GoalPost #12: Sartorial excellence
Shirts, kit and legend
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TotalFootball brings the GoalPost series which features 3 articles from the Web that make for interesting and informative reading.
Shirt Tales
Synopsis
Shirt Tales is one of the best-presented websites for those with an interest in football shirts, and in particular, the history and circumstance associated with various designs. A number of club and country shirts are presented, including all the legendary classics. Easy to read, this site balances presentation, detail and graphics with as much style as the shirts it features.
My View
Sartorial excellence in football is a supremely entertaining niche. The first thing we notice about teams, especially as newcomers to the game, are the shirts and kit. The colours, placement of logos, numbering, trim — these make an impact on our minds which is deeper than we realize. Shirt design has come a long way but classics have endured — sometimes for their style, sometimes for the people who wore them, and sometimes both. From the legendary orange kit of the Dutch in 1988 to Fiorentina’s iconic purple shirt sporting the 7UP logo in the early 90s, shirts capture memories — forever.
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Sartorial Soccer
Synopsis
There’s a number of blog type articles covering classics (like Italy, Spain etc.) all the way to the kits of rather obscure clubs (like Gbagada FC). To paraphrase from the site’s own introduction, it’s about the good, the bad, the ugly and the borderline.
My View
While we remember good kit, there is also, without doubt, bad kit. Some designs seemed like a good idea at the time but are unthinkable for today’s sartorial sensitivities. Others, like Nigeria’s fluorescent zig-zag kit for 2018 divide opinion forever. And then, there are other designs which are “so bad that they’re good”. There’s an incredible variety out there appealing (and not appealing) to diverse tastes. I take a great interest in kit design and with the passage of time, I’d be keen to observe if any retro styles make a comeback. With the move towards recycling, carbon-zero etc. maybe the shirts of the future would be vastly different to ones today, fusing textile and nano-computing technologies? The emergence of a new layer of design, which is deeper, and beyond the visual, seems imminent.
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Historical Kits
Synopsis
This site focusses on English and Scottish clubs and while presented in ‘plain old HTML style’ reminiscent of the 90s, there’s a treasure trove of information on kits alongside historical background. A chronology of each club’s kit is also presented — from their first-ever to their current kit. The English Football League is the oldest football league competition in the world. With this in mind, the chronology is a superb standout feature.
Synopsis
The shirt (and kit) is the identity of the club, personified by a player on the pitch. It’s like a ‘design ambassador’. Not surprisingly today, a lot of detail goes into designing the kit. Some go for contemporary designs, some innovate while others hark back to a legacy. Along with the kit, the club crests are also rejuvenated and remodelled these days. Every design tells a story and when we look at how football kit has evolved over the years, be it for one club or generally, we can build a rich meta-picture of how contemporary fashion, ergonomics and economics (logos) have infused into football.
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