First Aid Kit - Shirt Gallery 2018/19

[Bored Of Education]

I'd imagine that, with the attention to stripeage on the sleeves, the back of that Newcastle kit will have stripes as well which makes one wonder about how the numbers will be placed.

[Levin]

Why does a fish and chips shop do a bureau d'change?

They're getting in to chipcoin.

[3 Colours Red]

I'd imagine that, with the attention to stripeage on the sleeves, the back of that Newcastle kit will have stripes as well which makes one wonder about how the numbers will be placed.

They'll probably just have red ones again.

[Billy Casper]

Do Wednesday have stripes on the back? It doesn't look like it. The white stripes on the front look thinner than the blue ones too, which I don't like. Miles better than last season's though.

Newcastle's shirt looks more like Notts County to me. The stripes aren't wide enough.

[longeared]

Do Wednesday have stripes on the back? It doesn't look like it.

Ssh. The club have predictably managed to fuck up the release as well, after proudly announcing it would go on sale this morning they had to revise this last night and now it can be only bought today if you are a woman or under the age of four or want to purchase the "limited edition" version which is the same as the players wear. Never change, Wednesday.

Here's Leicester City change.

[Sits]

Looks like that terrible Man U kit from the 90s.

[ursus arctos]

Fiorentina and Le Coq Sportif continue their retro journey, reintroducing black shorts.



Atalanta



Cagliari

[ad hoc]

God compared to the last two years that Wednesday kit is lovely. I am sure there are things wrong with it but for now I am happy to entirely overlook them

[Sits]

Quite happy with all those Italian ones.

[Bored Of Education]

NUFC are too cheap to do a proper kit launch (good, I guess?), so just decided to slip it out whilst announcing the singing of Ki Sung-Yeung:



Pleasantly understated, quite like the signing.

Saw one of these this morning in the, err, polyester. It did indeed have the strips all around the back and I noticed that the stripes are slightly narrower than normal, I think, which pleasingly gives it the look of a Bath City shirt although I am not sure how it matches up with Newcastle tradition. A really nice shirt with the customary "sponsor logo notwithstanding" qualification.

[Ray de Galles]

Wimledon’s new Puma kits. First is actually too clean, not enough yellow and, of course, too polo shirt.

An exact reverse of the change would have been better :

[ursus arctos]

Fortuna Düsseldorf go seriously old school for their return to the 1. Bundesliga with a tribute to their 1966 kit



I'm a big fan of this effort.

[EIM]

Le Coq Sportif are so, so good.

[Billy Casper]

That Atalanta shirt has the stupidest collar I have ever seen in my life.

From the state of the shelves, it looks like the Wimbledon shirts are actually being sold inside the WH Smith. I agree with Ray though - it needs more yellow. It's more Oldham than Wimbledon.

[Ray de Galles]

Quite happy with all those Italian ones.

The model for the Atalanta one especially.

[Various Artist]

Blimey. The new Norwich first kit has been launched today, and I think I might just love it:



Like 1993 but with a touch of restraint.

My appreciation comes with the usual caveat about the sponsor, of course. Were it still Aviva, it would look even better.

[Ray de Galles]

Oooh, lush -apart from the sponsor.

[Various Artist]

Hang on – the kids' version is magnificently superior, I've just discovered.

How joyous would it be if all kit sponsors were like this?

[Simon G]

Sponsor aside, that Norwich kit is a promotion one if ever I've seen one.

Having seen Errea's efforts with Franchise and Lincoln, I was beginning to get a bit worried about ours (released on July 21st) but Norwich and Grimsby definitely give me hope.

[Ray de Galles]

I hadn’t seen those Franchise kits (and they’re not allowed on the thread) but they really are suitably ghastly.

[Hot Orange]

What's going on with the Norwich shorts up there?

[Various Artist]

Oh, I see what you mean HO! They all look like they've got them on backwards or something.

[The-Reverend]

Aye, that's a rather nice Norwich shirt.

[Hot Orange]

Ok, obviously I'm biased, but that Norwich shirt is terrible, isn't it? Just like the 1993 one it mimics. Isn't it? Anyone?

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Le Coq Sportif are so, so good.

Their strategy certainly has been unusual in that, circa 2010 (while pretty much in the wilderness), they decided to gradually relocate part of their production to France, not much, mainly the R & D unit and some high end production (about 7% now, but they're aiming for ~10% soon and hope to grow; most of the rest is done in Morocco, Portugal and Vietnam) but enough to re-energise the brand and convince several sporting partners and brand ambassadors to work with them (a roll call of former French legends, Yannick Noah, rugbymen J-P Rives, Frédéric Michalak, rally driver Sébastien Lœb, also Sainté, Fiorentina + Tour de France since 2012 and individual sports people such as Richard Gasquet, rugby clubs too, eg Racing Club Paris – they’re banking on having the Rugby national team in their squad to boost production next year – world cup – and target the 2,000 French rugby clubs). That’s the new French rugby shirt BTW, out today:

https://twitter.com/lecoqsportif/status/1013365441392271361

Dominique Rocheteau and other Verts Greats were at the official opening in 2015 of the new extended Coq Sportif's factory in Romilly-sur-Seine (near Troyes, Burgundy) as Sainté signed a contract with them (they produced the legendary Sainté shirt from the 1970s, the one all French kids like myself had when Sainté was considered the substitute national team, at a time when the French national team wasn't much cop).

They now employ over 100 people there who produce about 35,000 items a year and growing (polos, shirts, shorts etc. All the shoes, 75% of the company’s turnover, are made in Vietnam and Portugal). They’ve also helped other French traditional industries that had almost totally disappeared from France, such as shoe-making, eg by outsourcing an Arthur Ashe pair of trainers in the French capital of shoe-making, Romans-sur-Isère.

Le Coq Sportif has really benefited from a revival of the "Made in France" concept and of a modest impetus for buying French and producing in France that timidly reappeared about a decade ago (high end stuff produced in France), it was given a little boost by François Hollande actually, he didn’t get that many things right so only fair to highlight his few successes, I think the French gvt gave Le Coq Sportif about €1 million to expand their production unit near Troyes.

In 2012, Hollande appointed a "Mister Made in France", a young flamboyant politician called Arnaud Montebourg, who was given the title of Minister of Industrial Renewal and stayed in the gvt between May 2012 and August 2014. He then fell out with Hollande and resigned from the gvt in opposition to Hollande’s liberal policy shift, along with a dissident group of fellow socialists (called Les Frondeurs, the Rebels). Montebourg has always been a fierce critic of "délocalisation" - shifting production abroad - and was much more hardline left than centre-left Hollande.

Montebourg campaigned to bring back jobs to France especially in those areas where French expertise had traditionally been strong, and obviously haut de gamme and quality textile products is one of them, eg Le Coq Sportif. The local gvt there (Aube department, Troyes area) and the state partly subsidised Le Coq Sportif’s factory extension, their historic Romilly-sur-Seine factory near Troyes I mean (closed down in 1988, then gradually reopened from 2010 I think – the Troyes area is historically big on textile, especially for bonneterie, i.e lingerie, socks, tights etc.).

Montebourg ran for the 2017 presidency and was even tipped about 2 yrs ago as a potential future French president, but was beaten by Hamon in the primaries and was never seen again. He got so sick of politics and the useless Parti Socialiste that instead of joining Macron's camp (like so many of his socialist colleagues did), he retired from politics (he’d also been an MP etc.) and is now… a happy beekeeper in Burgundy! (well, sort of, he has a few beehives himself and is clearly passionate about that but his job is more to help local honey businesses to grow).