First Aid Kit - Shirt Gallery 2018/19

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Speaking of which (Les Herbiers-PSG), looks like the Guardian is going to publish (sometime this week) an article I wrote on the "Vieille Dame" (the Coupe de France), centenary final next Tuesday. Possibly The Observer too, not sure yet, I emailed it to them last Tuesday or Wednesday, they told me they liked it, would publish it, would pay me etc. but I don’t know the details. It's a bit long so they’ll probably trim it, unfortunately.

I hope they keep the para I wrote about Philippe Katerine (France’s barmiest singer and Les Herbiers’s number 1 celebrity fan): this clip was shot in Beaurepaire, a few miles from Les Herbiers, he roped in the 2,000 villagers. Has written a weird Coupe anthem for next week's game Defo not the sort of French singer to invite to perform at a royal wedding.

[Ray de Galles]

Les Herbiers' vile shirt... (the third division team who will play PSG in the French Cup final next week, May 8th)

Very Streatham Rovers.

[Ray de Galles]

Which one is the Luton home kit? Are they sticking with orange but adding orange shorts and black trim (black!). Or are they going all white? You just can't trust Luton kits can you.

All orange is first kit, all white is change.

Which is A Bad Thing.

[Ray de Galles]

The photo previously of the Donny shirts doesn’t do their full awfulness justice. I didn’t actually realise from it that all the “hoops” were wavy, thought it was just the top one :

[ursus arctos]

Les Herbiers will have to ditch that kit for the Final, as this season’s Coupe de France kits are by Nike, with the sponsors being PMU or Credit Agricole.

[Billy Casper]

The one good thing about that Donny kit is that it is putting things into perspective for me. Yeah we might, and probably will get relegated on Sunday. But at least I won't have to watch my team wearing that next season.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

And thank God for that UA, wouldn’t be befitting of the Vieille Dame (no, not your Juve UA, but our Old Lady). I think Nike would kick up an almighty stink if they missed out on the Coupe de France given what they give the FFF every year, a whopping €50m.

From the preliminary 4th round onwards (played at the end of September – so, not our FA Cup fourth round, which is the round of 32 in EU money, but the preliminary one) clubs have to wear the Nike kit, so that means dishing out over 30,000 kits to the 1,300 odd teams still present at that stage. With one peculiarity this commemorative year (centenary final): the insertion of all the names of the Coupe winners in the number (the bigger the name, the more times they’ve won it).






Les Herbiers’ "exter" (away shirt) is even fouler, a sort of Mags’ rag on steroids.

[denishurley]

So the Coupe de France kit contract is basically the same as the one for the French national team kit, given that adidas used to make the strips for the cup (and the league cup, but I think that's outside the blanket coverage now)?

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I think so but I could be wrong.

https://www.sportcal.com/News/FeaturedNews/107994. Nike’s new agreement, which was announced on Thursday afternoon, will run from 2018 to 2026. The deal allows Nike to continue to supply the national team kits and, for the first time, the sportswear firm will supply kit for the amateur game in France. […] Nike is paying a rights fee of €38 million per season in its new contract and providing kit for national teams and amateur leagues across France totalling €12 million, according to L'Equipe. […]Nike's current agreement represented a huge hike on the annual figure of just €10 million paid by Adidas under the previous deal.

[…] 38 millions d'euros minimum en cash, plus 7,5 millions d'euros de matériels pour les équipes de France et la Coupe de France à partir du quatrième tour, et enfin 5 millions d'euros pour le football amateur.

Couldn’t tell you for sure about the Coupe de la Ligue but yes, it looks like it's not part of the deal. I really know absolutely zilch about the Coupe de la Ligue and even less who sponsors it, I really can’t give two flying mille-feuilles about it. I never watch that shite and never follow it (unlike the Coupe, I used to go and watch the finals at the Parc des Princes from the mid-1970s onwards, well, some finals, not every year) so I have no idea who sponsors it, who won it this year (PSG I would imagine…) etc. The only thing I remember about the Coupe de la Ligue is lowly Ligue 2 Gueugnon winning it in 2000 and the ensuing "I woz there"-style jokes that only served to highlight its shity status.

[denishurley]

Not even this guy seems to care that much about it, but we can extrapolate that the same-maker element stopped after 2001-02.

Nice Gueugnon kit, tbf.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Poor Forgerons... (Gueugnon FC), what's happened to them really is tragic. And worthy of a film really, what with the farcical involvement of the Vairelles family (Tony Vairelles, ex French international), a right fucking "schmilblick" as the French say (unbelievable carry-on/palaver). What followed (2011) was equally pathetic

https://www.thelocal.fr/20111025/1558, Former France international footballer Tony Vairelles has been arrested, along with three others, on suspicion of attempted murder following a shooting in a nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning, police sources said on Monday.

[ursus arctos]

Vairelles is what we call “a piece of work” in New York.

The Coupe de la Ligue ended the “exclusive kit manufacturer” policy in 2001-02, but keep the “two exclusive shirt sponsors” for another decade. ASSE 2012-13 were the first club to win it wearing their “proper” kit with their normal shirt sponsor.

When he was President of the league, Le Graet signed a contract with adidas that purported to require clubs to wear only adidas kits in league matches, but it was struck down after a legal challenge by clubs under contract with other firms and never came into effect.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I'm moving our Vairelles refined discourse here.

[Uros Predic]

The photo previously of the Donny shirts doesn’t do their full awfulness justice. I didn’t actually realise from it that all the “hoops” were wavy, thought it was just the top one :

There are fans on our messageboards saying that they like them. They actually like this! I know Doncaster isn't exactly the centre of sartorial style, but bloody hell we as a town have to try and pitch ourselves a little bit higher than being impressed by anything that's got bright colours and a club crest on it. Every time I look at them I see something else ridiculous. Why do the waves go the opposite way to the Virgin text kerning? What the fuck is that rogue silver hoop about on the away top? Why is the red of the away shirt a slightly different shade to that of the home? Is that crest even straight?

The argument for those who profess to like this shitshow of a home kit is that 'it keeps it fresh', like there's a need to? Bloody hell Celtic have managed to go 125 years without making their hoops diagonal, why can't we go a decade without going all Lawrence Llewellyn-pissing-Bowen on them?

I just don't understand how we can get something so straight forward so spectacularly wrong, year on year.

[Kevin S]

Do those in favour of the kit have a desire to stand outside a barbers' shop, rotating slowly?

[Ray de Galles]

Every time I look at them I see something else ridiculous. Why do the waves go the opposite way to the Virgin text kerning? What the fuck is that rogue silver hoop about on the away top? Why is the red of the away shirt a slightly different shade to that of the home? Is that crest even straight?

Now you say that, the top hoop doesn't look quite parallel to the others, it appears to be a shallower curve.

[Uros Predic]

Now you say that, the top hoop doesn't look quite parallel to the others, it appears to be a shallower curve.

Oh God, you're right. It doesn't level out on the right (left as you look) side either.

[Ray de Galles]

The amount of "hoop" showing in the bottom left of each shirt in the photo isn't the same either.

You're only hope is that they are hastily knocked together prototypes.

[Ray de Galles]

Also, who is the player on the far right with the very perky breasts (or perhaps it's just one breast, his right one looks almost concave in comparison)?

[Amor de Cosmos]

They're not hoops at all, they're horizontal stripes — or swashes. Hoops, by definition, are three dimensional and so must go all the way around the body. These don't appear to.

[Fussbudget]

The amount of "hoop" showing in the bottom left of each shirt in the photo isn't the same either.

Man that is so sloppy. The distance between the top "hoop" and the collar trim is also different on the two shirts.

I think the wavy hoops could have worked in a wacky Bradford City way if they were evenly spaced on the shirt (and ideally going around the back as well), but that fuckery with the single thicker red band at the top and the big white space for the sponsor logo really kills it.

[Ray de Galles]

They're not hoops at all, they're horizontal stripes — or swashes. Hoops, by definition, are three dimensional and so must go all the way around the body. These don't appear to.

Alright, Joey ;

[Billy Casper]

I'm really sorry to keep banging on about these shirts, but I just can't seem to let it go. Questions need to be asked about who made the final decision on having the logo and badge at different heights. Did anyone point out just how ridiculous it would look?
Can I also point out that with mostly white shorts (Why a vertical stripe? How does that go with a wibbly wobbly 'hoop' design?) and all white socks that this kit from a distance will look like Stevenage or Cheltenham. Or in the wrong light, like a busy Leeds.

ThelikesofDoncaster are red and white. This is white with red bits. They need to go back to the drawing board and just copy whatever QPR come out with this year, but with red instead of blue.

It's not only a relegation kit, it's a bottom of the table, three managers for the season, no home wins until February relegation kit.

[Fussbudget]

Oh hold on, the hoops do go around the back, but they're interrupted by white panels on the side. Why

Also there's a really lazy thing going on where the design isn't scaled up or down for different shirt sizes, so the bigger size shirts have more hoops (if you look at that picture of the kids on page 2, the smaller kids only have two hoops at the bottom of the shirt instead of three like the players.) But apart from all that, great job.

[Bored Of Education]

What is the point of posting French football kits when they cover them up so much with sponsors' logos - cycling style. Even if you are a fan of sponsors' logos - i.e. mental - they are too much.