Sunday, August 22, 2010

Top Ten Best Club Kits Of 2010-2011

This was disturbingly difficult. There are so few good kits this year, it was basically impossible to narrow it down to 10 different teams. The designs being shat out by all involved are so awful that the best designs were pretty no frills. Sadly, the vast majority of the "Best" involve vertical red stripes which is very disappointing.

ARSENAL (Home) : These aren't really in any order, but Arsenal is definitely #1. The Gunners return to a classic red body with white sleeves, very clean and simple. Well done on Nike's part, sadly a rarity this year, too bad their away kit has the yellow-maroon color scheme.


PSV EINDHOVEN (Home) : Extremely close to their 09/10 kit with one huge change; the rear continues the the vertical striping. Last year they had solid red backs, solid backs on patterned kits is one of my biggest pet peeves (see Werder Bremen in our 10 Worst post) and they got rid of that for the 10/11 version. Simple, clean, very nice.


MANCHESTER CITY (All Three) : This is lame, I know, they are pretty much the same as last year. That is how bad the crop of kits is this year, all it takes is a solid jersey with collar accents to make our Top 10. Also, to be fair, their third kit is the same as last year. So Umbro strikes gold by doing nothing, hopefully Nike/Adidas are reading this...

RANGERS (Home) : Another simple throwback inspired jersey. Not much to say here, but I do think they get points for having a collar. It makes me sad the the collar has become an endangered design element, so its nice to see it... even if its from 1970.

RANGERS (Away) : Yes, this is how hard it was to find 10 great jerseys. Vertical red stripes, get used to it.

CELTIC (Home) : I thought it would be nice if Celtic were right next to Rangers. They have ditched the bumble bee look for their classic green and white, and I like it.
AC MILAN (Home) : Ok, try not to fall asleep here because the vertical red stripes continue their assault on our Top 10. Adidas manages not to completely mangle this one, bonus for the new sponsor logo as well. I know its out of their control, but the rectangle of black with the sponsor inside it looked horrible. Tangent : I hate the way the rectangle + sponsor looks on kits. Just hate it. It looks like someone just slapped it on, look at Bayern Munich's new home kit. I don't even think the rectangle is the same white as their stripes.
SUNDERLAND (Home) : Simple, nothing crazy here. I don't know why, but vertical red stripes seems to be the way to go. I don't know why nobody out there rocks a blue or green. The only non-red vertical stripes I can think of is Juventus and Newcastle, and Puma butchered Newcastle, not to mention the sadness of a non-Newcastle Brown Ale sponsored jersey. How could you kill the greatest Club-Sponsor pairing ever?!

OLYMPIQUE LYON (Home) : Another white kit, but I like the old school sash element. I wish the sponsor logo didn't cut it in half, but with the way things work we are lucky that the sponsors don't pick the 25 man roster.
ATHLETICO BILBAO (Home) : Yes, they look like an American flag. I don't care, they look good. Nice to see Umbro nailing the simple and clean designs, I know Nike owns them so I don't understand how the two can be so different on that front.