Cast your mind back and close your eyes. Think about the best kits your football team has ever had.
What makes those designs iconic and memorable? Is it that they were available for every club and national side in the World in the same design just with a variable shade of colour? I doubt that was what you were thinking of.
As a Manchester City fan there are several iconic kits which I can think of. The 1970’s home shirt of Colin Bell with the round neck and central badge- a beautiful understated classic.
The white away kit with the red and black diagonal sash (a design which was resurrected by Umbro to much fan acclaim).
The Kappa home kit of the late 1990s with its heavy branded sleeve pattern and collar; some of the recent Umbro kits such as the blue round necked home shirt.
All of these designs were brave and striking. Paying attention to the heritage and not being afraid of being different are some of the themes of these great kit designs.
Fundamentally fans like being clad in club merchandise and for most fans there is a strong desire to purchase the new shirt every season. Our default setting is to support the club, by wearing a new shirt every season.
Instead the current kit supplier Nike has seemingly sought to challenge this fan demand through a procession of lazy kit designs which are at best uninspiring.
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Buying a football shirt has in recent seasons been through gritted teeth. Its not just an issue for Manchester City – its a problem for almost all clubs.
The issue is that large suppliers such as Nike have sought to create a brand template and then to tailor the template to the individual club. Hence the shirts for many teams just look similar and are identifiable only by kit sponsors and slight colour differences.
All fans think their club is unique and to be confronted with similar looking merchandise doesn’t resonate well regardless of the quality of the fabric used.
In the last week Manchester City have announced their new away kit for 2018/19, which although designed by Nike, is a homage to the Division 2 playoff winners kit of 20 years ago.
This design stands out amongst recent Nike efforts precisely because it is unique, tailored to Manchester City. Consequently it is striking and generating much interest amongst Man City fans. This away kit is precisely one of those kits which you may think of when you close your eyes.
So this is a fan’s plea for kit designers to look at honouring the club in a unique way – tailoring the past and history to our future and to end generic kits once and for all.