Liverpool unveiled their new third kit yesterday, and it’s gone down like a lead balloon with a large number of fans. If you’ve not seen it here it is.
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I’m seemingly in the minority as I quite like it. Listening to and reading some of the hysterical reactions to this new kit, you’d think that the club had announced they were changing the name to ‘Everton B’ or were going to paint the insides of Anfield blue, rather than having a splash of a light shade of blue on a kit that’ll be worn a handful of times next season.
The problem many fans have is that the shirt contains blue, so people are associating it with Everton. However, when I looked at it I thought of Marseille rather than Everton. Everton play in royal blue, this is more of a sky blue (the official term is Cyan) so I don’t see what the problem is. In my opinion, it’s the black collar and stripe that looks weird, rather than the blue. The blue on this kit is to Everton’s colours as Everton’s pink kit last season is to Liverpool red.
The conspiracy theories have started. The main theory doing the rounds is that these colours have been selected because they are Standard Chartered’s colours (even though Standard Chartered’s corporate colours are actually Green and Blue). This has lead to some backlash against the sponsors, which is ridiculous as I seriously doubt they have any input into kit design. Would those fans prefer it if Liverpool ended their record sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered for the sake of a third kit?
The other theory is that Adidas have done this out of spite because Liverpool have not renewed their deal with Adidas, with Warrior becoming the kit provider after next season, which again is stupid as kits are designed well in advance of their release and this kit would have been designed (and presumably approved by the club) long before the decision to go with Warrior.
Liverpool claim that the kit is a nod back to the original colours of the club, which were the blue and white shirts Everton left when they moved out of Anfield. I’m not quite buying that as the original shirt was blue and white halves (like Blackburn Rovers), so if that was really the intention the blue would be more prominent.
It’s not like blue on a Liverpool kit is without recent precedent. Liverpool had a green away kit with a bit of blue and blue shorts in the late 90’s. Liverpool won the FA Cup in 2001 wearing a gold and blue shirt (with blue shorts and socks). Liverpool won the UEFA Super Cup the following season wearing a white and navy-blue shirt. I don’t remember there being any problems with the presence of blue on those shirts, so I don’t understand why it’s such a problem for some people now.
People are predicting low shirt sales for this kit, and they’re probably right. However, this will have a lot to do with the fact that it is a third kit, and as such will only be worn a few times and that with Warrior taking over, Liverpool will be releasing a minimum of three new kits by this time next year. With money being tight for a lot of people at present and replica shirts being quite expensive, this may be the shirt that fans choose to save their money by not buying.