Wednesday, July 25, 2012

EPL Power Rankings - Ten Best and Worst EPL Kits for the 12/13 Season


Another EPL season is just around the corner, and while most teams are getting ready in merry old England, a few squads (Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Stoke, Swansea, and Tottenham) are doing preseason tours in the US.  The transfer window is still open until the end of August, so there's plenty of time for teams to add some new faces.  But something that won't change between now and the beginning of the season are the new kits that every squad will be sporting!  Teams have been releasing new designs every season (it's a nice way to print money) and changing their kit maker and sponsor.  Here are my ten best and worst kits for the upcoming season (in order): 

Best

1) Swansea City Home - Classic Adidas design, love the gold and white combo and the gold coloring of sponsor, kit, and team logo. Beautiful simplicity.


2) Manchester City Home - Love the black collar / blue Umbro jersey for the league champs. I think the black team badge matches well.


3) Liverpool Home - Newcomer Warrior hits it out of the park with their first EPL kit and the return of the Liver bird!  Almost makes up for the Standard Chartered sponsorship.



4) Everton Home - Switched from Le Coq Sportif (good riddance) to a small Oregon-based manufacturer.  Love this jersey's white collar, white armbanding, team logo, and well, pretty much everything.  The Swoosh did a great job here.



5) Manchester United Away - Wasn't digging the henley style kit at first, but it's growing on me.  Almost priest-like. It's a bold look that pairs well with the black sponsor, kit, and team logos.



6) Everton Away - The only team to get two shirts on the top 10 best list.  Nike delivers a black jersey with gold kit, team, and sponsor logos.  I think Everton has one of the nicest team logos in the league and the best sponsor in the entire EPL, hands down.  We need the alcohol sponsors back (Carlsberg and Holsten)!



7) Wigan Away - Big fan of the black this year, and the Latics jersey is another great one with bright yellow coloration, nice texture, and a team logo that looks skull-like (yes, I know it's a tree).  Intimidating jersey for a team that needs every little advantage.


8) Chelsea Home - Gotta love the use of gold for a team that sneakily won the Champions League this year. But it goes well with Chelsea blue.  Jersey texture adds a good bit of flair to this good-looking shirt.



9) Tottenham Home - Another new US newcomer to the EPL market, Under Armour delivers a clean kit with gray/silver accents for the Spurs.  It almost looks like you can golf in this shirt.  Still hate the Aurasma logo.  


10) West Ham Home - Glad West Ham United is back in the league.  Macron did a great job keeping with tradition while also bringing a very modern collar to the Hammers' home kit.  It's similar to Aston Villa, but I think the styling is better.



Worst

1) Liverpool Third Jersey - A truly terrible shirt.  Tribal print looks awful as a tattoo, but it looks even worse as part of a jersey for an English soccer team.  Maybe they should utilize barbed wire next season.
2) Manchester United Home - Another kit that has been getting blasted in the press.  Is United trying to market to hipsters?  Gingham is cool, but in that red, it really looks like an outdoor tablecloth.  I commend Nike's bold efforts though.



3) Liverpool Away - All of Liverpool's kits made the list!  Sadly, their away jersey is completely unwearable.    It looks more like a wetsuit than a soccer jersey.    

4) Arsenal Away - The Gunners make the list with this wonderful submission.  It's as if the Hamburglar wanted to go to a rave.  Purple, black, and red is not a pretty combo.  

5) Swansea Away -  It's either they wanted to make something for a ugly Christmas sweater party, or they are trying to be like Liverpool.  Either way, not a good look.



6) Chelsea Away - I don't HATE this kit, but don't like how the sash just sort of stops.  The use of the light blue makes this jersey look childish.



7)  QPR (Both) - First, the Air Asia logo is awful.  Second, these kits are all the same shirt design with different color palettes.  Where's the originality?  If they stick around another season, they need to re-evaluate their kits.  They are in the big leagues now.  



8) Fulham Away - Are we channeling Wolverhamption Wanderers with this doozy of a kit?  I do not get the use of orange here for the Cottagers. Collar is also awful, it's like that bad neckwarmer that Samir Nasri likes to wear.
9) Aston Villa Away - Just not a good jersey kit color.  I guess it would work as a goalie shirt, but for the whole team to be wearing it?  Questionable.  


10) Reading Home - The newly promoted Reading rounds out our worst kits of the year.  It just looks really amateur.  The styling is just too big to be taken seriously.  Also, what's with the red patch?  And what's Waitrose?    



Photos courtesy of footballkitnews.com and kitbag.com

14 comments:

I might adopt Everton as my team just because of that home jersey.

It would go with your love for USA since Timmy Howard and Landon (now only on loan) both played/play there.

LFC away might be the worst of all time, and the alt jersey looks like it was made for a BMX team... pathetic, but love the home jersey, I know some LFC fans won't agree. YNWA!

hahah classic blue vs red guy, but the rockets, astros, and texans all have red.

Thought the MU home kit looked great when I saw it in person.

yeah? It's start to grow on me a bit more. I just can't get over the fact that it looks like it belongs on a picnic table.

MU away kit is a huge improvement on that weird blue/black stripe thing from last year, blech.

I like the MU home over the away (yeah maybe I have bad taste, but plaid is so in right now). Also I liked the blue jersey from last year hahha. Ok maybe I'm alone on that one.

I feel like MU away jersey last year is Arsenal's away this year. I dunno, Man Utd Home jersey is polarizing, either you like it or you don't.

Perhaps Aston Villa wish to blind the home team into submission when they wear their lime green kits

Red sucks. Blue is awesome.

Dallas.

Swansea's red, represents the welsh flag, i like it.
Spurs clean white & silver, TOP CLASS!
COYS!!

COYS! I can't wait for Spurs to change sponsors. Not a huge fan of the Aurasma logo.

I like the Spurs home kit. Pure white, simple but complicated. Generous but monotonous.

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