It’s baaaaaack…
For the third year in a row, Major League Soccer will be running “Jersey Week”, where every club will unveil at least one new kit for the 2015 season. It’s to this journalism major/marketing minor what Shark Week is for Discovery Channel enthusiasts.
Jersey Week officially runs from February 28 to March 7, but just like last season, a few clubs have jumped the gun. For part one I looked at every new kit released before Jersey Week. For part two, I’m taking a look at the four kits released in the first few days of Jersey Week.
For a complete Jersey Week schedule, go to MLSsoccer.com. Keep watching this space though, because there are plenty more kits to be unveiled in the coming days!
Kits are organized in alphabetical order by team name.
Kit #1: Chicago Fire Away
Chicago’s got a bit of a history of throwing their city flag onto a soccer jersey. But hey, they’ve got a pretty cool flag, and anything is better than making a second kit that looks like a cereal box.
I’m a fan of the design on the front. If the Quaker logo was red it would better mirror the city flag, but putting it in a more traditional navy blue colour makes far more sense. Out of curiosity I’d like to see how this shirt would have looked if there was a red horizontal stripe above the Quaker logo as well as below it. But I’ll assume that Fire brass thought similarly and felt that an asymmetrical stripe pattern on the chest would be better than a symmetrical one on the belly.
I like the call though. It’s a clear improvement from this one last year. It’s got a few different colours on it, but nothing’s out of place, and none of them clash.
Again, I’d strongly suggest clicking on that link as an exemplar in awful.
Grade: B+
Kit #2: LA Galaxy Away
After a multi-year hiatus following David Beckham’s arrival, the sash on the LA Galaxy home kit seems to have come back for good.
As for the Galaxy away kit, there haven’t been any particularly good ones in recent seasons. Instead, it’s been not one, but two excellent black third kits that have stolen the show.
The away kit has been switching between various shades of blue. None of them have been spectacular, and this one was vomit-inducing.
But like every high school chemistry student has at least once attempted, the Galaxy threw a bunch of stuff together and braced for impact by hiding under a desk.
But they’ve finally nailed the blue. The horizontal line gradient is noticeable but within reason. The yellow accents break up the uniformity nicely. And the two blues that didn’t work out alone do more than play nicely.
Grade: A-
Kit #3: Montreal Impact Away
In their short MLS history, the Montreal Impact have done to the fleur-de-lys what Toronto FC have done with the maple leaf: abuse it by placing it on every piece of merchandise possible.
And even though they’ve again fleur-de-lys-d their new away kit up, the final product is very good.
I’ve never figured out why, but I’m one of what seems to be a dwindling number of fans that likes horizontal stripes on kits. Are they as slimming as vertical stripes? No. Fine.
But are they as slimming as Puma jerseys? No. Is that really a bad thing though?
The faint grey horizontal stripes are a nice touch for a club that has yet to really be adventurous with their kits, at least in their MLS era. The fleur-de-lys and the pinstripes that stem off of the larger horizontal stripes are as close to daring as we may see from them for a while.
But the white and blue look is still eye-catching, which helps this kit out a lot. In my opinion, this is the Impact’s best MLS era kit. That’s not saying a great deal, but still…
Grade: B+
Kit #4: Real Salt Lake Away
Having made the MLS Cup Playoffs since 2008, RSL have become the league’s model of strength and consistency.
Their 2015 away kit, however, is just a model.
That’s it. On my first look at it, I seriously thought that RSL had just taken the generic 2015-2016 Adidas kit template, applied their colour scheme, and hit the send button.
Don’t get me wrong, Real Salt Lake has a very nice colour scheme. But it feels like their 2013-2014 away kit just had its blue sleeve duplicated for symmetry and three stripes changed in colour so that people like you and I wouldn’t pick up on it.
That lenticular crest really irked me too. But that colour scheme saves this boring design from C (aka NYCFC home kit in practice) territory. Barely
Grade: B-
