Matchweek 4 is now complete and we have made past the Transfer Deadline Day and to the first International Break of the season, all 20 teams were in action this weekend and again we have some Kit talking points.
This is the fourth weekly review of the kits in the Premier League, you can find last week’s here
The current Kit Overview for Premier League is below, we now have 58 out of the 60 Kits released so far… just 2 to go…Chelsea and Luton Town 3rd Kits.
Matchweek 4 Fixtures
Total Kits Used
Kits Worn in Total – 42 (+5 from Matchweek 3)
Goalkeeper Kits – 40 (+5 from Matchweek 3)
New Kits this Matchweek
There were another 5 new kit looks on show this weekend…
Aston Villa – Default Away Kit Look
AFC Bournemouth – 3rd Kit
Fulham – 3rd Kit
Manchester United – Away Kit
Newcastle United – Away Kit with Home socks (white)
5 New Goalkeeper Kits:
Burnley (Pink)
Manchester United (Yellow)
Sheffield United (Black)
Tottenham Hotspur (Yellow)
West Ham United (Yellow)
Kit Highlights
Two teams, Aston Villa and Manchester United have worn 4 kits in the opening 4 fixtures of the season…
Aston Villa, in two home kit looks (different socks) and two away kit (different shorts).
Manchester United in three Home Kit Looks (Alternative Shorts / Socks used) and 3rd Kit.
Staying with Manchester United and their game with Arsenal once again brought up the issue of “red / green” kit clashes and their impact on colour blind football fans, fellow Co-Host of Football Kit Podcast Denis from Musuem of Jerseys showed the impact of this on those fans (1 in 12 Male and 1 in 200 Female) with this powerful graphic to show the kit clash.
My favourite kit match up of the weekend was the game between Manchester City and Fulham, Fulham in their 3rd kit for the first time and together with Manchester City’s home kit gave a nice balance of colours on show.
Kit Stats
Overall we have seen 13 Home Kits, 5 Away Kits and for the first time this season more than one 3rd kit, with 2 seen in action. There were just two kit variations used, both away kits.
Tottenham Hotspur who used home socks with their away for the 2nd time this season
Newcastle United who also used home socks (white) in their first use of their away kit in Premier League
There are still four teams who have only worn 1 kit this season
Brighton and Hove Albion
Burnley
Chelsea
Liverpool
And just two teams who have used just 1 Goalkeeper kit
Brighton and Hove Albion
Everton
This means that Brighton and Hove Albion are the only team this season to use the same kit look for whole team in the opening four games of the season.
Kit Grid – Up to 28th August
Kit News
There were four kit launches over the past week.
Chelsea Away kit, an interesting black kit with blue pattern.
Everton 3rd Kit, part of the 100 Year Hummel celebrations and many of their teams having verisons of their famous “Mexico” template and return of the simple “Prince Rupert’s Tower” which was also seen on their 3rd Kit from last season.
Fulham 3rd Kit, it had been rumoured all summer that Fulham would use their away kit from last season as their 3rd kit for this year, so the release of a new third kit took a lot people by surprise but have delivered a really nice black kit with pink details and will have alternative pink shorts and socks for plenty of kit options…. interesting it’s a different shade of pink seen in the away kit, I would have thought similar shades would have been used to mix / match away and 3rd kits.
Tottenham Hotspur 3rd kit, an interesting choice of colour Spurs’ 3rd kit this season, described as “natural tone” in colour, it appears to be almost a pale brown which is a colour that has some history with Tottenham kits.
Finally we got confirmation from last week’s teasing information that Adidas will return to produce Newcastle United kits from next season, news that has seemed to delight fans and kit lovers alike.
There we have it, all of Kit thoughts from this weekend.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or at @Kit_Geek and Matchweek 4 Review will be published after next round of games after the International Break
We are back with all 20 teams in action this weekend and there is plenty to talk about in terms of the kits on show and kit usage this matchweek.
This is the third weekly review of the kits in the Premier League, you can find last week’s here
The current Kit Overview for Premier League is below, we have seen 54 out of the 60 Kits released so far…
Matchweek 3 Fixtures
Total Kits Used
Kits Worn in Total – 37 (+4 from Matchweek 2)
Goalkeeper Kits – 35 (+6 from Matchweek 2)
New Kits this Matchweek
We are now hitting the 3rd Matchweek of the season, so the new kits on show are starting to slow up this week
Luton Town – Away Kit with Navy socks (from yet to be released 3rd Kit??)
Manchester United – Home Kit with Teamwear Black socks (we’ll get to this….)
Wolverhampton Wanderers – Away Kit
Aston Villa – Away Kit with alternative white shorts (not home shorts)
6 New Goalkeeper Kits:
Arsenal (Blue)
Crystal Palace (Green)
Fulham (Green)
Luton Town (Pink)
Manchester City (Fluro Yellow / Green)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (Yellow)
Kit Highlights
So, there is only one place to start… Manchester United….
Another Premier League season and yet another Manchester United sock drama. So after using their default home socks in their opening two games, which are black with the similar pattern as seen in the home shirt, this weekend’s home game with Nottingham Forest saw The Red Devils in plain Black Adidas Teamwear socks, is it supply issues or something else, regarding Premier not “signing off” on the sock design as I saw mentioned on Social Media this weekend, only time will tell but if we can get the default socks back that would be great in my humble opionion, they worked really well with the kit and help elevate the overall design!
See the difference below…
The result of this means its 3 different kit looks in 3 games of Manchester United, only matched by Aston Villa, who have worn 2 home kit looks and now an away kit with alternative white shorts (including the monochorm Club Crest).
There is another team that has used 3 different kits in their opening 3 games and that is Wolverhampton Wanderers and their use of Goalkeeper kits, using all 3 already this season…
My favourite kit match up of the weekend was the game between Brentford and Crystal Palace. Palace in their Black 3rd kit with away socks for the second time this season and balance of red / white / black of Brentford gave a nice overall kit match up in my eyes!
Kit Stats
Overall we have seen 15 Home Kits, 4 Away Kits and again just the one 3rd kit used this weekend but plenty of variations on show with 4 teams moving from default looks:
Home, Manchester United
Away, Aston Villa and Luton Town
3rd, Crystal Palace
Kit Grid – Up to 28th August
Kit News
There was just the one kit launch this week, with Aston Villa releasing their 3rd kit for this season on Friday 25th August.
I will be back again next week with Matchweek 4’s Kit Review, what we will see in the final week of games before the first International Break of the season!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or at @Kit_Geek and Matchweek 3 Review will be published after next weekend’s games.
The 2022 / 23 Premier League season ended on Sunday 28th May 2023 with Manchester City securing their 3rd Premier League in a row with 3 games still to play. At the foot of the table, Everton survivied with a final day victory which means that Leicester City and Leeds United will be joining already relegated Southampton.
As the season has ended, I will follow my tradition of taking a more in depth look into the kits worn through this season, some stats and information behind these kits.
Kit Stats
760 Kits worn (380 Games)
Home Kit used 73% of the time (67% Default, 6% Variations)
Away Kit used 15% of the time (12% Default, 3% Variations)
3rd Kit used 12% of the time (9% Default, 3% Variations)
109 different Kit Variations worn by the 20 teams
Home Kits – 43.1% of total Kit Variations used:
25 Home Kits worn (5 teams wearing 23/24 Home Kit this season)
22 Home Kit variations used
Away Kits – 29.4% of total Kit Variations used:
19 Away Kits worn
13 Away Kit variations used
Aston Villa did not use registered Away kit, wearing 2 different variation
3rd Kits – 26.6% of total Kit Variations used:
19 3rd Kits used
10 3rd Kit variations used
Manchester United did not use registered 3rd kit, wearing alternative shorts
Goalkeeper Kits:
68 Goalkeeper used
2 Teams (Liverpool and Manchester City) in 5 different Goalkeeper Kits
4 Teams in 4 Goalkeeper Kits (Arsenal / Leicester City / Liverpool in 23/24 GK Kits)
Overview of Kits Used
Kit Overview
Kit Log, Match 1 to Match 19
Kit Log, Match 20 to Match 38
Kit Variations
Looking in more detail at the Kit Variations worn by the Premier League Teams:
Two Teams in 9 Kit variations
Manchester United – Home Kit x6, Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit
Newcastle United – Home Kit x3, Away Kit x3, 3rd Kit x2, 4th Kit
Two Teams in 8 Kit variations
Leeds United – Home Kits x2, Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit x4
Southampton – Home Kit x4, Away Kit x3, 3rd Kit
West Ham United in 7 Kit variations – Home Kit x3, Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit x2
Arsenal – Home Kit x2 (including 23/24 Kit), Away Kit x2, 3rd Kit
Liverpool – Home Kit x2 (including 23/24 Kit), Away Kit, 3rd Kit x2
Four Teams in 4 Kit variations
Four Teams in 3 Kit variations
Most variations of Home Kit – 6
Manchester United
Most variatons of Away Kit – 3
Newcastle United
Southampton
Most variations of 3rd Kit – 4:
Leeds United
Six Teams did not wear any Kit Variations, just default Home, Away or 3rd Kits
AFC Bournemouth
Brentford
Leicester City (Including 23/24 Home Kit)
Manchester City (Including 23/24 Home Kit)
Nottingham Forest
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Most worn Home Kit – 31, Wolverhampton Wanderers
Most worn Away Kit – 9, Nottingham Forest
Most worn 3rd Kit – 9, Brentford and Manchester City
Most worn 4th Kit – 1, Newcastle United
Liverpool and Manchester City used 5 Goalkeeper Kit variations including 23/24 GK Kits
Most worn GK Kit – 31, Tottenham Hotspur (Yellow GK Kit)
Kit Grid
Below is a graphic of what kits where worn against what teams, its one that I share on a weekly basis on my Twitter Account – @Kit_Geek
Kit Tables
One area I like to look at is a team’s performance in their kit, I have created the below tables (Home, Away and 3rd Kit), all shirt variations are included in each section, e.g. Manchester United’s 6 Home Kit variations are all included in the “Home Kit” Table and based on “Points per Game” used ratio.
Home Kits
No surprises at the top of table, with Manchester City heading the table up with 2.48 points per game in their Home Kit, followed by Arsenal (2.31) and Manchester United (2.21). Both Manchester Clubs scoring 62 Points in Home Kits.
Chelsea can sum up their disappointing season by scoring less 1 point per game (0.93), only managing 28 points in their 30 games in their home kit, one of four teams (Everton, Leicester City and Southampton) in managing less than 1 point per game.
Away Kits
Newcastle United’s Champions League qualifying season was supported by their performance in their Navy Away kit, worn in 3 different variations The Magpies managed 2.67 points per game in their 6 games.
Arsenal scored the most points in an Away Kit, they managed 18 points in their two away kit looks which was used across 10 games in total.
Only 7 teams managed more than 1 point per game, with Everton who only secured their Premier League status on the final game scored 1.4 points per game in their away kit and remained unbeated in their two away kit looks this season.
Fulham, who used their away kit 3 times, did not manage to score any points in these games.
3rd Kits
Rumour has it that Mikel Arteta did not like the Arsenal Pink 3rd kit this season, however in its two appearences they won both games giving the kit a maximum 3 points per game.
Champions Manchester City, who were the joint highest wearers of a 3rd kit this season score 20 points in total, finishing 2.22 points per game.
Fulham were more productive in their 3rd kit, were the 4th highest points per game scorers in 3rd kits, with a total of 9 points won in 5 games wearing 2 variations of their 3rd Kit.
There were 3 teams that did not score any points in their 3rd Kit (Leeds United x5, Southampton, x5 and Nottingham Forest x2).
Summary and Highlights
There were plenty of discussion points through the season with the kits used, some of the highlights for me are the following:
Lets start with Manchester United, who wore a staggering 6 variations of their Home Kit, the key to this was the socks… they started the season using alternative black away socks and it was not until teams returned from the World Cup on 27th December where the default Home Socks were finally used… see the difference in the socks below? One of the Kit Mysteries of 2022/23 Season
The other four looks for Manchester United were…
As briefly mentioned above, another Kit Mystery for the season is Arsenal 3rd Kit, initally popular with fans when it was first released, however it only made two appearences this season (both victories) and was used in two of Arsenal’s first three games, so its final use in the Premier League was on 20th August in the game against Bournemouth… rumour was the Mikel Arteta did not like the kit but there is no confirmation of that!
Newcastle United ended the season unbeaten in their change kits, they played a total of 12 games in change kits.
6 games in Away Kit (3 Variations)
5 games in 3rd Kit (2 Variations)
1 game in 4th Kit
Leeds United, ended the season with the most variations of a 3rd Kit, using 4 different looks in just 5 games unfortunatley not scoring a point in any of these looks but as a Kit Geek, I did enjoy they use of this kit!
This season was the first since 2019/20 where a 4th Kit was used. However Newcastle United’s 4th was not a traditonal 4th Kit but a training shirt that was matched prepared and partnered with Home Shorts and Socks, the reason being that their designated kits of this season were all considered to clash when they visited Brighton & Hove Albion in just the second game week of the season and their first away game!
Crystal Palace did not use their 3rd Kit in the Premier League in 2021/22 season and it took until their 23rd game of this season against Brentford in February to wear one this time, a total of 651 days and 64 League games between wearing 3rd Kits (both Black with Red / Blue details).
There were some interesting Kit Mash Ups used this season…
Arsenal, using grey Goalkeeper Socks with their Black Away kit… a look they used three times against Manchester United, Liverpool and Brentford!
When Manchester City visited Crystal Palace, their goalkeeper socks were considered a clash with Crystal Palace’s, so Ederson took to the field in white outfied away socks of Palace!!
Leeds United, followed a similar look to Arsenal when they played Manchester United with their Goalkeeper look using grey socks with their black keeper kit, they wore this look in both games against Manchester United… which were in the space of 4 days!
There we have it, The Premier Leagues’s End of Season Kit report for 2022/23, please let me know your favourite kit highlights from this division on the comments below or over at Twitter – @Kit_Geek
Time for Issue Number 16 of The Heat Press – a brief roundup of news in the Kit World and Kit Community, to catch up on Issue 15 click here
The Headlines
2022 / 23 Kit Launches
RKC Waalwijk Charity Kit
Manchester United x Adidas – 1990 / 92
FC Barcelona Kit Mash up
2022 / 23 Kit Launches
It is that time of the year when the Kit Launches have begun, now I am sure that will not be able to keep up with them all over the coming months but let’s give it a go with this week’s launches…
Liverpool (Home) – Liverpool, a team who traditional launch their home kit around this time of the season, normally debuting their new Home kit in their last home game, although not confirmed I expect to see that happen against in final game against Wolverhampton Wanderers…
The Nike kit sees a return to plain red, although there is nice detail in the shirt and the cuff are one of favourite part of the shirt. Also this is the first look at the Nike Goalkeeper Template for next season, Liverpool opting for the “Lilac” version of the kit…
Walsall (Home, Away, 3rd) – Walsall, who produce one of my favourite kit sets of 2021 / 22 season, which allowed 10 Kit variations to be used as the kits were designed to be whole kit set (a very happy Kit Geek Here) have launched their range of kits for next season already, again produced by Errea see the home kit being in all red, with no confirmation of the full look for away and 3rd kits but I would expect all white and all black, again giving us potential mash up options.
Barrow AFC (Home / Away) – Barrow AFC are the first team to release new kits from a new kit supplier, moving from Joma to Puma. Both shirts are an interesting look, with the home in particular something new using two shades of blue and white to create the look, the away being a black with a star like / paint splatter pattern (depending on your view).
Bayern Munich (Home) – One of Adidas flagship teams Bayern Munich have launched their home kit, a team that often mix up their look at home, will next season go for a shirt that includes white horizontal stripes, which are of various thickness..
RKC Waalwijk Charity Shirt
RKC Waalwijk played in special shirts their match against FC Groningen.
The shirts were designed by a 10 year old fan and were auctioned, the proceeds will go to Villa Pardoes, a charity that suports ill children and their families with holidays. Quite possibly the first shirt to include a snail in its design….
Manchester United x Adidas (1990 / 92)
It was confirmed this week that Adidas will be re-issuing their home shirt and goalkeeper shirt from 1990 to 1992, the designs look faithful to their originals and will be part of the Adidas Original range, the Goalkeeper shirt is a real highlight for me, not often we see these shirts reproduced.
FC Barcelona – Kit Mash Up
Although not their first team, FC Barcelona “B Team” wore a mash up of their current away kit with home shorts, for an interesting and likely a one off look…!
And Finally….
What’s happening in the Kit Community.
I like to end each issue with some of the “going on’s” within the Kit Community.
The latest Football Kit Podcast is now out, Episode 10 see Les, Denis and I return to discussion about Templates, each nominating a “Template of Doom” and “Template of Worship”, you can find the episode here or Download from your Podcast App of choice and remember to subscribe, like and give your feedback!
I was lucky enough to be give a very limited edition shirt this week, to celebrate the launch of his book “Kit and Caboodle”, Matt Riley has designed and got produced a limited number shirts. There is a competition to win one of these shirts, where you need to guess the attendance of Exeter City’s game against Port Vale on 7th May, so be quick and get your guesses in!
On Thursday 5th May, there was an evening dedicated to all things Football Shirt Design, with our friends at Spark Academy along with Subside Sports and The Anfield Wrap. Although the event has now passed, there are some great videos and chat from members of the Kit Community to check out on the Subside Sport Timeline, with another friend of ours Chris Chats Shirts making some wonderful videos so those of us that could not attend the event still get a feel of the goings on and feel part of this great event.
Let me know your thoughts and comments and if there is any content that you would like me to share in future issues, please message me and let me know the details or use the comments field below or contact me over on @Kit_Geek on Twitter
The Premier League is now in full flow, the recent weekend (15th – 17th September) or known as “Match Day 5” in some corners has now been and gone with no great surprises in terms of results but did give us some interesting talking points in terms of kits, so lets dive in and have look at some of the kit talking points in more detail.
Fulham – 4th Kit of the season
There is only one place to start and that is Fulham who wore their 4th different kit of the season and in fact it has been 4 kits in 4 games, quite possibly a record within the Premier League era.
This run of kits started with the introduction of a red third kit in the game against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium on 18th August 2018. This kit was no surprise giving that a change was needed with Fulham’s home and away kits not providing a contrast to Tottenham’s current home kit. This was not a new kit but last season’s third kit, updated with this season’s shirt sponsor.
In the next game, Fulham’s home game against Burnley played on 26th August 2018 there was no surprise that they would play in their traditional White shirts / Black shorts / White socks combination.
The next game, away at Brighton and Hove Albion on 1st September 2018 is the one that took the our little kit world by surprise, again as with the game against Spurs, Fulham’s home and away kits would potentially cause a clash with the blue and white stripes worn by Brighton but assumption would be that the red 3rd kit would then make an appearance providing an adequate alternative, however in this game they wore last season’s black away shirt with this season’s home shorts and socks, providing them with a 4th kit for the 2018/19 season.
This brings us to this past week (15th September 2018), where Fulham away at Champions Manchester City would see the first appearance of their new navy blue away kit, however the full away kit was not worn it was paired with what appears to be the home socks, the registered socks with their away kit this season are also navy blue.
I am unaware of a reason behind the choice of kits, particularly in the Brighton game but it creates good conversation and debate around this and football kits, for me a simple Kit Geek this is indeed a wonderful thing.
Crystal Palace – New 3rd Kit
As expected when Crystal Palace visited Huddersfield Town this season we would need to see an alternative to their Home and Away kits, this was launched at the weekend with a fantastic all yellow kit, with a faded red / blue stripe running down the centre of the shirt.
With the additional of this kit, I believe Crystal Palace have one of the best set of kits in the Premier League this season.
Away kit variations
Another area of the world of kits that I enjoy is those variations within a team’s kit, different shorts and socks worn with each kit. This weekend we saw six different variations for team’s kits, West Ham United and Arsenal wore variations of their home kits. Fulham (which we have already discussed), Manchester United, Cardiff City and Brighton & Hove Albion all wore variations of their away kits.
West Ham’s home kit combined with sky blue shorts and socks, is one that really works for me and a variation that I like to see on the pitch.
Manchester United wore their pink away kit for the second time game in a row and for the second time varied from the Pink – Black – Pink combination, this time surprisingly wearing white shorts with the Pink shirts and socks. I was surprised that when moving from the registered black shorts that they did use pink shorts as an alternative but the white seemed to work okay as a contrast.
Plenty of discussion points from this week’s Premier League fixtures in terms of Kits, let me know your thoughts on this.
Football Kit Geek - @Kit_Geek 