Poll Results: Best International Kit and Best-Dressed Football Rivalry

The polls are closed, the results are in. The readers of the Football Kit Blog have picked the best international shirt and the best-dressed football rivalry. One poll was close, the other, not so much...

When it comes to international shirts, the winner by a slim margin was Argentina(22% of the vote), which happens to be my favorite international shirt. So, good choice readers. Rounding out the results were Italy(21%), Brazil(20%), and Spain(19%). The "other" option came in last(15%), which I can't help but interpret as somewhat of an endorsement of my decisions when putting forth the choices for the poll. I cannot stress enough however that Argentina belongs in black shorts, let's hope FIFA does away with this silliness of making the albiceleste wear white shorts in the World Cup.

As for the best-dressed club rivalry, the winner far and away was Real Madrid-Barcelona(44%). A good choice, even if it's not my personal choice of River-Boca, which interestingly came in dead last(6%). Rounding out the results were Man United-Man City(12%), Celtic-Rangers(10%), and Lazio-Roma(8%).

Thanks to all of those that participated in the voting!

Top 5 New European Club Kits 2014/15

Now that the European football season is in full swing, it is time to assess the best kit releases of the new season. Here now are the Football Kit Blog's top 5 European club kits for 2014/15:

First, some honorable mentions. These are the kits that just missed the top 5. Aston Villa's home shirt is lovely. The color combination is magical and this kit hits all the right notes. I also think that their crest is among the best in English football. Overall the look is simple, elegant, and classic. The away kit is quite nice as well. Negative points for the betting house sponsor. Inter Milan's home kit is a refreshing take on the nerazzuri's classic black and blue kit. The thin blue lines on the black shirt really pop and give this kit an "electric" feel.

Our next few honorable mentions are from the German Bundesliga. Bayern Munich's entire set is splendid, but we are singling out their away and 3rd kit as among the best this season. Love the "heather" effect on the away, and the black and red 3rd is intimidating and fashion forward. The only reason neither kit placed in the top 5 is due to the horrific Deutsche Telekom "T" sponsor logo. Borussia Monchengladbach's home is an interesting take on vertical striping. I have never seen vertical stripes laid out quite like that before. Add to that the terrific color combination and you have one snazzy kit. Finally, Wolfsburg's 3rd kit(the one all the way on the right) is the kind of kit that people either love or hate, no middle ground on this one. And count me firmly in the "love" camp. The off-the-wall colors, the different colored sashes and even the VW logo all work here for me to create a dynamic kit.

TOP 5

5. AC Milan home - Color shading has been a big trend in design and fashion for the past few years now. Bayern Munich went this route for their 3rd kit from last season. This season it's Milan's turn and I think we can all agree Adidas' execution on this kit is on point. The old-fashioned crest bearing solely the St. George's cross is an added touch of class(note: embossed on the lower left corner of the badge, not noticeable unless looking up close, is the actual AC Milan logo). We rarely mention socks here but on this kit the socks play an integral part in the beauty of it. Truly a splendid kit for my beloved rossoneri.

4. Genoa away - Genoa is a club who has always stuck with a simple look. This season's batch of kits are no exception. Here we have a vivid example of how less can be more. The white away shirt is pure class. The red and blue stripes across the torso feature the club crest smack dab in the middle of the shirt, something rarely seen nowadays. There is a beautiful script under the crest that adds another layer of elegance. The ugly Lotto patches on the shoulder are negated by a lack of sponsor on the shirt.

3. Real Madrid 3rd - This is a choice I might get a lot of flack for. But I have always been a fan of sublimated graphics on shirts. This shirt, designed by Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto is a welcome break from Real's ho-hum kits of the past. There are only a certain number of times you can do a solid block shirt with three contrasting stripes. The asian-style double-headed dragon is totally random for Real but who cares. The look is great, and the origami-style typography of the player names and numbers is unique and ties the look together. One change that would make this kit the hands down winner for the season would have been to take away all the white elements and make this a truly all-black kit. That would have looked amazing.

2. Inter Milan away - As hard as it is for me to say, Inter was blessed with some outstanding kits this season, as they usually are. Nike's home shirts for Inter are almost always solid efforts, with their away shirts varying from boring to magnificent. This season's away offering is a beautifully-designed, sharp kit. All white, with sublimated graphics, the negative space on the shirt forms a cross. Even the red Pirelli logo adds something here. This is one of the top Inter away shirts of all time.

1. Manchester City away - The Citizens have been with Nike for a couple of seasons now, and this is hands down Nike's best work for them in my opinion. The shirt has a gradation effect, going from lighter to darker as you look at the shirt from top to bottom. I give this one a slight edge over Inter's away because it is a bit more out there and experimental. City have been fighting for years now to be recognized as a world-class club and now they have finally arrived.

2015/16 Liverpool New balance Designs Leaked?

Only about a week after my Op-Ed piece on Liverpool's kits comes this purported leak of New Balance's kits for Liverpool for the 2015/16 season. It is really unusual to see a kit leak this early in the cycle, and we would normally take this "leak" with a grain of salt, but the source of this news is a fairly reliable website. If these indeed are the new kits, they are a marked improvement from recent Liverpool designs, especially for away and 3rd. Time will tell if this leak is indeed legit.

h/t: Football Shirts News, @FumlerRawk

MLS: Set the Kits Free!

The U.S. likes to go out on its own. We don't use the metric system, unlike every other country in the world. We call our league champions "World Champs" as if the world is confined to our borders. Call it arrogance, call it swagger, it is what it is. Another striking example is our national football league: MLS. Unlike every other major professional Division 1 in world football, MLS forces all of its clubs to wear kits made by the same manufacturer(Adidas).

This is actually general practice in U.S. sports. All the major pro leagues here sell their "kit" apparel contract to one single company, whoever happens to be the highest bidder, of course. The NFL's kits are made by Nike, the NBA has Adidas, MLB has Majestic, and the NHL has Reebok. There are definite benefits to this kind of a system. Uniformity of design standards and distribution channels to name two of the most important. But we here at the Football Kit Blog feel that the benefits are outweighed by the negatives of not having a league in which clubs can negotiate their own contracts.

For one, the overall value of the combined contracts would surely be more than one bid to outfit the entire league. In football, you have Nike and Adidas warring for Man United, Roma, etc, bidding up the contracts, which just translates to more money for the clubs. Clearly in Europe and beyond the more important clubs get the higher value contracts. But in a league like MLS in which there is a lot more parity, this is not as much of an issue. Now, I'm not an owner, but I can see the benefit there.

But the most important reason to let each club control its own contract is creativity and aesthetic variation in design. MLS is a rather ho-hum league aesthetically. Adidas has done a poor job of giving MLS clubs a unique identity. Portland, Colorado, KC, and Seattle are some of the better programs. Philadelphia has a decent Ajax-style home shirt(but the colors and sponsor are dreadful). The majority of the league however, is woefully under-designed. There is very little "visual sizzle" to most MLS match-ups.

Opening up the designs to other manufacturers would surely create some variety and interesting visuals for a league in sorely need of them. The rest of the world realizes this, and MLS did once too, so now its time once again for a change. If its good enough for the rest of the world, its good enough for us.

Memo to New Balance: Don't Muck Up the 'Pool

For most fans of the world's game, Liverpool FC is one of the world's iconic clubs, and their all-red kit equally so. Granted, if you are a supporter of Everton, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, etc, you probably despise the Reds. But those of us outside the Kingdom with no dog in the fight appreciate the club's storied history and proud legacy. Liverpool FC is football. We're talking about Bill Shankly, 18 Leagues, 7 FA Cups, 5 UEFA Champions' Leagues, the Kop, Hillsborough. And of course, You'll Never Walk Alone, which, when sung by Liverpool supporters at Anfield(and abroad) before important matches, can be one of the most spine-tingling moments in world football. Mind you, all these plaudits are coming from an AC Milan supporter, who Lord knows should still be bitter about a certain tragic night in Istanbul...

I bring up Liverpool because this is a club that has recently lost its way in the kit department. Starting with the 2012-2013 season, Liverpool entered into a contract with new-kid-on-the-block Warrior Sports. The result has been a decidedly mixed bag of kits, with the good ones being few and far between, and the bad ones being really, really bad.

Warrior's best effort in my opinion was their first Liverpool home kit for 2012/13. I enjoyed the simplicity of it and I also liked the retro feel of incorporating the simple "Liverbird" logo as the crest as opposed to the more intricate badge of recent decades. I do love that intricate badge with the Shankly gates, the Hillsborough flames, and the "YNWA" inscription though, but a change for one season or a couple of seasons is not a big deal. After that, I really cannot say that I liked any of Warrior's other Liverpool efforts, be they home, away, 3rd, or keeper. Some of those designs are really garish and I have a hard time understanding how Warrior expects someone to wear that outside. There's always the die-hards, I guess. Also, the piping on the current home jersey just makes the shirt look ill-fitting somehow. It's really just a mess with this club right now and it is really unbecoming of a club of Liverpool's stature. Just look at some of these Adidas designs of the 90's. Those are some tremendous shirts with some fabulous detailing. I've had my issues with Adidas in the past, but it must be said that for the most part, Adidas outfitted 'Pool with the respect and reverence that the club deserves. Warrior's been trying to make them look like a red version of Bolton Wanderers.

Now comes word that Warrior's parent company New Balance will be folding the Warrior brand and incorporating it into New Balance. This means that starting with the 2015/16 season, Liverpool shirts will be made by New Balance for the remainder of the contract. We here at The Football Kit Blog hope that this change will provide New Balance with an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and give a club as big and important as Liverpool some class shirts that the supporters can be proud of. We are intrigued at the prospect of the New Balance brand entering the football kit market and will be monitoring developments closely.

Best of the Strange Kits: Arsenal Away 91-93

Here for your viewing (dis)pleasure is the Arsenal 91-93 away shirt. This is the infamous "bruised banana" shirt. No great imagination required to see why that name stuck. On the pitch, it was the days of David Seaman, Ian Wright, and George Graham's "boring boring Arsenal." This is a truly ugly, ugly football shirt. If nothing else, one has to say that it was a ballsy shirt for a club of Arsenal's magnitude. The early 90's was a period of brash experimentation for most kit manufacturers, who implemented wild, vividly colorful, geometric designs on their kits to make them stand out. It seemed like the most liberties were taken with away kits. I think any rational human being can agree that this Arsenal shirt is truly dreadful. But the question is...why do I love it so???

For starters, there's the nostalgia factor. This kit was used in an era during which I was in my adolescent years, when I first started following club football deeply. My initial exposure to football was through the World Cup. Once I found out about club football and the rich traditions of all these global clubs, I just got more and more hooked on the game and the culture of the game. I remember thinking how cool it was that the north Londoners were simply called "Arsenal" in a league full of F.C.s, Uniteds, and Citys. So I gravitated towards them as I first immersed myself in the English league. Perhaps that is one reason I am partial to the shirt.

Another factor for me is that I have always believed that the away shirt is the right place for experimentation. Most clubs have iconic home shirts, and the vast majority of these designs are quite simple(see Liverpool, Real Madrid to name a couple). And that's the way most of us supporters like it. You don't mess with icons. But the away shirt(save for one glorious club) is another matter entirely. Why not have a little fun?

At the time, there were no blogs, no Bleacher Report to put this shirt in a "Top 10 worst kits" article. In fact, football kits were barely covered at all by the media save for the occasional snide remark by a commentator during a match, and I was not exposed to much live football at the time. So instead of having "tastemakers" influence my opinion, I was just left to my own sensibilities when assessing this or any other kit. And I must say, something about this kit appealed to me. Perhaps it was the "so ugly it's beautiful" frame of mind that also comes into play when looking at ugly dogs like pugs or a Jackson Pollock, for example. Or maybe I just liked the way the yellow pops when contrasted with the red and navy blue. One qualifier: this kit looked completely different and did not work for me at all when paired with the yellow change shorts. It is truly extraordinary to me how such a slight change could alter the whole look so.

This shirt is also a historical footnote for Arsenal as it is the first away shirt the club wore in the the Premier League. That was in the inaugural season of 92-93(notice also how the kit had a life cycle of two seasons). Nowadays, unanimous consensus seems to be that this is one of the worst if not the worst Arsenal shirt of all time. However, according to John Brewin, author of True Colors: Football Kits from 1980 to the Present Day, this shirt "became a major fashion must-have in early 90's London." So somebody must have liked it along with me!

The East London Hammers?

I was watching West Ham v. Arsenal last night when I noticed something peculiar: Instead of a shirt sponsor on the front of their jersey, West Ham had their players' individual numbers screened onto the shirt. Examples here, here, and here. 

It seems the Hammers have fallen victim to the global financial crisis. They entered the season sponsored by XL Leisure Group, who have since gone belly up. I guess that rather than leave the front of the shirt blank, the club decided to put something on there. 

We've certainly seen this type of thing before, most notably in the World Cup. However, we've never seen it executed in this fashion. The numbers are pretty big and set against that white backdrop the Hammers now look like long–distance runners or an NFL team.

2008/09 Season Preview

The season has kicked off all around Europe, so it is an appropriate time to reflect on the new kits that were released for the new season. So without further delay, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly:

Let's start with the bad. I really don't like Arsenal's new home kit. Arsenal belong in all–white sleeves, period. That's my main gripe about the shirt. On the other hand, their away shirt is quite spiffy. Manchester United's new designs are so boring to me that I won't even link to them. I will give them credit though for not changing their home kit from last season's. I can't seem to get my head around Marseille's new away kit. Is it a breakthrough in football fashion or is it a horror show? I am leaning towards the latter. I think the argyle pattern might have worked if the colors were a bit more subdued. Honestly, can Lille's shirt sponsor be any bigger? Ligue 1 must be in major financial difficulty if French clubs are whoring out their shirts like this. It's been said in these pages before, that is no longer a football shirt. It is a racing shirt. AZ Alkmaar will be wearing collars reminiscent of 1890's football clubs. Big change at Ajax, where ABN–AMRO's familiar vertical advert has been supplanted by something called Aegon. I usually do not mourn the changing of a shirt sponsor, but c'mon. Ajax and that ad went hand in hand. 

But the hands–down worst kit of the season has to go to Bolton Wanderers and this horrible Reebok outfit. That looks like a third–rate club's training shirt! Are they for real? Who looked at the prototype of that kit and said "Hey, that's nice. Let's go with that." ?

Now on to the good stuff: AC Milan restored order to their world by coming out with a fresh update to their timeless kit. A big improvement over last year's shirt. There was a lot of hubub over Barcelona's ditching of their famous stripes, but I say relax, people. That new home kit is splendid and evocative of their centenary shirt from back in the 1998 season. The away kit is also quite nice. Too bad they will continue to use their teal ensemble as their 3rd kit.  Let's hope there are not too many occasions for that. Athletico Madrid went back to wearing blue shorts with their home kit, and the results speak for themselves. That is one of the best kits in the world. I thought  Borussia Dortmund's home shirt was also a fresh take on a classic style. Those pinstripes just scream of the '80's to me. I like their away kit as well, but unfortunately it is ruined by that loud, diagonal sponsor. A couple of minimalist designs that I really like: Sporting Lisbon's away and Panathinaikos' home. I love that huge clover leaf on the shirt, reminds me of something out of the turn of the 20th century. Call me crazy but I like this design from Sevilla(one of their dozens of kits).

But my favorite kit of the new season: 1860 Munich. Here is a better view. I just love that design, it's fun and the color scheme ensures that it is not too tacky. This jersey would be absolutely perfect if they had Löwenbräu as the shirt sponsor(they used to back in the day).

Best of the Strange Kits: Shimizu S–Pulse

Submitted here for you is Japanese Club Shimizu S–Pulse. I can't tell you much about Japanese football, but I can say that S–Pulse have a unique kit. There is usually some variation on the globe motif, perhaps because the club's shirt sponsor is Japan Airlines. This is the kind of kit that I admire in secret. I actually like the design but could never bring myself to wear it in public. Of course if I was a supporter, it would probably be a different story.

Update: My schedule's been pretty hectic lately, severely limiting my ability to post on a frequent basis. My apologies to those of you that been expecting our critique of the new kits released for the 08/08 season. Rest assured, the article is almost finished and will be published soon.

Best of the Strange Kits: Denmark '86

This interesting kit for the Danish National Team was made by Hummel for the 1986 World Cup. Denmark had a great opening round in this tournament, with famous wins over West Germany and Uruguay, who they beat 6–1. I was a young boy watching this tournament and I was mesmerized by the Danes' fantastic team play. They had some great players like Michael Laudrup, Preben Elkjaer, and Søren Lerby. I thought the Danes might be the heirs of total football.

I remember thinking at the time that the Danes kits looked like no other teams' in the tournament. I thought they looked so futuristic compared to the fairly simple designs of the other nations.

Unfortunately for the Danes, their good start in the tournament didn't carry over to the knock–out stage, where they were eliminated in the round of 16 by Spain.

Euro 2008: The Football Kit Blog Report

VIENNA–Euro 2008 will go down in history as an outstanding tournament full of nail–biting finishes. That will be the consensus throughout the world media. But how many columns will be devoted to the uniforms of the tournament? Not many, I gather. Here, without further adieu, is my take on the kits used in Euro 2008.

Let's start with the bad. In the past few major tournaments, I have noticed a trend of teams coming out in solid color kits. This is an unfortunate development. For example, Portugal used to wear this. In Euro 2008 (and going back further, actually) they have been wearing an all–red kit. It is certainly debatable which look is better, but the green shorts are no doubt more traditional. Take also the example of The Netherlands. When they came out wearing the orange shirt/white short/blue sock kit, they looked brilliant. But when they came out as they did in the majority of their matches in all–orange, it didn't work so well. And why, for example, can't France look like this when they play against Romania? Does UEFA really think television viewers won't be able to distinguish between the two sides?

This tournament was a complete disaster for Puma. In footballing terms, only one Puma team (Italy) made it to the knock–out stages. Puma also outfitted Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland. Game to game these teams looked indistinguishable from one another. Take a look at this, this, and this. Save for the crests, those kits are identical. It's the epitome of laziness. At least with Nike or Adidas there are some subtle touches that set each kit apart, but Puma apparently believes that all national teams should wear the same thing. The kits themselves are relatively nice but also a little boring. Those two sets of fonts they used for name & numbers weren't anything special either.

Adidas had a decent tournament, with several of the teams they outfit making it to the latter stages. The final was an all-adidas affair. The kits were pretty good too although somewhat predictable. My favorite of the lot was the German kit. My one major gripe would be those tacky name & number fonts.

Umbro was represented in the form of Sweden, and I think you'll agree it was another ho–hum effort by Umbro. No wonder this company loses sponsorship after sponsorship. For the most part there is nothing in their designs that make you want to part with your hard earned cash. England should wise up and ditch Umbro for Nike.

The big winner to me was Nike. Once again they took the effort of making unique kits tailored to each nation. A detail that particularly stuck out to me was the use of Turquoise in the Turkish away kit and other gear. I thought it looked great and was totally unique. I was intrigued and found this fantastic explanation by a Turkish fan on football shirts news:

"Turquoise means “Colour of the Turk” in french (or so they say) it is said that in medieval ages, only Turkish artists can paint ceramics in this colour. The european artists had tried so much to copy this colour but were unable to do so. A sportswriter Mehmet Demirkol first mentioned that Turkey must wear turquoise jerseys, a few months later manager Fatih Terim announced that the new away kit will include turquoise details. This jersey can be the beginning of a new era. It is planned to switch to a full turquoise shirt in a few years, and be recognized with this color like Azzuri of Italy and Orange of the Netherlands."

It would be really exciting if Turkey were to change their home shirt to a Turquoise shirt, but it's unlikely to happen. Remember when Mexico were going to change their home shirt to white? Tradition is sometimes very hard to part with. In this case, I think it would be a good thing. There are already so many other teams with red kits. I also thought the Turks' name & number font was nice and it looked appropriate.

Another Nike highlight for me were the Russian kits. Both homee & away were really nice and looked sharp on the pitch. The white Russian kit was actually my favorite kit of the whole tournament.

I had a couple of minor gripes with Nike. All their keepers looked exactly the same, and the number font they used for The Netherlands was ugly to say the least. Look for that keeper kit now on club teams all over the world in the upcoming season.

Croatia had the misfortune of not being able to wear their white and red checkered shirt in any of their four matches. It's unusual a team would go that deep in a tournament and never wear their home shirt.

All 16 teams had a sleeve patch on the left side that read "RESPECT." A nice idea, but it didn't really translate to more respect on the pitch.

A couple of nice touches in the celebration after Spain's victory in the final: Sergio Ramos and his t–shirt dedicated to former teammate Antonio Puerta who passed away on the pitch last year. Also, back–up goalkeeper Andres Palop put on a throwback Spanish goalkeeping jersey, that of Luis Maria Arconada.


Our special offer is still in effect. The first person to donate $60.00 US to our blog will get the Manchester United 07/09 jersey shipped to them. Jersey is brand–new, size XL. Read all the details here.

Why Not Make a Donation?

Here, straight from the Football Kit Blog archives is the 2007–2009 Manchester United Home Shirt. I'm giving this baby up in an effort to raise some cash. Blogging is fun and all but bills still need to be paid. So, the first person to donate $60.00 U.S. to the Football Kit Blog will win this shirt. Is this a shameless attempt at raising some money? Yes. But look at it this way: You get to help a blogger and at the same time acquire the shirt of one of the greatest football clubs in the world. More details about the shirt in a minute, but first some answers to some possible questions you might have:

How do I know that this is for real?

That's a tough one. For what it's worth, this is Football Kit Blog's ebay account. You can see that we have 100% feedback as mostly a seller. I would just sell the shirt on ebay if not for the enormous hassle that has become. We have a reputation to uphold and don't plan on going anywhere. We are doing in this in an effort to raise money which in turns helps us to spend more time working on this blog. Who knows, if this is successful perhaps there can be other special offers like this one. $60.00 U.S. is not that much for a great shirt like this including shipping.

Is this offer open to participants outside of the U.S?

Absolutely. The only thing required to make a donation is a paypal account.

Do you accept any other form of donation other than paypal?

We will not accept any other form of donation. To win the shirt on offer here, your donation must be at least $60.00 U.S.

Ok, Great! How do I Donate?

You can donate clicking on the "Donate" button on the top left corner of this page. Then enter at least $60.00 in the donation amount field. Anyone is welcome to Donate any amount, but in order to win the shirt, you must donate at least $60.00 U.S.


Now onto some details about the shirt:
First of all, it is brand new. 100% authentic. Tags still on. Given to me as a gift but it is not the right size. Never worn. In Immaculate Condition.

This is the shirt of the back–to–back Premiership Champions, Manchester United FC. The shirt in the pictures is the exact shirt that will be shipped. It is made by Nike and is Size XL. All preliminary reports indicate that this will be the Red Devils' shirt for the 08/09 campaign as well. A simple shirt with some elegant embellishments. For one, the racing stripe on the back meant to denote that United are the defending Premiership Champions. On the top part of the stripe is United's "Devil" logo, while on the bottom of the stripe are the letters "MUFC".

Chelsea FC: Tempting Fate?

I am somewhat superstitious. I know football supporters are a fairly superstitious lot as well. That is why my eyebrows were raised when I caught wind of this: Chelsea FC is planning on wearing their 08/09 shirt in next week's Champions League Final against Manchester United.

Chelsea have been wearing this shirt (06/08) for the past two campaigns. Last weekend in a vital Premier League match against Bolton Wanderers Chelsea debuted their new kit which they will be wearing in the upcoming season(Chelsea ended up drawing 1–1 with Bolton). Debuting new kits during the final matches of the season has become somewhat of a tradition, especially in England. Here's my beef: Chelsea have had such a gritty campaign coming back from a lot of adversity. All along the way they did it wearing this shirt. Now, on the eve of the biggest match in Chelsea FC history they are going to wear a kit different from the one that got them there? Sounds like a bad omen to me. I had been leaning towards Chelsea winning the match in Moscow, but now I am not so sure. United will be wearing the kit they have worn all season. If I was a Chelsea supporter, I would be raising hell over this.

I would love to hear from Chelsea supporters. What do you say? Am I making too big a deal out of this? Or is there something to this?

Toronto FC Kit: The Best of M.L.S. in 2008

Looking over the league's crop of new uniforms, what strikes me is the dullness of all the team's jerseys looking essentially the same just in different colors. All 14 M.L.S. clubs are outfitted by German sportswear giants adidas, and their famous/infamous three stripes. I personally like the stripes but I wonder if it's really necessary for adidas to put them on the sleeves of every single shirt. Some shirts would just look better without the 3 stripes.

Some other random observations:

The Red Bulls do not make sense to me. First, they go ahead and make their home shirt white. Huh? I thought it was Red Bulls, not White Bulls. Then, they make navy blue their away color, meaning they don't have a red shirt at all! I want to root for this team so badly, and I do, but c'mon. Someone get with the program over there. And tone down the size of that huge advertisement on your shirt. Don't they understand that they would sell so many more of those Angel and Altidore jerseys if that ad was just a little smaller? In fact, they should just put the "Red Bull" typeface right on the front, like a normal club. That would be so much more legit. The Clashing Bull logo is already on the crest. Which brings me to that. Why is the logo two red bulls clashing with each other? Shouldn't they be teammates? I know that's the logo on a regular can of Red Bull but couldn't they have put some effort and thought onto this? Just one bull in the crest would have been so much better. There, Red Bulls. That'll be $20,000.

The Galaxy re–branding was pretty lame. Their logo is decent, but they should have gone with navy blue instead of all–white as their home shirt. Don't give me that "Oh, it's summer and it's really hot in L.A., so white is the smart choice" b.s. Most M.L.S. games are at night and the season starts in April when it's still not that hot. Besides, during day matches where it's really hot, they could have always switched to the white kit. I just think this was a lame attempt to keep up the Beckham/Real Madrid continuity in order to sell more jerseys worldwide. Pfeh.

One place I actually miss the 3 stripes is on DC United. Adidas has been outfitting them since their inception and those 3 horizontal stripes across the chest where there forever. It's a little bizarre that adidas would remove them after all these years.

Colorado's jerseys are actually quite nice. They've got that whole Aston Villa/West Ham vibe. They would qualify as my 2nd favorite M.L.S. kit design. My favorite would have to be...
Toronto F.C. Last year's expansion team really has the league's best kit. Mainly because of the seldom used but gorgeous red and gray color scheme. I also think that the template used for the kits is one of the nicer ones adidas currently has on offer. I may be in the minority on this, but the gray away shirt is a thing of beauty too. I just wish it was paired with a black or gray short.

Note: Time is quickly running out on our first ever raffle. Don't forget to mail your entry to footballkitblog@gmail.com before 12:00 noon this coming Sunday, April 20th. Anyone that sends an email before then to the above address with the subject line "Raffle" will be entered in the drawing. Limit 3 entries per person please. The winner will be announced on Monday, April 21st. Full details here.Good luck everyone.

Raffle Time

Today folks is the first ever Football Kit Blog raffle. I was doing some spring cleaning and I need to get rid of some stuff. In that stuff was this lovely Adidas originals Peru home shirt. It is size large. It is not brand–new, I acquired it a couple of years back and have never worn it. It is in very good condition. There are just some a few small nicks right below the red sash on the front. What better way to part with it than to raffle it off to my fellow football kit enthusiasts? The shirt is white with a red diagonal sash on both the front and back. F.P.F. crest on the right side, adidas trefoil logo on the left. "Peru 10" on the back. Adidas 3 stripes in red along both sleeves.

The 1978 World Cup was perhaps both the all–time high and all–time low for Peruvian football. High for the outstanding play of Teofilo Cubillas(who wore #10), who was tied for second–highest goal–scorer of the tournament, and also for finishing first in a group that included Scotland and the Netherlands. Low because of the allegations of Peru taking a dive in their last game against the home nation Argentina. The Peruvians lost 6–0, helping Argentina get to the final on goal differential at the expense of Brazil. I've watched that match and I have to say it does look a little suspicious.

Anyways, the raffle is open to anyone that sends an email with the subject line "Raffle" to footballkitblog@gmail.com by 12:00 noon Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, April 20th, 2008. I'll accept up to 3 entries per person. International participants welcome. The winner will be announced on Monday, April 21st and the shirt will be shipped out shortly thereafter. Good luck to everyone.

What's in a Color?

So according to this study, football teams clad in red are more successful. The study focused on England, and the results showed that "Red shirts give the team(s) an advantage due to deep-rooted biological response to the colour." I swear this is not the first I heard of this, I remember similar suggestions being made about 10 years ago. It can't be a coincidence that Liverpool, Manchester United, and Arsenal are 3 of the most successful clubs in English football, no?
I actually agree with this study and have something to add. White must also be included as one of the most successful football colors. If you think about it, almost every major football league in the world has an epic club that wears either red or white. From the aforementioned England, to Brazil (Vasco and Flamengo), Spain (Real Madrid), Italy (AC Milan, Juve), France (Lyon), Germany (Bayern Munich), Argentina (River Plate), Holland (The big three all use red and white). At the very least, this merits further investigating.
That color can affect human beings psychologically is nothing new. That this would apply to the world of football is only logical.

Those Snazzy Hondurans

I had to put up a picture of this brilliant kit from Honduras(It's the one with the stripes). They have been wearing it for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. They may have started wearing it earlier, but this is the first I've seen of it.
I had never been impressed by Honduras' kit, until now. This kit is absolutely gorgeous. No wonder the team was able to upset Mexico and make it to the Olympics in Beijing. The Mexicans, in their snooz-o-rama Adidas template kit never stood a chance. Note: The caption in that photo on Yahoo incorrectly identifies Mexico's opponent as Guatemala.

Football Kit Blog Book Review: True Colours by John Devlin

I recently got this great book from amazon uk. It is called True Colours: Football Kits from 1980 to the Present Day, by John Devlin. It is a must have for any football kit enthusiast. The only pity here is that there are not more volumes of this masterpiece covering all the clubs from all over the world. For it's slim size, it is a very impressive work in breadth and scope. It basically details every home, away, 3rd, and 4th kits of every English Premier League side that was in the top flight in 2005-06, spanning back to 1980. Along with the artwork for each kit there is a brief description of who made the kit, who the shirt sponsor was, a brief story about the shirt, and in what important matches it was worn in and by whom. Going through the pages you really get an understanding for trends in design, fabric, and colors that have taken place over the last few decades. Also, I realized that the Golden Age of Football shirt design was the late 80's/early 90's. There were just so many innovations that took place back then that we take for granted today. There are some really great shirts in here, like Arsenal's "bruised banana" shirt (I couldn't tell you why, but I love that shirt) as well as Manchester United's groundbreaking "Newton Heath" shirt. There are some real disasters here too like Chelsea's tangerine nightmare and this vomit-inducing number from Spurs.

If you are into this kind of stuff, you should not go without this book. I am hooked and just put in my order for Volume 2.

And the Jersey Goes to...

It's time for footballkitblog's 2nd annual Jersey awards. Here we honor what I believe to be the best kits of the past season. To be eligible for a Jersey, kits have to have been released for the 2007/2008 season. There are 4 categories, best home kit, best away kit, best keeper kit, and best national team kit(home or away). So without further adieu, here are the winners:

1. Best Home Kit: This was a tough decision, as most of the big clubs don't ever change their home kits around that much. The winner here is Manchester City FC, whose light blue shirt and white shorts has always been a classy kit. This year their shirt was made by Le Coq Sportif, and I have to say they did quite a nice job. I like the white pinstripes very much. I also dig the Le Coq logo being on the shoulder. The Thomas Cook advert is minimal. Nothing groundbreaking in the kit, just an overall very solid design.

2. Best Away Kit: As an AC Milan supporter it pains me to say this, but the winner is Inter Milan for their "Ambrosiana" centenary kit. This kit is a tribute to the early days of the club, and to the flag of the city of Milan. The simplicity of the design and the contrast between the white shirt and the red cross is what appeals to me here. I also love the fact that they minimized the Pirelli sponsor logo on the shirt. This would have been a completely different shirt with a full–sized sponsor logo. I especially like this kit when it is worn with black shorts. All the controversy aside, this is a splendid kit. Being a Milan supporter, I vowed never to purchase an Inter shirt, but I had to renege on that vow this one time. I'm sure some of my fellow rossoneri supporters would not be too happy about that, but oh well.

3. Best Keeper Kit: I come from the Jorge Campos/Peter Schmeichel school of keeper kit design(OK, maybe Campos was a bit much). I believe the keeper kit is the one kit on the field that can afford to be colorful and loud. A lot of recent goalkeeper kits have gone for the understated look, with Nike, Adidas, etc putting out simple templates in different colors. With all that being said, the winner in this category is Club America and this Aztec–inspired number. Sure, it's loud and I would never ever wear it outside, and that "Bimbo" advert is atrocious. But I very much like this design for a keeper and I love that America's keeper Memo Ochoa helped design the shirt.

4. Best National Team Kit (Home or Away): This was also a tough decision as there were several impressive national team designs released this past season. Some that come to mind are Holland(away), Scotland(away), Italy(home), Germany(home) and Japan(home). There can only be one winner, however, and this year the winner is Russia(away). This kit is simply beautiful. The Russian flag proudly adorns the chest, and the white collar provides a sharp contrast to the red of the shirt. If I didn't still hold on to remnants of the cold war mentality, I would definitely pick one of these up.

So there you have it, our picks for best kits of the past season. Feel free to let us know what you have done differently.

The Poll

Looks like Brazil has taken a clear lead in our poll about the best national team kit. It's too bad there can only be five choices. Here's why I included the ones I did:

1. Argentina – An iconic shirt. The shirt of Maradona. For an Argentinian player, wearing the shirt of Argentina is the highest honor attainable. This is also the case all over the world of course, but for the Argentinian the feeling is more intense. On an aesthetic level, the albiceleste shirt is quite beautiful, and the black shorts provide that dynamic contrast. I prefer the shirt when it is not mucked up by those black sleeve stripes, but I have a feeling those will be staying for a while. A splendid kit.

2. Brazil – The kit of the beautiful game. Bright and colorful, Brazil's uniform symbolizes creativity and a joy for the game that is unparalleled. There are a total of four colors represented on the kit(yellow, blue, green, white) coinciding with the colors on the Brazilian flag.

3. Italy – The kit of catenaccio. Perhaps the most feared of all kits, opponents know when facing the Azzuri(especially in important matches), it will be a very difficult match. Curiously, the blue in the shirt does not appear in the Italian flag, they are one of the few national sides that does this. According to footnote #1 here, Italy has been wearing blue shirts since their third ever international match as a tribute to the Royal House of Italy, whose color is also blue. The Italians have always kept their kit very simple and they were one of the last national sides to put the manufacturer's logo on the shirt. They had no logos on the shirt as late as World Cup '98. You gotta love that.

4. Spain – While Spain has not had a lot of success on the pitch, at least they have looked quite good failing. The red and yellow shirt along with the blue shorts is a great combination. I personally prefer when they use the more royal blue short as a opposed to a navy blue short.

5. Other – Of course we had to have this option to encompass all the other great national team shirts. Some of the best of the rest:

England – especially when they use red as the color for the name and numbers.

Holland – that orange shirt is just so unique, so recognizable.

Scotland – I always liked the dark blue shirts of the scots(I particularly like this version of the kit). As a kid, I found it interesting that when Scotland would play, the referee would wear a different color than black for his kit. Of course, that is an obsolete idea by now.

What do you think? Am I missing anything?