Football kits are being changed every year in the Premier League, and it is starting to annoy fans
Every year, new football kits that teams in the Premier League are going to play in are revealed before the start of the new season. This is supposedly a big deal, because the amount of leaked photos and websites dedicated to the new team uniforms are numerous on the internet. An interesting question to note here is that why do team kits change anyway? The colours and designs that teams play in are supposed to represent them and it helps fans recognise their favourite teams and associate with them. Some of the new team kits are very nice, but others are horrendous. Do we really need new kits every season?
When football first started taking place as an organised sport in the UK, players on teams did not have official uniforms. The Football Association was set up in 1863 by leading football players of the time. There were no uniforms as such, but teams would be distinguished by players wearing distinctive hats, scarves or sashes to determine their team affiliation. Uniforms first started to appear in football matches in 1870 when the Blackburn Rovers wore a white jersey with a special symbol of the school that spawned the team. Slowly over the years, the designs and styles of the kits changed and evolved to bring us to the modern era with the colourful designs of today. Today, a team will usually have three different designs: a home kit, an away one and an extra third design. The home kits usually stay close to the team’s colours and style while the away kit can be experimented with a little bit.
A lot of teams in the Premier League at the moment try and update their talent and skills to give them a better chance of winning matches. With this, the team will also change the design and style of their uniforms to give them a fresh and updated feel. As they are trying to change their attitude and style of play, they might feel that their fans will notice the change if a new uniform is in tow as well. Why, though, do teams that are continuously at the top of the League decide to change their uniform? It is understandable when a team that is at the bottom of the heap gets a new manager, some new players and a new image; a uniform change is definitely in order in such cases. But why the top teams? Could it be that they feel that the old uniforms were getting on a bit and it was time for a fresh style or maybe the sports manufacturing company that produces the team’s kits might decide to produce something new for the upcoming season. It might also be that a retro design is used and the clubs want to give their fans a taste of what the uniforms were like many years ago.
It seems fans are getting fed up of all the kit changes and are demanding a settling down of updating home shirts every season. The reason it affects fans so much is that they like to go out and buy the shirts that their favourite team wears, and it becomes extremely hard on the wallet if they have to keep changing them every year. 10 years ago, the Charter of the Premier League stated that new designs would only be released every two seasons to save fans’ money. However, that ruling seems to have been all but forgotten with all 20 Premier League clubs updating their kits for the upcoming season. 18 of the clubs changed their designs last season as well, and with all these changes it is no wonder fans are getting annoyed. A reason that is given for the changes is that a lot of teams are playing with new sponsors and so the shirts will change to feature the new sponsor on them. But it is still hard on the fans that have to pay for overpriced shirts every year and also lose a sense of belonging and attachment to the colours and designs of the teams they love.
In the next few seasons of the Premier League, we can be sure to see many more changes coming into the kits that teams wear. Whether this is a good thing or not, fans can be sure that they will have to fork out more money next season and their cupboards will keep getting bigger and bigger. Hopefully, some teams will realise what is happening and keep the same kits for at least a few seasons. It will probably not happen, but we can dream, can’t we?
Tags: