The case for football kits

Who remembers when football teams would bring out new home and/or away kits on average every two seasons? Weren’t those days’ great, when you knew where you stood with replica kits and that there wasn’t a new kit coming out each season for your club.

Over the last couple of years however that element’s changed and seemingly in the Premier League every club has more or less got a new kit every new season. Is this really fair on fans to pay out £30-50 on a new kit each year when most of the time the kit’s appearance has only changed slightly.

Morally perhaps it isn’t as after all kids these-days want everything and with the country in recession, do clubs with vast amounts of turnovers really need to take even more money from fans. At the end of the day it’s down to business and there’s no doubt that new strips will sell, whether some disgruntled fans like it or not.

According to the gossip-mill, Manchester United will be donning a new home kit next season, making it the fifth year on the trot that the club have had a new home strip, as more and more clubs continue to bring out new strips each summer.

More clubs are beginning to wear their new home strip for the following season at their final home game of the season, bringing more attention to it, ramming the new shirt down supporters throats in a way to get the shirt ‘on-side’ with supporters who of course are able to buy the shirts earlier than ever before.

Fans complaining about clubs having a new kit each season must always remember though that they do have a choice whether or not to buy the kit. New things always come out. For example no-one really has a go at EA Sports for bringing out a new FIFA game each year, which barring major changes is in effect the same game each year.

Perhaps in the future clubs could perhaps exchange old shirts for new shirts at a discount, giving fan just a little bit of reward for their hard-earned money or perhaps clubs could interact with fans abit more asking them for kit-ideas, so that if they do change a particular strip, at least fans can feel abit more involved with the process.

Either way at least club-sides don’t change their strips after 8 games like the England national side has done. At least club-sides wear their strips on average 40-45 times a season before it's changed.

By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87

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