better with the traditional black shorts. I love the way it seems to reference past designs yet still seems fresh.

    Martyn, I believe the new Mexico and Germany strips have answered some my criticisms from my past posts! I’m a big, big fan of both, in particular the way they marry adidas design hallmarks (ie. the three stripes) with innovative and tasteful designs. Fantastic!

    On the other hand, that ‘Oktoberfest’-themed Bayern away…

  204. Did anyone notice Brad Friedel wearing a pair of Black cut offs (shorts) last night? All of the Spurs GK kits this season are all one colour so he should have been wearing Green shorts.

    According to his twitter feed today, it is a UEFA directive that if a player wants to wear tights/leggings (it was minus 5 degrees and played on an artificial pitch) they must match the shorts, as they only had black leggings they had to improvise and make the shorts match!

  205. Nick,
    Like I said, we’ll have to see what happens next summer – the ‘one colour’ rule could cause problems with Nike teams, as a lot of them don’t seem prepared yet…so we might well get some bizarre combinations like the Confed Cup.

    I personally would have preferred the Bayern away if it was paired with any other colour than brown…black would have worked. Prefer the third kit – stunning.

  206. The third kit is stunning, isn’t it Martyn – love the colour scheme or alternating shades of blue, offset beautifully by the contrasting red trim of the three stripes. Superb.

  207. Ah, ok. I’ll try it in stages…

    Yesterday, Bilbao beat Barcelona and Barça were wearing their Away kit. Several players wore yellow baselayers when the long-sleeved version of the shirt has red lower parts to the sleeves. However, as far as I’m aware, no one was wearing a long-sleeved version so the rule about matching that shouldn’t necessarily apply…

  208. I was more bothered about Barça’s decision to wear their away kit to be honest, felt the home shirt may have been a better option against a shirt clash…….. or better still the rather under-used black third strip.

  209. Please do Jay, the suspense is killing me.

    I agree with Jon btw, going from blue and red to yellow and red against red and white is pointless. Black/yellow/yellow the way to go.

  210. Jay, Sid Lowe in the Guardian might have explained the baselayer conundrum:

    ‘For the first time, they played in their away kit at San Mamés. Referee Juan Martínez Munuera saw a clash, so Barça played in yellow and red and in short sleeves – the red on the long sleeved version clashed too’

    Hence the rare (first time?) sight of Pique sans long-sleeved shirt, likewise the first time we’ve seen Neymar wearing a baselayer instead of long-sleeves in a Barca strip.

  211. I just found out you can drag and expand the comment box. If only you could comment, eh? I have so much more to say on the matter but it seems Sid Lowe’s word will be final. That’ll please Dr Lowe.

  212. As for Nike, it seems that long-sleeved versions of their player-issued kit are thin on the ground as, barring Arsenal obviously, very seldom do players for Nike-supplied clubs wear them. I can only think of Lescott for City and a couple of Everton players.

    As I think others have previously mentioned, the fact that Fellaini at United – himself previously a proud exponent of the long-sleeved shirt! – is wearing baselayers seems to indicate that the club no longer issues them for players. As does the absence in imagination in cuff designs etc for that club – I can only think that Nike’s focus now lies in marketing their baselayer range alongside replica kits.

    Fear not, lovers of the long-sleeve, as they will never die out. Though I recall with not a little sadness the likes of Darren Anderton and Steve McManaman gripping the cuffs of theirs in distinctive fashion, a la Best, Law and Summerbee in the 60s.

  213. At least Everton don’t look too bad this season when players wear long sleeves as the blue hoops are in the same place, last season it was a real mish-mash when some wore long sleeves and others had baselayers

  214. I wonder if it’ll be blue-white-blue v white-navy-white or all blue v all white when Italy and England meet, sadly I think it’ll be the latter

  215. On the subject of clashing my clubs Hibs have been taking a strange approach, this season we do have green change shorts at our disposal when playing against teams with white shorts, but have chosen never to use them

    However when playing teams with black/dark shorts and socks we have made our goalkeeper change from his black shorts to white, meaning that he looks fairly ridiculous in a dark purple GK shirt with white shorts and white socks

    Why does 10 outfield players not clash shorts but 1 goalkeeper does?!

    Another pet hate of mine in the modern age is dark GK shorts with light shorts, if the keeper has to change to white shorts and socks I’d rather he changed to the white GK shirt we have too

  216. On the nike player long sleeves. Commons and Samaras of Celtic, 99% wear long sleeves with a few other Celtic players wear them. I think a few Inter Milan players have started wearing them as well.

  217. I’m still quite surprised Celtic let their players wear conpression gear, I think it’s only in the last 3 maybe 4 seasons that any Celtic player has been allowed to wear long sleeved compression shirts with a short sleeved shirt

    Out of interest are there any teams left who ban players from wearing long sleeved compression with short sleeved shirt other than Arsenal?

    The closest I can think of is no Hearts player has worn a long sleeved compression shirt with a short sleeved shirt in the home kit, however they seem to permit players to do this with the away kit which is strange!

  218. I thought that initially but St Johnstone managed to source some for an away kit they had a few seasons back so finding maroon ones can’t be that difficult?!

  219. Speaking of baselayers: Swansea-Hull on now and I noticed something.

    Both team have the same sleeve design with black in the same place, but Swansea have white undershirts while Hull’s are black.

  220. Napoli obviously looking to sell more units of the yellow kit…

    I see Barça (well, Neymar at least) wore red baselayers tonight. Perhaps the Uefa rule is only being followed in Uefa competition?

  221. Anyone see Torquay v Southend highlights? Surely Southend could have worn their first choice colours instead of their yellow and black stripes? In one way you can see the sense in Fifas mad policy

  222. Cardiff have the best idea with their change kits. None of them are actually defined as second and third kits but picked to suit the opponents. If only they would revert back to royal blue, white and blue though and do their fans a favour.

  223. Totally agree with David about Southend’s choice of kit yesterday. Bad enough having a predominantly black change strip when your home kit is navy anyway, but quite a ridiculous choice given that the only element of the home kit that clashed with Torquay’s strip was the socks (easy to sort out!).

    I can’t understand teams who decide to wear a change kit for no reason and cause more of a clash than their home kit did. Peterborough did just that at Sunderland in the League cup earlier this season, and to my knowledge I recall them wearing yellow at Boston United in a League game about 7 years ago, which caused a shocking clash that wearing their home kit would have averted!

    Not to mention this recent trend of teams wearing their away kits at home all the time. Bayern, Napoli, Lyon, and I’m also looking at you Cardiff!!

  224. @ Denis no 400. Arsenal also wore the red/white at Villa park in the premier league 2 seasons in a row in both 94/95 and 95/96. Presumably because they had the navy and teal away strip which probably clashed more and no designated shorts and socks for the yellow third (although they did wear this kit in the league cup in 96)

  225. Southend wearing their away kit was pointless but it looked fine on TV to me – Torquay’s away kit looks virtually white from a distance whereas Southend’s was much darker. Northampton’s kitman made a far worse decision to bring their lime green kit to Torquay last year when Torquay wore solid yellow – Torquay ended up having to change at HT despite being the home team.

    Was interested to note given the rules about goalkeepers which occasionally get discussed here that in the Hanover-Nurnberg game both keepers were wearing yellow shirts and black shorts – which got a tad confusing when the Hanover keeper came up for a last minute free kick. The ref didn’t seem to mind though.

  226. At the weekend I also noticed that Man Utd have tweaked their third kit, I thought it was just to be straightforward last years kit but on closer inspection they used this seasons change home shorts (makes sense) but new socks altogether, with using this seasons change home shorts I’d have expected them to either wear this seasons change home socks (white with 2 thin black hoops in middle) or at least last seasons away socks that were designed alongside shirt (white with thin red hoop on turnover), however the ones they used were white with black turnovers and a thin red hoop at bottom of turnover

    So this season Man Utd have 2 pairs of white shorts, with only difference being colour of badge and 2 pairs of white socks with only real difference being colour of turnover, bit pointless if you ask me!

    On saying that it’s nothing new for Man Utd, best example being the season with the chevron shirt where the had 2 pairs of white shorts, 2 pairs of black shorts, 2 pairs of white socks and 2 pairs of white socks and the only difference being that one set had a blue stripe/ chevron and the other a red stripe/ chevron.

    Within reason I like a bit if mixing and matching between home and away kits rather than having often multiple kit elements that are identical bar one slight change of colour

  227. Don’t forget that they had different white socks with their third kit that season too David!

    Puma giving Arsenal a yellow and blue away again next season apparently, while the third will be blue and green

  228. Can someone please explain to this confused football fan (and staunch kit traditionalist) why Arsenal don’t, as they evidently should, wear red socks to match their splendidly unique kit? Every time they turn out in those red numbers away from N7 the effect is much more pleasing on the eye.

  229. Nick – I think it must be at the insistence of Arsene Wenger, given how ubiquitous the white socks have become. The 2011-12 kit was shown in launch pics to have red socks but there was never any announcement as to why it was then worn with a white pair

  230. It is Wenger apparently. Must be a good omen thing because Monaco wear white socks and that’s where he started out. Ruud Gullit did a similar thing when he was (briefly) Newcastle manager – all of his clubs as player and manager wore white socks so he insisted that the Magpies changed theirs.

  231. Ah yes, I do remember that Denis – as I said I think that kit (and in particular the one before it) looked much better with red socks.

    Thanks Martyn, it’s interesting that, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s related to visibility? And yes, I do remember Gullit doing that! Sadly, the calibre of players at his disposal was somewhat short of what he was used to – and let’s not bring up his managerial record at St James’s!

  232. Interesting (and pointless!) combination worn by Man City today at Fulham, sky blue shirt, sky blue shorts and navy socks

    Also definitely a fan of ‘proper’ red socks for Arsenal

  233. I wonder what Denis made of Newcastle’s decision to wear their third strip at Crystal Palace today. In fact I think I can just about hear him a few hundred miles away going berserk about a clash of shorts! 😉

  234. David, I agree. Why, having provided City with a pair of sky-blue change shorts, did they not do the same for the socks? Unless the referee deemed blue too close to Fulham’s white? And why were the shorts changed in the first place?

    This City fan would like to see an all-blue look for matches when such changes are required.

    On that Newcastle third shirt – in my view, it’s ugly. Puma are pretty underwhelming these days, I have to say.

  235. I never mind seeing shorts clashes Jon, I’d always prefer to see Arsenal in home strip at places like Everton rather than change because of shorts.

    Wearing a third kit when there’s no clash is just silly, however

  236. Being a fan of Scottish football short clashes don’t really bother me as often about 3/4 of the league wears white shorts without changing or when they do change it is when needless or creates a clash (Hibs have been very guilty of this in past 2/3 years!)

    But it does annoy me when a needless clash is created, surely even black shorts could have been used if they wanted to insist on using the yellow shirt!

    I also agree with previous poster about Puma they don’t really do it for me, they come out with occasional cracker like last seasons Newcastle home and Dortmund equivalent but on the whole all a bit meh in my opini

  237. I’ve only seen that design in catalogues so they may well be!

    Very Rangers 1994 in design! About time they brought it back, I know that Adidas have had to be a little more creative with their 3 stripes since 2008 but nice to see something totally different from stripes running from neck to elbow

    Just need to get Adidas to issue a modern version of the ‘Equipment’ era that would be interesting!

  238. Why are united in white? And de gea in pale yellow. Red has been fine in the past and there is a blue goalie kit!

  239. No need for united to wear black shorts today. Any chance the kits were chisen due to the closeness of the two games??? No item worn in both matches. I know the team coach set off for Norwich at 10.00am on Friday as I saw it on the motorway.

  240. Swansea goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel had to change his shirt against Manchester City today, but it was not until a few minutes into the game that anybody realised that navy clashed with black.

  241. shades of Balotelli’s bib when Tremmel tried to put his orange jersey on.

    but still, short-sightedness on Swansea’s kit man’s part, surely it was known Man City were going to wear black before the kick off?

  242. Jon #426. Fulham interestingly quashed any fears that Hull v Arsenal might cause a kit dilemma. I would imagine it is the only away league fixture this season where Arsenal will be able to wear their first choice home kit?

    Another thing i wondered is why isnt there reversible socks these times? Like Palace v Arsenal for example. If Arsenal had solid yellow on the reverse side of their stripey socks then we could have avoided having to get white socks. While they didnt look the worst with the kit it would have been just better to match up.

  243. Leeds wearing gold at Rochdale despite there being no clash of shirts…….. but……… and a big BUT……… their goalkeeper wearing white!

    Defies logic if I’m being honest!

  244. I know it’s unrelated to recent posts, but does anyone know if the new, retro-flavoured France badge as featured on their rather lovely new home strip will be retained post-Brazil?

    I very much hope so, as I loathe the modern version introduced a few years ago; it looked dated from the point of release – keep the old cockerel!

  245. Not sure Nick, I do think the new strip is lovely though.

    BTW, did anybody notice Cardiff’s strip at Newcastle in the cup on Saturday? They had to change shorts because of the clash and went with white rather than those dark red ones which had been initially mooted.

    In addition, though, they wore white socks even though there was no requirement to do so.

  246. Cardiff did wear red-white-white in pre-season too, which raised a few eyebrows and comment from us northerners…… there’s only one Welsh club who wear that colour combination (and Swans fans noted it too in the derby!) 😉

    I recall this was during the time when the original dark red shorts were rejected, so they asked their fans in a poll what colour the replacement shorts should be. I’m sure the poll had plenty of votes, must have been well into single figures! 😉

  247. ironically, Swansea’s away kit colour combination was used as an away kit by Cardiff before my time, in the early 70’s – purple shirts, yellow shorts, though it was a rather superfluous kit in all honesty!

    BBC making out in their live text commentary that Man City v West Ham in the League Cup tonight is a colour clash. So, sky blue-white-white versus white-sky blue-sky blue? Not a clash for me, though quite why West Ham couldn’t wear their home kit I don’t really know!

    The Hammers do of course have a black third shirt this season, not that we’d probably ever see it on active duty

  248. I have been told by a West Ham supporting friend that the West Ham black shirt is only going to be worn at Sunderland.

  249. Ah Denis, spoken like a true kit aficionado! I too have wished similar ill luck on other teams based on the arbitrary dislike of their kit; this season, Cardiff, due to THAT red kit and new badge.

  250. Amazing West Ham hadnt even the cop on to either wear their home or the third midweek v City. They were basically wearing the reverse of the City kit. In instances such as this i can see the logic in the contrasting monochrome rule from FIFA.

  251. Also, I wonder if maybe Swansea might wear their home kit at Old Trafford today, despite using their away last week? The cup doesn’t appear to allow shorts clashes but the PL doesn’t really have a problem with it

  252. you were right Denis…… though the Jacks probably wished they’d turned up in purple, they might have had a repeat of the cup result!

  253. Personally I think Palace made the right kit choice. Blue shirts and socks with the home kit could have been an issue and Black shorts and socks from the away kit are a definite clash.

  254. White shorts odd but not a real issue, annoyingly at Hull they wore the away kit with black shorts which also created a shorts clash. I don’t think there’d have been any issue telling the teams’ socks apart.

  255. I think short/sock clashes are more exacting depending on which country you’re talking about – in Germany for example it is strict but not OTT; Spain and Italy seem riddled with inconsistency; England they make up as they go along…in many ways I yearn for the mid 90’s when third kits were relatively rare and only required on a few occasions. I suspect that it is of course a money making exercise, and if the clubs / suppliers were a bit more sensible in anticipating clashes (ie. looking at the other teams in the league before selecting their kits), then we would have no inconsistency. To me it is still bonkers that Liverpool have a white and black away and NOT a yellow third – even with psychedelic graphics all over it it would still work I’m sure.

  256. Martyn – I don’t think it’s something which is made up as they go along in England, rather that it’s not a rule but some teams change of their own accord.

    Liverpool have not worn change shorts with their away or third this season despite having sets available – I feel that we could see them in all-white at Bournemouth in the cup though as that does seem to have stricter rules.

  257. Denis,
    Surely there must be some adhesion to rules and regs? If the FA have rules they should stick to them? Going back to the mid 90’s I can remember clubs being much more sensible with away shorts – obviously you would have situations eg. Arsenal, where they didn’t wear them, but the likes of Man Utd with their black change shorts, Everton with blue, Blackburn with blue, etc. , and sensible non clashing third strips, these situations were (mostly) avoided. My point was the FA and kit suppliers / clubs need to think things through a bit better. If the rumours are correct for Puma’s first year with the Gunners, the away is going to be the old faithful yellow but the third is (early 80’s Umbro-esque) green and navy…it’s OK but for me won’t cover EVERY clash – the shorts colour is the same, so what will Puma do? bring out YET MORE third/third and away/away shorts? it has gone mad recently IMO.

  258. The third will be primarily navy so the shorts might actually be green.

    When Arsenal have a yellow away I don’t think there’s any real need for a third (bar Blackpool or Lens, but we saw in 2010-11 that they think yellow works against Blackpool) and a blue third would solve those.

    I don’t think the PL has ever had a rule about shorts clashes, I think there’s something in an Arsenal programme from 1992-93 on this subject

  259. Thanks Denis,
    didn’t realise there wasn’t a specific rule – always assumed that there was in England because short changes have been around since the 70’s – Leeds used to alternate different bits of their (h) all white (a) all yellow (t) all blue kits to make some different combinations (there is footage I believe of a game at Derby where they wore blue/yellow/blue).
    This is however a very muddy area – in the Bundesliga it seems to be sensible, though their are anomalies – Bayern for one haven’t used away shorts for six or seven seasons, so usually change if they are playing a team in red shorts.
    All we ask for as fans is a bit of consistency!

  260. Interesting, isn’t it? I think it does make sense to have it (though not to the Confederations Cup ie. FIFA level of pickiness), but where is the line drawn? I still think it is the responsibility of the FA to protect the fans by at least approving new kits – we would avoid the nonsense situations of teams playing in royal blue with navy away, and the fans would get a better sense of identity. While Liverpool’s home shirt has improved in Warrior year 2, the away and third selections are bonkers. If the FA said ‘OK, if the home colours are A and the away is B, then here is a selection of approved colours for the third’. I don’t particularly care about GK shirts, as I feel that the keepers have enough distinction regardless, but these ridiculous scenarios where clashes occur even though a PL team (and kit suppliers) know which teams they will play as early as mid May, need to be stopped. It’s not really been touched upon here, but it’s always irritated me when a team in coloured and white stripes then has a white away shirt (or an away shirt in the colour).

  261. the Football League were pretty stringent on colour clashes during the late 80’s/early 90’s and to intents and purposes the regulations worked – teams would only wear their change strip if necessary, so for example seeing Norwich City playing in anything other than their usual yellow and green was extremely rare. Likewise, the Tyne & Wear and Sheffield derbies often resulted in one team wearing a change strip, unlike the inconsistencies of now.

    I’m sure they would also veto change kits if they regarded them as being too similar to the home kit, I seem to recall an instance when Brighton & Hove Albion tried to register an Inter Milan-style away kit, but the Football League wouldn’t allow it because they thought it too similar to the home, despite the fact it was intended for use against teams wearing white.

    As for Bundesliga I’ve noticed they’re pretty stringent on colour clashes too, but seen many occasions where teams have been wearing away kits at home. It’s happened in Italy too, and Cardiff City do it every home game (nudge wink) – what’s all that about?

  262. Jon,
    In the Bundesliga it’s usually done to unveil a new kit, but the DFB (German FA) allow Bayern/ 1860 to wear their special ‘Oktoberfest’ kits in and around the festival, because of the prestige.
    This season, Leverkusen are ‘officially’ in all black at home, similarly Augsburg are supposed to be all green (despite all white being traditional)…They have however switched this season, seemingly without explanation. I think the difference is that whatever the reason for the change, it has to be OK’ed by the DFB. So Leverkusen have had some games in all red and Augsburg in all white. Similarly, Hannover 96’s shorts were red when unveiled (similar to Cardiff the strip was two tone red but unlike them it worked) and last season Wolfsburg switched half way through from green shorts to white.

  263. I think the kit looks even worse with purple shorts and socks, looks like a reconditioned shellsuit from the 90’s (excuse the pun) 😉

  264. Agreed Jon but at least this way it avoids a shorts and socks clash. That whole third kit is a catastrophe if you ask me. Tje away not much better although at least its in traditional Liverpool away colours.

  265. Why couldn’t Warrior have done an all yellow for the third kit? Plain, with red logos, trim and a V-neck collar, it would I’m sure be a huge seller. The only purple away in the PL worth anything this season IMO is the Villa away. Good job Macron.

  266. Ironic that an underage Liverpool team would wear the third against Arsenal seeing as they wore in the away in the PL.

    I think it’s equally bad whether shorts are purple or white tbf.

  267. Liverpool haven’t had a yellow away kit in recent years because the last 2 yellow kits they had weren’t big sellers. The rumour is that they will have a yellow kit next season though.

  268. Yellow is more traditional I think, but if sales figures are the issue, why not black? I believe the black and grey Reebok away was a popular one, and coupled with a PLAIN white (without the psychedelic garbage) would provide suitable distinction – white away shorts as an alternative could be swapped with the third pair when required, producing an opportunity for an all white/all black/mix and matched away/third. The problem is, I acknowledge, all to do with sales. Bayern had a gorgeous all navy kit in 08/10 that although I loved it, I understand it wasn’t as popular, so all the away kits since have been white. Similarly, the gold/graphite strip of 04/06 wasn’t popular so that particular cue hasn’t been used on an away or third since. Of course, in this day and age, owners/suppliers talk about ‘global brands’, in other words: “how many shirts can we sell in the far east/US etc.” Thus we have the Cardiff ‘lucky red’ situation (and of course red has never done Man Utd’s far east sales any harm). My argument is always this : why can’t a compromise be reached? perhaps the Cardiff fans would have accepted it better if it had been introduced as a third colour in the home. OK, the traditional colour has always been yellow as a trim with white, but red would surely satisfy both camps? even doing something like halves in red and blue? (after all, Werder Bremen introduced orange into their kits in the early 00’s as a reaction to years of mainly green and white kits, and it gave a new visual identity AND was popular with fans)

  269. Watford wearing their away kit at Man City despite there not being a clash. Even more strangely Costel Pantilimon is wearing a yellow strip. Bizarre.

    Interesting to see Rochdale are wearing their away kit at home against Sheffield Wednesday, who turned up in black. It’s like the old FA Cup rule on colour clashes had never gone away……. (I thought Wednesday retained the yellow kit from last season as a 3rd strip?)

  270. Rochdale also wore their away strip at home to Bristol Rovers just after Christmas.

    I think Watford wearing their away strip is purely due to shirt sales, and nothing else.

  271. Whats the rule regarding shorts clashes in the FA cup? Liverpool wore a white pair to avoid a clash with Bournemouth’s black shorts, meanwhile Hull wore their home kit (with black shorts) away to Southend who wear an all navy kit. I see now that Fulham are wearing their all navy 3rd kit away to Sheff Utd who wear black shorts. Surely black and navy constitute a clash?

  272. Baffling to see Sunderland and Stoke’s goalkeepers wearing identical kits tonight. Not sure about Stoke, but I know Sunderland also have one blue and one yellow keeper kit.

  273. I think it’s much harder now to spot baselayer and long sleeve differences, I think it owes much to fact that sleeves on short sleeved shirts being much tighter and shorter than 6/7 years ago when baselayers started appearing widespread

  274. #480 – Some clubs have an Home and Away sponsor… Huddersfield are another example – They had to make 2 Away shirts to ensure their sponsor was worn at all away matches

  275. Do you mean two home shirts, Matthew, i.e. one to be worn at home and one away?

    Interesting approach, similar to Nottingham Forest in 1992-93. Generally, they had Shipstones on the home and Labatt’s on the away, but when televised live they had Labatt’s on the home.

  276. I remember Newcastle doing similar when they wore Asics kits between 1993-1995, they had the Newcastle Breweries logo on the home shirt for non-televised home matches, but wore shirts with McEwans Lager on the front for televised home games, and all away matches.

    Seen it on numerous occasions in the lower divisions too.

  277. Don’t they have a yellow kit (Euro Only?) I’m sure the FA Cup does have a rule where Away kits have to be worn at all away games… Must be a new one though

    It does look better on pitch than it did in the tunnel

  278. #494
    They have 2 “away” shirts, and never wear the blue/white stripes when not at home. It’s a good marketing ploy as it’ll mean they have to have 3 kits… and (if worked out) could mean they can have 3 different sponsors per season.

    I think the 1st choice away is Black with a Yellow one to ensure the away sponsor is worn at all away matches

  279. The Everton v Wexford….er sorry i mean the Everton v Swansea situation was certainly a head scratcher. Kits are not pragmatically motivated any more. They are money motivated.

  280. Didn’t see Everton-Swansea but it sounds very bad, am amazed it was allowed!

    Welcome also KC, I hadn’t heard of the blog before today but I’ll be a regular visitor, I love your turn of phrase!

  281. Thanks a lot. I’m not sure how much mileage there is in it, mainly because you see the same teams making the same decisions a lot! Haven’t set up a twitter account for it yet, but maybe I should promote it on there. Not sure how many kitclash obsessives there are!

  282. a strange one at Bramall Lane as well, Nottingham Forest wearing their white third jersey (with blue trim) at Sheffield United with mis-matched red shorts and socks, when surely the dark grey away kit would have been a much better option?

  283. @511…. We (Barnsley) had to change from our Home (RED/WHITE/RED) or away (SKY/SKY/SKY) into a third kit at Burnley – Can’t believe Forest were allowed…

  284. Might be a bit of a ‘Marmite’ kit, but I love the new ‘Roseberry’ inspired Scotland away…I feel the criticism aimed at adidas is sometimes OTT, but the 2014 kits are really interesting and different (the ‘Flamengo’ Germany and black and gold Spain away’s are particular favourites). OK, their teamwear contracts are a little safe (apart from the chest flash as used on the Swansea away), but these new kits are stunning, especially when the Nike WC kits coming out are so pedestrian (Kappa did the ‘no contrasting trim’ thing seven or eight years ago!). If some of the leaked 14/15 kits are anything to go by (and of course, if they’re accurate) then adidas look to be entering a golden era of design.

  285. Pink is a bit taboo as regards to football kits. But why? If there is a viable reason, why not use it? Of course, the fluorescent pink Everton of a few seasons ago was a bit much, but this Scotland away has a reason for the pink, and I’m all for unusual colour choices…Remember the Nike 2002 WC kits? That was a golden era for Nike, and the Belgium, Nigeria, and Holland (even though they didn’t qualify) strips made from fluorescent fabric were IMO new and fresh. The black and orange Holland away was gorgeous.

  286. Newcastle are wearing yellow against Hull’s gold/black.. I know yellow and gold aren’t much of a clash but I suppose Black/white stripes would clash or the Navy away would clash with the black stripes :s

  287. Apparently West Brom have run out of hooped socks and it’s too late to order any more so they’ll be wearing plain navy ones until the end of the season! There’s an article about it in the Daily Mirrror today.

  288. I think Ipswich have run out of their home sock’s as well. Instead of the normal home sock’s with a white turnover they are wearing plan blue sock’s. They are leaving mitre at the end of this season so mitre probably have not supplied enough.

  289. Probably an affect of an increase in players cutting bottoms off them to wear Trusox

    But still crazy to see this happening with months of the season to go!

  290. Thank you Sir for your prompt response. I do feel it is unlikely that Sunderland will ever wear Alternative home shorts, bar a 2 season dalliance with Le Coq Sportif (who gave them red shorts) Sunderland have worn black shorts since 1972, and the period they wore white had only lasted 10 seasons.

  291. the Liverpool away looks just as ghastly as their current away kits. it does look a bit of a fake though.

  292. I think they’re genuine. The seller seems to have good feedback and a history of selling genuine rarities. (I’m not the seller by the way!)

  293. I used to like in the early 90s when Sunderland would wear red shorts if a clash arose.

    Thoughts on City in white at the Nou Camp? Was no problem home v home in the first leg, maybe they wanted Barca to think they were playing Real?

  294. That shot from 2001 highlighted sensible use of the away shorts/socks, mix n’ match isn’t viable right now with the current palette.

    I don’t recall that look Denis, are there any photos to show us how it looked?

  295. Statto, those white shorts and socks weren’t park of the Sunderland away kit, they were just alternative to wear when necessary. Much in the same way Man United have sometimes had black change shorts even when they aren’t part of the away kit.

  296. I’d quibble with that assertion – I’m almost certain that they are the 2000-01 away shorts and socks. Technically, in 01-02 they were alternatives as they had a new away, I guess!

  297. Yeah, was thinking of the away kit of 01-02. Had forgotten they’d used them as part of the away kit the year before. The Asics kit had alternative white shorts (worn with black socks at Newcastle when Gullit had the Magpies wearing white socks)

  298. Norwich wore their away kit at Southampton for some reason.

    Years ago seeing Norwich in anything other than yellow and green was an extremely rare event!

  299. I was in the crowd when Mickey Thomas scored THAT free kick 😀

    That bruised banana was a terrible kit, Adidas made that tyre-track design for a few other teams as well around that time, and it also got “copied” by a few other sportswear manufacturers as well, I remember Stockport County having an equally jarring blue/white/red kit in the same design, and Bournemouth had an away kit which was black, purple and sky blue in the same design. I think their kit was made by Matchwinner, who were responsible for many wacky designs in the early 90’s!

  300. Southend’s goalkeeping choice was simply crazy, especially as there are about 3 other GK tops they could have picked which didn’t clash at all

    And again well done Swansea, however I don’t really understand why the are so precious over the use of white shorts as it’s was only about 4 years ago they had black shorts as first choice!

    Again at Hull a team changing into red to play them where other have changed out of red to avoid a clash! Given the away colours of WBA this season, a third in yellow (popular I believe down that way) would have been sensible

  301. There’s no consistency. We all know that West Ham changed to their white away shirt against Man City a few weeks back and now Fulham change from a white shirt against them. Newcastle changing to yellow at Hull recently was barely mentioned, I think we’ve all given up on trying to make any sense out of it anymore….

  302. What about Millwall keeper David Forde wearing an all-black kit while the team wear all navy at Leeds. That’s a senseless clash

  303. I’m actually getting used to the Liverpool away now…I dunno, something of a mid 90’s Umbro about it – it has taken me seven months to like it though!

  304. Totally agree with John (post 556) about David Forde, I really cannot understand why Millwall have a black goalkeeper kit when they play in navy. I’m sure I saw a goalie in black against Southend recently too, shouldn’t be allowed – after all, the Football League banned navy shirts for decades as they clashed with referee’s shirts.

    Not the first time I’ve seen a Millwall goalkeeper in a hideous clash with his own team-mates, a worse case was quite some time ago (around 2004) when Graham Stack (I think it was) wore a yellow kit with black shorts whilst his team-mates were in a yellow/gold/amber kit with navy shorts (like Liverpool 2001 away colours), live on Sky TV. How the referee let that go I don’t know, even the commentators at the time mentioned it.

  305. I remember that kit, bit of a daft choice of colours, especially when you watch that clip of the match against Switzerland being played under floodlights. The second choice goalie jersey was this, which just seems perverse: _
    http://www.oldfootballshirts.com/img/shirts/250/scotland-goalkeeper-football-shirt-1992-1993-s_19200_1.jpg

    As for Arsenal I think the shade of gold they wore was less saturated than Millwall’s – I think Millwall’s shirts were more towards the amber/orange hue than “metal gold”, but still in both cases it was daft for a goalkeeper to wear a yellow jersey alongside them.

    And there was this one from a certain Edwin Van Der Sar (remember him?) when Ajax travelled to Feyenoord in 1995 – 11 men in dark green?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6vUdgUnNZs

  306. That’s incredible! I recall in the England-Germany Euro 96 semi that Andreas Kopke walked out with a bottle-green shirt on, but then changed to sky-blue, which was arguably closer to England’s strip.

    Meanwhile, Manchester City are going sky-sky-navy for Saturday evening’s 3-0 win at Arsenal.

  307. Hull’s outfield players were forced to wear amber socks at WHU last night rather than the regular home socks (black & amber hoops) as the PL deem them to clash with Hull’s dark change GK socks! What nonsense!

  308. another shocker was this one that I remember a friend in Sweden (who supports AIK) told me about one time from the Stockholm derby in 2001.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmX5x5GHoyA

    Now it looks to me as if AIK have got 12 outfield players on the pitch (from the back). That particular design that adidas had for goalie kits in 2001 caused no end of trouble.

    And I think I have found the worst kit clash of the last 12 months….. in NORTH AMERICA of all places, that bastion of “light and dark”/”home and road” kits in all of their sports.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF9QgfXCWXU

  309. Crazy stuff.

    Was today the first time Chelsea have worn their away change socks? Amazing that they feel they have to have two pairs of blue socks and two pairs of white