I worked there for 12 years but recently left to work on a freelance basis.
The New Kits Thread
- Thread starter Plan M
- Start date
I worked there for 12 years but recently left to work on a freelance basis.
is fan input for shirt design a big no no then?
There is a huge amount of input that does go into the shirt designs. Obviously from the club, but the designers will also connect with fans, visit forums and look at external trends etc (in both sporting and fashion industries). I think all the club kit designers I met were primarily football fans themselves - granted, not necessarily of the club itself, but the heritage of the respective club is something that they will of course consider and take into account.
So the views of fans are obviously considered - they are the target market, after all, but the designs also need to adhere to a number of other factors as well.
One other thing to note is that the kits are (pretty obviously) designed to look best when seen on the football field in action - hence the frequent comments on here about how a particular kit grows on them when they see the players wearing it. Of course, it also helps when a kit becomes associated with particular memories (hopefully positive ones - unlike the infamous grey kit!).
On a separate note, I will say that although I am no longer directly employed by Nike (I do continue to do some freelance work for them), I am still as much of a fan of the brand as I was when I did directly work for them. Great people, great brand.
Thats a great reply thanks but when I see this upcoming shirt with a checkered effort and shirts with chevrons I dont have much faith in the design process.
Did you work on kit design while you were at Nike then, Swooshboy?
The points you brought up earlier re the embroidery and recycled materieal I am aware of. I always thought they had it the wrong way arounf in the 80s and early 90s where the replica shirts had printed crests and the players were running around with an embroidered one scratching the hell out of their nips! What I don't understand is why they have a printed crest on the replicas now but continue to have a stitched on mess of a badge (a halfway house between a patch and embroidery) on the replicas. Surely it would be cheaper to make the replicas in the same way as the player's shirts. The only difference in recent years has been the heat-bonded seams for the players. Now they seem to be trying deliberatly to expose the differences so that they can flog the "authentic" versions for twice the price. Not sure why they haven't released one of those for United this season though like they have for their other big clubs. It's worth noting that the Umbro replicas are virtually identical to the player's shirts.
The recycled material stuff is great as a concept. They should do what they did with the recent France shirt though and blend it with organic cotton as it feels cheap as hell otherwise. They could easily make shirts from those materials, take a cue from Umbro as per the designs rather than turning out dross like next season's designs and they'd sell more shirts even if they had to up the price, surely?
The points you brought up earlier re the embroidery and recycled materieal I am aware of. I always thought they had it the wrong way arounf in the 80s and early 90s where the replica shirts had printed crests and the players were running around with an embroidered one scratching the hell out of their nips! What I don't understand is why they have a printed crest on the replicas now but continue to have a stitched on mess of a badge (a halfway house between a patch and embroidery) on the replicas. Surely it would be cheaper to make the replicas in the same way as the player's shirts. The only difference in recent years has been the heat-bonded seams for the players. Now they seem to be trying deliberatly to expose the differences so that they can flog the "authentic" versions for twice the price. Not sure why they haven't released one of those for United this season though like they have for their other big clubs. It's worth noting that the Umbro replicas are virtually identical to the player's shirts.
The recycled material stuff is great as a concept. They should do what they did with the recent France shirt though and blend it with organic cotton as it feels cheap as hell otherwise. They could easily make shirts from those materials, take a cue from Umbro as per the designs rather than turning out dross like next season's designs and they'd sell more shirts even if they had to up the price, surely?
I didn't work in design, but was responsible for internal footwear and apparel product training, among other things...
Polyester is fantastic from a performance perspective - the only downside is that it usually feels extremely synthetic (which makes sense!). Some people have a greater aversion to this than others. So adding cotton does give a softer hand to the fabric, but it does also impact performance slightly (in that a poly-cotton mix will usually perform worse than a 100% polyester). Also, important to note that just because something is 100% polyester, this does not mean its the same as the cheap knock-off tops - which are also likely to be 100% polyester. Difference is that the authentic tops (not just ones from Nike) will use a microfiber - not standard polyester.
As for the badges - agree with your points. It's a trade-off between appearance and performance. On-pitch, performance is of paramount performance. Off-pitch, for someone buying the shirt to wear to watch a match, the appearance is more important. And considering the amount the kits cost, they want something that more visibly reflects the price they paid.
Nike tried to appeal to the match-goer with a range they released several years ago which looked to introduce more football culture into the products. The range featured more casual clothes that were inspired by the heritage and traditions of a club and could be worn in place of a replica jersey but still demonstrated your club affinity.
I love the Last Exit to Nowhere site and would love more tees that followed this idea from a football perspective - subtly demonstrating your allegiance, rather than explicitly. Not sure if they still do, but Umbro were doing a weekly t-shirt design on their website and some of them were very cool.
Yeah, some of those Umbro tees were good, but 80% of them were the kind of lad culture rubbish you'd find at Topman. I agree with your point about tees though.
It's funny that you mention fans wanting something that more visibly reflects the price they paid though, as those £90 'Authentic' shirts are double the price of the standard replica but with cheaper printed logos and crests. The only noticable difference is the odd T-shaped binding on the shoulders. Funny that the training shirts are available with these features at a lower price than the standard replica shirts. Like I say, the only other difference is the heat-bonded seam on match shirts.
It's funny that you mention fans wanting something that more visibly reflects the price they paid though, as those £90 'Authentic' shirts are double the price of the standard replica but with cheaper printed logos and crests. The only noticable difference is the odd T-shaped binding on the shoulders. Funny that the training shirts are available with these features at a lower price than the standard replica shirts. Like I say, the only other difference is the heat-bonded seam on match shirts.
I almost cried during that game. fecking Alves!
If we'd beaten Barca in the CL final last year, that white kit would still be an awful design.
Fair point!!
Hollands Euro 2012 away
Holland EURO 2012 Nike Away Shirt Leaked | 12/13 Kits | Football Shirt Culture.com
Holland EURO 2012 Nike Away Shirt Leaked | 12/13 Kits | Football Shirt Culture.com
If Nike own Umbro can't they let them design our shirts?
Yep especially with Umbro being local but Nike want maximum exposure I suppose. Same thing happened when Adidas took over Reebok, they slapped their logo on the scousers kit instead of keeping the Reebok one. Like I said earlier look for them to replace the Umbro diamond with the swoosh on the Shitty shirts soon.
Umbro seems to be doing a lot better since Nike took over though. They seem to be going for the classic, no nonesense dollar, and there designs seem to be paying off. I'm not fully convinced myself but Umbro seems to be regaining some of it's credibility.
Do you not think it possible Nike will reserve Man City as one of/if not there main flagship Umbro team in Europe, to help further the brand and it's exposure/influence?
Do you not think it possible Nike will reserve Man City as one of/if not there main flagship Umbro team in Europe, to help further the brand and it's exposure/influence?
They wouldn't be seeking new clients for Umbro though if that were their goal (edit: was replying to Ramshock).
Here's their latest Universitario shirt by the way:
Umbro have re-released "stitch by stitch" versions of some of their past designs too: Icons Reissued - a set on Flickr
Shame they can't reissue the some of the 50s/60s/70s United stuff they made...
Here's their latest Universitario shirt by the way:
Umbro have re-released "stitch by stitch" versions of some of their past designs too: Icons Reissued - a set on Flickr
Shame they can't reissue the some of the 50s/60s/70s United stuff they made...
They wouldn't be seeking new clients for Umbro though if that were their goal (edit: was replying to Ramshock).
Here's their latest Universitario shirt by the way:
Umbro have re-released "stitch by stitch" versions of some of their past designs too: Icons Reissued - a set on Flickr
Shame they can't reissue the some of the 50s/60s/70s United stuff they made...
Exactly the sort of shirt I'm talking about.
Your average lad would see it and go, 'woah, lovely. Proppa retro feel.'
But to me, - whilst I do like minimalist designs on football shirt to and extent - They're all getting a bit samey, see Rangers, England, Ireland, Wales, City, and strike me as being a bit lazy/derivative designs. To most however, they're wonderful.
Step 1. Choose a solid and polite base colour.
Step 2. Insert Badge and Umbro logo.
Step 3. Change colour of collar/arms/stripes.
Shirt finished.
Yeah, the trouble is the frequency of changes coupled with the classic styling causes there to be very little differences between Umbro kits. If they were kept for two or three seasons it'd be better for the designs - they'd have a decent lifetime and the designers could be more innovative the next time around knowing they'd not have to do another slight variation on the same theme 12 months later.
They wouldn't be seeking new clients for Umbro though if that were their goal (edit: was replying to Ramshock).
Here's their latest Universitario shirt by the way:
Umbro have re-released "stitch by stitch" versions of some of their past designs too: Icons Reissued - a set on Flickr
Shame they can't reissue the some of the 50s/60s/70s United stuff they made...
Holy cow. A side wearing that would never lose.
That was leaked a while back and my word, what a sexy shirt
Oh god those look nice.
I don't really see a great difference between that and the Universitario one. Standard crew collar. Traditional colours. Crest and logo. Add two angular shapes that mean nothing. Shirt finished.
Why cant we have simple and clean like that? A club like United shouldnt be subjected to gimmicky shirt designs imo
They wouldn't be seeking new clients for Umbro though if that were their goal (edit: was replying to Ramshock).
Here's their latest Universitario shirt by the way:
Umbro have re-released "stitch by stitch" versions of some of their past designs too: Icons Reissued - a set on Flickr
Shame they can't reissue the some of the 50s/60s/70s United stuff they made...
No, they will keep the high profile clients for themselves of which Citeh will become very soon.
Umbro have re-released City's 91 shirt.
I noticed that when I was having a look on Toffs the other day. I'd imagine the deal we have with Score Draw prevents Umbro from re-releasing any of their United shirts.
Score Draw have just brought this out by the way: Manchester United 1999 FA Cup Semi Final Away Shirt
Score Draw have just brought this out by the way: Manchester United 1999 FA Cup Semi Final Away Shirt
Whilst I agree, I still like it.
They've also brought out the 68 ECF tracky top but with the coat of arms badge instead of Manchester United in it's place.
Arsenal's new home kit apparently:
EXCLUSIVE: New Arsenal home shirt for next season revealed - Arsenalinsider | Arsenalinsider.com
EXCLUSIVE: New Arsenal home shirt for next season revealed - Arsenalinsider | Arsenalinsider.com
Remove the black and it's fine. Keep the black and it's awful.
With or without the shit photoshopping?
That's fecking horrible.
Lucky it's not real then.
One of the worst photoshops ive seenif that tartan effort is the real deal then they have outdone themselves for shitness. I usually buy a couple for my nephews but there is no way I will pay for that shit. dont care how it looks on the pitch.
Yep, here's the original:
How people get suckered by these shitty photshop efforts I'll never know, but I suspect a trip to the opticians may be necessarry (better get someone to help them across the road too just in case they miss an artic bearing down on them).
How people get suckered by these shitty photshop efforts I'll never know, but I suspect a trip to the opticians may be necessarry (better get someone to help them across the road too just in case they miss an artic bearing down on them).
New Germany away! love it, gonna invest in one.
That's very nice. Adidas make some good kits.
Although, really that could have easily been a Nike kit. Take away the three stripes and it's very plain with a simple crew neck, just like what Nike have been knocking out for the last few years.