Clothing giants Adidas have given many massive contributions to the sport of soccer. They continue to redefine technology when it comes to both wear and equipment for the sport.
But there is one ugly trend spreading across the sport thanks to the clothing company.
With Fulham’s new home kit released Thursday morning, Adidas have continued to expand a terrible practice this summer that threatens to ruin kit individuality across European soccer.
Fulham’s kit is modeled on a generic and relatively bland template Adidas have created and used for a number of other clubs this summer, including Southampton as well as German club Schalke and Spanish side Celta de Vigo.
Adidas has a large number of English clubs on their kit roster, but have created very few actually unique kits.
A few examples:
- Swansea City released both their home and away kits last weekend. Their away kit actually looks quite nice, with a fancy juxtaposition of purple and yellow. Whoops! Too bad it’s exactly the same as Swindon Town’s, except different colors.
- And guess what? Swansea’s home kit is exactly the same as Bristol City’s home kit!
- Sunderland recently released their new away kit...looks like you guys are catching onto my trend here, it’s exactly the same as the home kit for Bolton AND the away kit for Hull City!
- West Bromwich Albion gave us a look at their new away kit a few weeks ago. Oh no! It’s exactly the same as Hull City’s home kit.
- West Ham’s is unique in the English Premier League, but it matches that of Spain’s Osasuna.
I could go on, but I’ll spare you the rest of this.
Sure, Adidas can’t create individually unique kits for everyone they sponsor, that’d be impossible. They have 182 kit sponsorships in Europe alone. While it’s only natural to copy kits for a number of lower division clubs, the fact that Premier League and other countries’ top division clubs are sucked into this phenomenon is a horrible precedent.
Fulham shouldn’t be running around with the same kit design as Southampton. Newly-promoted Hull City shouldn’t be subjected to having the same kit as a duo of lower-division teams.
Adidas is setting a terrible precedent this summer, and if they expand upon it in coming years or other companies catch on and decide it’s a good idea, everyone loses. It’s just plain lazy, and dilutes the fun, excitement, and individuality expressed by each club to their fans. Kits are supposed to be rooted in the history of each club that wears them.
Don’t forget, Adidas designs and manufactures the kits for every team in Major League Soccer. Want this to spread to the United States? I sure hope not. They do have all year to design them.