EPL Talk » Football Shirts

Photoshop, Football Shirts, The Recession, And Maybe Not You Personally, But…

Matthew Semisch — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:56:16 +0000

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I suck at Photoshop.

A year ago, a Digital Photography course I had to take for my degree at university pushed me head-first into the world of photo-doctoring. Not to the point where we were creating things that weren’t there, but just touching pictures up so that they looked more aesthetically pleasing. I got out of the class with a solid A, but I didn’t then and I wouldn’t now call myself an expert.

Other people are, though, and fair play to them. However, when some of these supposed artists’ work – namely fake football shirt designs – hits the presses otherwise known as the Internet, I can’t help but ponder the following:

Shouldn’t we have anything better to do with our lives?

I realize that morbid curiosity gets the best of pretty much everybody at some stage, but sometimes I really do fear for those who fall at the first few hurdles. If you want a case in point, we’re right in the middle of a pretty big one at the moment, with tech-savvy prognosticators trying to predict what Adidas, Nike, Umbro, Canterbury, Under Armour – Yes, really. Hannover 96 must protect this house! – and all the rest of the kit manufacturers are going to be coming up with for club and national sides for the upcoming season.

That’s fine, except that by my math, ‘next season’ for a lot of those teams is around about five months away.

To help put this into perspective, allow me to throw in a personal anecdote. The club I support, Manchester City, is in its second year of a contract with French kit manufacturer Le Coq Sportif – Which translates into English as ‘The Sporty Rooster.’ …Yeah, okay. – and has travel agency Thomas Cook as their main sponsor. Both of these things are set to change next season, with City changing manufacturers (to Umbro) and possibly sponsors (to Etihad Airways).

I’m not going to speak for all City fans here, but frankly even that bit about next year’s kits is more than I’m really all that bothered to know at present, especially when I’m much more concerned with what’s going on more immediately with a club that’s still very much alive in the UEFA Cup and battling to retain their place in Europe for next season. Therefore, you can imagine that I might have been a wee bit annoyed the other day to find that the blog Todos Sobre Camisetas had unearthed the Blues’ supposed new home shirt for the 2009-10 campaign…or so they and we are all led to think.

On the surface, it’s all there: club badge on the left (from the wearer’s perspective), Umbro logo on the right, ‘Etihad Airways’ emblazoned in block letters on the middle of the chest. The only problem? It looks just like the supposed new England home shirt that has been making the rounds on Internet football sites. Which may or may not actually be the real thing. And is supposedly going to retail at a recession-tastic £50.

It’s with that last point in mind, then, that I put out the following question: Why are we encouraging this? I suppose there is the possibility that a lot of these ‘insiders’ are just wind-up merchants and/or supporters of other teams that are trying to get a rise out of rival fans, but I fail to see what purpose that serves.

Premiership clubs evidently reserve the right to come out with the following season’s kits before the last one’s even finished anyway – See among others Chelsea wearing this season’s ‘new’ kit in the Champions League final last summer – thereby giving fans something to tide them over during the summer, which in my mind makes this plagiari…er, art of creating fake kit designs ultimately kind of pointless.

Then again, maybe I just have more pressing issues to worry about.

Is This Man United’s New 09/10 Away Shirt?

The Gaffer — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:33:35 +0000

There have been several different versions of Man United’s new away shirt floating around the Internet, including even a video of a Photoshopped shirt.

Now a new picture of the Manchester United away shirt in question has been revealed. The retro design is on purpose. The shirt is a tribute to the 1909 shirt that Man United won the FA Cup title in 100 years ago.

The shirt features an old fashioned collar, a red V on the front and the Saudi Telecom logo who are being touted as a potential sponsor of Manchester United to replace AIG.

What are your thoughts about the new design and whether this could be the real version or not? Click the comments link below and let us know.

For the widest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Pre-Order The New Man United Home Kit Today

Pre-order the new home Man United shirt or kit today so you’ll be the first to get it. UK residents can order here through Kitbag, while US residents can order here, through Kitbag USA.

New 09/10 Everton Home & Away Shirts Revealed

The Gaffer — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:00:05 +0000

Photographs have been leaked of what are presumably the new home and away Everton shirts for the 2009-10 season. Designed by Le Coq Sportif, who are set to take over from Umbro as Everton’s official kit suppliers, the shirts feature radically different designs than what Everton currently have.

The home shirt pictured is a modern tribute to Everton’s Le Coq Sportif home shirt (pictured right) from the 1983-85 seasons. In those incredibly successful seasons for Everton, the club won the FA Cup in 1983-84, the English First Division title in 1984-85 and the European Cup Winners Cup trophy in 1984-85.

Just like the 1983-85 shirt, the new Everton shirt features a distinctively white V-neck.

Everton’s new away shirt, meanwhile, is black with pink trim and features a classic collar.

Whether both of these designs will end up being the final football shirts for Everton is unknown at this time. But, if these shirts are the ones that will be released ths summer, what are your thoughts about them? Personally I think they’re both perfect. The home shirt has a retro significance but looks very modern. The away shirt is refreshingly different, and I’m always a big fan of black shirts.

For the largest selection of Premier League shirts for all 20 clubs, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

Umbro Reveals More Details About England Home Shirt

The Gaffer — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:15:56 +0000

Slowly but surely, more details are coming out about England’s new home shirt scheduled to be unveiled on March 28th when England plays Slovakia at Wembley.

In a new article on the Umbro blog entitled “The New England Kit: How It All Began,” Umbro senior designer David Blanch reveals that the new England shirt will feature an insignia at the bottom of each Three Lions crest which will include a mark of recognition for the opposing team. It may be something similar to the England crests (pictured above) from the 1950’s where the opposition name was featured.

Blanch also reveals that the inspiration for the new England shirt happened after a trip to the National Football Museum in Preston. One label especially opened their eyes.

“We took a small team of people up to National Football Museum in Preston and our role there was to absorb what the game is really about,” said Blanch. “We were looking at both what football stands for and what is football ‘soul’. One of the football kits that we saw had a great label in it, saying ‘Tailored By Umbro In England’, which made us think about why Umbro referenced tailoring in football kits? It became apparent to us that tailoring was a significant part of both Umbro’s history and footballs heritage. We went on to put the concept together and brought back ‘Football Tailored’ as the inspiration for innovation.”

For the widest selection of Premier League football shirts, visit the EPL Talk Shop.

England: New Three Lions Crest Revealed

The Gaffer — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:37:14 +0000

The Football Association has unveiled a new Three Lions Crest for the FA and England teams, which will be worn for the first time when England wears their new Umbro shirts for the March 28th friendly against Slovakia at Wembley.

Pictured above is the new FA crest (left) and the new England one (right). The new designs take its inspiration from the 1948-49 crest, and the new England crest features a lighter blue, and more authentic tudor roses.

According to the FA “The single-lion emblem was first adopted by Henry II when he became King of England in 1154. It was added to by Richard I (The Lion-heart) who added a second, and then third lion by the end of his reign in 1199. However it was not until 1872, nine years after The FA was established, that the Crest featured in an England game, adorning the players’ shirts in the world’s first international match, between England and Scotland in Glasgow.”

What do you think about the new England crest? Click the comments link below and let us know.