Tag: FA Cup

Arsenal – #NoMoreRed

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On Sunday 9th January 2022, Arsenal will be taking on Nottingham Forest in the 3rd Round of the 2021/22 FA Cup but their look for the game will be a unique one, they will be wearing an all white kit – no coloured sponsors, no coloured trim, no other colour at all.

This kit is not there for the sake of change or for any commerical gain, its being used to deliver a powerful message, the removal of red from the kit is to highlight the increasing number of knife attacks and teenager murders in London which saw more than 10,000 knife crime offences between June 2020 and June 2021.

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Ian Wright one of the faces of the initiative

The campaign is being backed and promoted by Club Legend Ian Wright and Hollywood “A Lister” Idris Elba, who are promoting the work carried out by Arsenal in the Community’s work with young people in London and providing more safe, positive spaces for young people and spotlighting talented individuals who are making a positive difference in their community. 

The launch of Arsenal’s No More Red Campaign can be viewed below.

There are some powerful videos supporting the campaign which are well worth spending a few minutes watching to understand the impact of the initiative.

Idris Elba and Ian Wright video can be viewed below.

As mentioned above Arsenal are not looking for any commerical gain here and as a result of this the shirts will not be available for sale but the match worn shirts will be given to those organisations who are currently working to reduce knife crime in London, these organisations are:

  • Arsenal in the Community
  • The Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation
  • Steel Warriors
  • Don’t Stab Your Future (DSYF)
  • Box Up Crime
  • Copenhagen Youth Project
  • St Giles Trust
  • Abianda
  • Octopus Community Network
  • The Ben Kinsella Trust

All details can be found on Arsenal Website – click here

The shirt will have the club crest, Adidas Logo and 3 Stripes and all sponsorship in white, including a sleeve logo of “No More Red” and will be worn with white shorts and socks.

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For me this is using Football Kits in the most powerful way, this initiative makes me proud to be a Kit Enthusiast and I have nothing but respect for Arsenal, Adidas and all those that are behind the campaign and bringing this to life, congratulations to you all.

FA Cup – Second Round, Kit Review

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The FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, first kicked off 150 years ago in November 1871 has now completed the 2nd Round of the 2021/22 season.

Details from Round 1 can be found here – FA Cup – First Round, Kit Review

The second round was made up of 40 Teams made up from the 31 from League One and League Two and just 9 teams from the Non-League English Football Pyramid, with Buxton being the lowest rank team in the round who play in the 7th Tier (Northern Premier League Premier Division).

There was only one game that went to a replay, Barrow AFC v Ipswich Town, so this gave us a total of 21 games for the round.

Second Round Kit Log

Manufacturers

16 Kit Manufacturers were on show in the Second Round, with Puma for the second round running supplying the most kits, with 9 this round (5 League and 4 Non League teams).

This was a reduction from 23 in the First Round, there were 8 manufacturers with just one kit on show, these included Nike and Umbro.

Kit Highlights

Looking at some of the kit highlights for the Second Round.

Carlisle United v Shrewsbury Town, surprisingly resulted in the away team using their home kit, on paper would appear to be kit clash (and we have seen changes for less of a clash) but the result was not too bad with Yellow in the Shrewsbury Kit really standing out in the fixture.

Latest Shrewsbury Town FC news | Shropshire Star

Barrow AFC and Ipswich Town were the only teams to go to a replay, the resulting replay on Wednesday 15th December saw Ipswich Town use their limited edition 3rd Kit, the Black and Grey striped shirt will not be available for sale to supports, so will definitley be a collectors item. It also meant that Ipswich Town have worn Home, Away and 3rd Kits in the FA Cup this season.

Rochdale played in their 3rd variation of Home kit in their 3rd game of competition (First Round, First Round Replay and Second Round), they have worn the Home shirt with white shorts and socks, white shorts and black socks and in their game with Plymouth Argyle wore black shorts and socks.

Rochdale v Plymouth Argyle - Emirates FA Cup - Second Round - Crown Oil Arena - PA Images

Let me know your favourite kits from the FA Cup Second Round at either the comments section below or over at Twitter – @Kit_Geek

FA Cup – First Round, Kit Review

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The FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, first kicked off 150 years ago in November 1871 has now completed its full First Round of the 2021/22 season.

The first round was made up of 80 Teams made up from the 48 League One and League Two teams and then 32 teams from the Non-League English Football Pyramid, with AFC Sudbury being the lowest rank team in the round who play in the 8th Tier (Isthmian League North Division).

First Round Kit Log

The 80 Teams were provided by 23 Kit Manufactures, with 5 manufactures only supplying a non league team and not a league team, this give us kit lovers plenty of different kits to admire.

Manufacturers

Puma supplied the most kits in this round with 15 kits, 9 from League teams and 6 from Non League teams, Macron supplying 13 kits with 8 League Teams and 5 Non League Teams

There were 11 Manufacturers that provided just 1 kit in the First Round, 7 suppling League Teams and 4 supplying Non League Teams.

Uhlsport supplying 2 kits in the competition, both for Non League Teams.

First Round Replay – Kit Log

There 12 Replays in the First Round, only 4 of these games saw a repeat in kit match ups from their first ties.

Kit Highlights

I want to call out a few Kit Highlights from the total 52 First Round games.

Plymouth Argyle – The Pilgrims wore away shorts and socks in both games against Sheffield Wednesday, likely due to the clash of black shorts and dark socks but surpising they changed given that Sheffield Wednesday wore their pink away kit in their League One clash earlier in the season meaning Plymouth could wear their first choice home shorts and socks.

Leyton Orient v Ebbsfleet United – The New Balance Derby, New Balance only supplied 3 teams in First Round and two of them were drawn against each other but not one for those colourblind fans, with Red v Green (white shorts helping to distinquish the teams here).

Banbury United – They reached the First Round for the second season running and for the 2nd time in their unique kit from the team over at The Terrace, something wonderfully 90s about their red home kit.

AFC Sudbury – Had a one off kit for their historic appearence in the First Round, a Hummel Kit similar in design from the Coventry City kits from 2019/20 Season and of course based in their classic “Mexico” template. The goalkeeper kit is also worth calling out, the keeper wearing a red kit with the classic Hummel Template made famous by Tottenham Hotspur in the mid 80s

Let me know your favourite kits from the FA Cup First Round at either the comments section below or over at Twitter – https://twitter.com/kit_geek

FA Cup 2020/21 – Kit Log

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The FA Cup, the oldest club competition in the world, which was first competed for in 1871 a staggering 150 years ago.

The 2020/21 competition has now completed it’s 3rd Round (well apart from one fixture which is yet to be scheduled), I wanted to document the kits worn through this season’s competition.

Round 1 – 6th to 9th November 2020 (one fixture on 26th November)

The 80 teams playing round one, were supplied by 23 different kit manufacturers

  • 15 – Macron
  • 13 – Puma
  • 12 – Errea
  • 7 – Hummel
  • 5 – Joma
  • 4 – Nike
  • 3 – Adidas, Kappa, Surridge
  • 2 – New Balance

The manufacturers with one kit on show in Round 1

  • Admiral
  • Avec
  • Elite Pro Sports
  • FBT
  • Jako
  • O’Neills
  • Player Layer
  • SK Kits
  • Tag
  • The Terrace
  • Uhlsport
  • Umbro
  • Under Armour

Round 2 – 27th to 30th November 2020

20 Teams in Round 2, this round saw 17 Different manufacturers being used

  • 8 – Puma
  • 7 – Errea, Macron
  • 2 – Hummel, Nike, Surridge

The one kit manufacturers in Round 2 are:

  • Adidas
  • Admiral
  • Avec
  • Elite Pro Sports
  • FBT
  • Jako
  • Joma
  • Kappa
  • New Balance
  • Uhlsport
  • Umbro

Kit Stats

  • Tranmere Rovers two games so far were teams wearing the same kit
  • 24 Teams wore the same kit for both rounds (22 Home Kits / 2 Away Kits
  • 16 Teams wore different kits for both rounds (13 Home / Change kits and 3 Home / Home variation)

Round 3 – 8th to 11th January (one fixture to be played)

64 Teams in Round 3, 62 teams have played their fixture with 14 manufacturers on show.

  • 11 – Puma
  • 8 – Adidas, Macron, Umbro
  • 7 – Nike
  • 6 – Errea, Hummel
  • 2 – Joma
  • 1 – Elev8, Elite Pro Sports, Kappa, Kelme, O’Neills, Surridge

Kit Stats

  • Doncaster Rovers in 3 different kits in 3 rounds (Away variation, Home, Away)
  • Plymouth Argyle in 3 different kits in 3 rounds (Home variation, Home, 3rd)
  • 8 Teams worn same kit for all 3 games

Kit Match ups

I like to look at some of the best kit match ups in competitions, in this case I will pick one per round.

Round 1 – Port Vale v King’s Lynn Town

Round 2 – Marine v Havant & Waterlooville

Round 3 – Chorley v Derby County

Let me know you favourite kit match ups through out this season’s FA Cup over at https://twitter.com/kit_geek or in the comments below.

Kit News, Edition 2 – West Ham United & Umbro 2019/20

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I would not normally write a post about one kit, however I want to take some time to talk about West Ham United’s Home and Away Kits for 2019/20 season from Umbro.

There were some leaked images hitting the internet earlier on this week and my initial thoughts were please let this be real…. and Finally on Wednesday the official release and the relief to know that those images were indeed what we will see gracing the London Stadium and other Premier League grounds in this upcoming season.

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Looking at the launch of kit, the marketing is already talking about “Inspired by the Class of ’80” and then digging into detail behind the design, it is clear that Umbro were looking to create a retro feel for their designs for “The Hammers”.  – Click here to go to West Ham’s page 

Home Kit

WHU_1920_b

The home kit based on the classic admiral kit used between 1977 and 1980 is paired with Claret shorts and socks as first choice, from what I can see and research this is the first time in the club’s history that this colour combination has been used as default home kit.

Away Kit

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The away kit is based on the kit worn in the 1980 FA Cup Final win against Arsenal and it a simple all white kit and as it’s 1980 cousin has some “claret and blue” striped trim on collar and sleeve cuffs, there is also some detailing celebrating that Cup win on the back of the neck.

Something else that West Ham United have done right, is to offer fans both home and away kits an option of a “Unsponsored” version of the shirts, however this still includes the club’s sleeve sponsor (it is one of the more aesthetically pleasing). From my initial tweet about this, one that has hit a chord with fans across all clubs – see tweet here

WHU_1920_e

These kits have set a high bar for the 2019/20 kits and I applaud what Umbro and West Ham United have done here…..

Quite simply, this is retro done right!

Please let me know your thoughts about this kit on the comments below or via Twitter – @Kit_Geek

Kit Log – FA Cup, Quarter Final Update

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FA Cup Quarter-Final weekend has now been and gone, so time to update the Kit Log for 2017/18 Cup….

I started logging kits from the 3rd Round, so below you will see the 74 games we have seen so far since 5th January.

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Special call out to Reading, as I am sure you will remember had to change their shirts to their orange away shirts at half time in the 3rd round replay against Stevenage in January due the kit clash.

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The only question risen from the quarter-finals was Chelsea’s choice to wear their black 3rd kit against Leicester, rather than their white away shirt which would have created a greater contrast to the home kit of their opponents.