With curtains falling over the season before our focus shifts to international football, the annual kit mania is in full flow. With all kinds of news, official and rumoured regarding next season’s kits dropping left, right and center, it’s time to analyse the designs ahead of the summer.
This week, fans were treated to the release of the Arsenal Home kit by the Adidas for the 2024/25 season and it’s safe to say it has raised some eyebrows.
Arsenal kits always bring with themselves a fresh look and innovative design and this year is no different. The splash of blue on the famous three adidas stripes and the sides on the jersey with a blue whirl on the shorts certainly gives it a nice little change.
Another thing that catches the eye is the club crest. Campaigning under the inspiration ‘The Year of the Cannon’, the German sports manufacturer has gone with the club’s iconic canon as its logo and it looks right at home.
However, it must be said that not every detail about the kit is worth singing praises about. While there are certainly things to like about it, Arsenal fans are unable to digest some aspects of the design of the all-new home jersey.
For starters, the Arsenal jersey features a, let’s say unique, design at the back that is bearing the brunt of the fans. With the colors combination of red and white to be respected, the red colored portion of the kit at the back has been somewhat prematurely omitted from having its effect.
The Arsenal red bends away from the bottom edge of the shirt in a very weird way that is really not worth writing home about, seems incomplete and is definitely not received well by the fans.
As a matter of fact, the mismanagement or the skewed imbalance of the two major colors of the palette, is a recurring theme of the kit. Even at the front, the red is spread out just fine up until reaching the neck where it bends awkwardly around it, giving the front of the kit to resemble that of a water bottle.
It is a big call from the designing team that has admittedly not gone down well with the Arsenal fans and is subjected to a whole wave of banter from their rival fans.
The list doesn’t end there. Even when rumours and leaked images of the kit were swirling round in the media, Arsenal fans had something to say about the about the look of it. They complained about the overly enlarged crest, adidas logo and sponsors, that were certainly taking attention away from the actual design of the kit. Not to forget, the striking resemblance the kit shares with that of the Ajax’s Home Strip.
If that wasn’t enough, Arsenal’s home kit for the goalkeeper definitely doesn’t seem fresh, unique or new, for that matter.
While Adidas has stuck to their promise of delivering something fresh and something ‘blue’, with so many ‘ifs and buts’, the Arsenal home kit can’t be seen as a hit or loved by its fans. Quite contrary to its current home strip featuring the Arsenal palette teamed up with gold to produce one gem of a kit.
But with the design now official, there’s no going back with this one. Sorry Arsenal fans, but you are going to have to wait until next year.