How do you come up with a new design for a kit?
I always begin by looking at a club’s identity, their badge, where they are based etc. If I can incorporate something unique whether that be part of the badge, a word or phrase or a local landmark I always feel that makes a shirt feel more special. I also draw a lot of inspiration from historical kits. I always try to think back to the kits of my childhood and beyond. As someone who grew up in Britain in the 1990s I’m heavily influenced by kit designs from Serie A. I feel in Italy they have perfected designing kits that can be instantly associated with one particular club.
So which are some of your favourite kits?
I’m a big fan of the Sampdoria kits. They are simple yet they have an instantly recognisable and iconic design. What’s more is they don’t need to change much from year to year or from home to away and goalkeeper kit. Internationally Dutch kits always stand out to me. You could leave the badge off and still recognise it as a Dutch kit. In Britain I quite like Queen’s Park Rangers kits, particularly when they incorporate the red in the trim. The blue & white hoops are really well complimented by the red trim.
Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to football kits?
I really dislike the recent trend of changing a club badge to match a teams away shirt. For me a clubs badge is its identity especially the colours. Where possible I don’t think you should make any changes. I’m an Evertonian and our badge is a blue background with white detailing. I think we should always have our blue and white colours on show whatever the kit colour. The only change I consider acceptable is if we have a white kit the blue and white colours inverse. I know its quite popular but I think its really something that takes away from a shirt and takes away from the clubs identity.
What advice would you give to a club looking to create a bespoke kit?
In my opinion your kit should show your identity and in order to do that I think its important to create something that can’t easily be interchanged with any number of other clubs. I would say be bold with colour choices. So many clubs in the UK have blue or red as their colours. If you are using one of these as the main colour think about the shade, using a pattern or two tone design. If choosing a new colour think about the teams in and around you and create something that sets you apart from them. Colours like Purple, Orange and Maroon tend to be less common choices so can stand out more. For a home kit design try and achieve a simple and classic look. For an away design you can be more expressive.
Another thing I always think is important is to consider the sponsors logo. For example if you have a blue shirt and you have a sponsor logo such as Coca-Cola with a red background and white text it can be difficult to incorporate without making it look like you’ve got giant red patch on your shirts. A poorly added sponsor logo can ruin the whole design of the shirt so ask yourself can you integrate the sponsors colour within your identity? If not can the sponsor logo be adapted easily to fit your identity and if so is the sponsor happy with that? Remember a sponsor logo should add to the design.