I wrote this article about a week ago, but never got around to posting it. The kit hasn’t changed in that time (despite a few fans calling for the old badge to be reinstated), so here are my thoughts on Town’s new home kit for the 2018/19 season.
Classic stripes
This is one of the best looking kits that Town have had for a number of years. My preferred type of kit is a simple, blue and white striped shirt, white shorts and white socks. This seems like fairly basic criteria, but every year there seems to be some extra flourish added by the designer that messes it up.
Last year the shirt had the weird bubble design which made my eyes go a bit funny when I looked at it. In previous seasons we’ve had dissolving stripes, solid blue on the back instead of stripes all around, odd shades of blue and odd collars. It’s amazing how hard kit manufacturers try to add their own stamp to the design and usually they mess it up.
So, Umbro’s real achievement with this year’s kit is to keep things simple and make a kit that looks like a Town kit. Simple is better in my eyes, and that’s the reason I think this is the best kit we’ve had in a long time. Oh, and the Premier League badge on the sleeve, that helps too!
Ugly sponsor looking better
Another area that has improved in this year’s kit is the sponsor logo. Last season’s sponsor looked bad, an ironed on, late addition. This couldn’t be avoided because the kit was designed before we knew who our sponsor would be. And the ugly logo on our shirts brought in a shed load of cash for us, so it was worth it.
OPE must have committed to sponsoring Town again this season before our divisional status was confirmed, as their logo feels more a part of the design and looks a lot better. I’m still not a huge fan of Chinese writing on shirts, or endorsing gambling. But I can understand the desire to build a relationship with a partner in the Far East, and why we’ve had to go abroad to get the most money.
It’s also worth mentioning that OPE subsidised the coaches to the Chelsea away game, which was the game that confirmed we were staying up. So their nice gesture meant many fans made that game that might otherwise have struggled to afford the coach fee to London. So OPE deserve some credit for that.
Funny neckline and Umbro logo ribbon
I only have two little quibbles with this kit. Firstly, the neck looks pretty weird on the promotional photos. It bulges slightly below the collar bone, which is odd given the photoshoot for the kit should show it off in the best possible light. When lumpy Town fans start wearing them, rather than professional sportsmen, any faults in the design are likely to stand out even more.
Hopefully it’s just a strange anomally on some of the photos, but it looks like the shirt has ridden up and caused a bunch up of material.
The other thing I don’t like is the Umbro logo ribbon on the sleeves. They’ve got their logo on the chest already, so it seems like overkill to shove a load more logos on the sleeves and it take away from the simplicity of the kit. It’s not a huge problem, but it’s a kit designer shoving their branding onto the shirt at the expense of the overall look.
New badge drama
The biggest talking point about the new kit is the change from the traditional crest to the new terrier logo that was introduced last season. Many fans have taken to social media to complain about the switch, but I quite like it.
The club have confirmed that the crest will live on, the terrier will replace it on the shirt but the crest will still be used elsewhere. (Which will be a relief to the thousands of fans that have it tattooed on their bodies.) There’s a suggestion the terrier will be for just this season, but I suspect it may continue if the club deem it a success.
I think the terrier design is distinctive and is easily recognisable from a distance. The official crest has lots of symbolism for Town fans but, from a design point of view, it’s a bit cluttered and all the detail gets lost from a distance.
It’s also worth adding that there’s plenty of history of Town playing with just a Terrier on their shirts rather than a full crest. There’s loads of information on the history on the official site, which shows they’ve tried to anticipate the reaction.
Some Leeds fans have tried to compare this change to their disastrous attempt to change badges last season. The Gaviscon logo they proposed was (quite rightly) ridiculed and the club climbed down on their decision.
Town’s change of badge sidesteps a lot of the issues Leeds had because:
- The new design isn’t awful (I quite like it)
- Fans have had nearly a year to get used to the Terrier branding, so it’s not a huge shock
- The old badge isn’t being thrown in the bin and could return to the shirt as quickly as next season
Will this kit be easier to get than last year’s?
Town have changed kit suppliers for this season from Puma to Umbro, which will hopefully deal with the supply chain issues they had last year. In defence of Puma, nobody expected Town to go up at the point the order went in for shirts and the demand after promotion was huge.
Having said that, there was a huge issue with Puma making and shipping out new shirts when the club needed them. It took far too long for the next order to arrive, after the initial shipment sold out almost straight away. Town must have lost a lot of money because of that delay, as the weather had turned colder and summer holidays were long-past by the time the club shop had more shirts to sell.
Hopefully these new shirts will be more readily available this season, and new orders won’t take quite so long to come through.
When is the new shirt available?
The shirt will go on sale on 7 July through the official Town shops and online megastore. Preorders are available now on the megastore website.
This must be the earliest a new Town shirt has been available for a while, which will mean plenty of Town fans can wear their new shirt for their summer holidays!
Excellent article as always.
Very well put I’m waiting for the away top that I buy every year