Bolton Wanderers Home Kit:
Wolverhampton Wanderers Home Kit:
2/5 Stars.. Wait. 3/5 Stars. Definitely 3. Maybe.Indecision, indecision. I understand the importance of shirt sponsors, but some of them really suck. Sportingbet is one of those. When you look past that, however, it's a decent looking shirt. The off-kilter, horizontal, wavy pinstripe that appears to pop out of nowhere around the sternum is sufficiently bold and sufficiently understated - which I'm pretty sure is possible. Compared to the design vomit above, it's definitely a winner.
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La Ligua
Barcelona Away Kit:
Perfectly Adequate
I hate to keep harping on sponsors here, but Barcelona sold out big time this season. Congratulations to the Catalans for securing the
richest shirt sponsorship deal ever, but good God Barca, TWO sponsors? They don't actually receive money from Unicef, which is admirable, but that doesn't make the dual logo design any less tacky. It's a good thing they decided to roll out such a plain kit design. Something you'll learn about me, I'm typically a fan of the black on black on black kit. With a hint of a secondary color/design, this getup could have been epic. As it stands, though, it's just alright. The Qatar Foundation logo looks out of place, and it's pretty strange to see a completely solid kit. It looks rushed and unfinished. It's not fashionable, but I have a hunch it will look pretty good on the pitch. Barcelona Home KitThis isn't as much of a leak as it is a confirmation. And yes, it's as bad as I had originally reported.
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French Ligue 1
Marseille Away Kit
4/5 StarsThis shirt is everything the away Barcelona kit is not. It's right on the border of intricate and tacky, and I'm officially declaring myself a fan (though I can fully understand if you're not). The colors collaborate to perfection - the gold trim and logos are elegant and regal. Hell, even the dreaded Adidas shoulder stripes look good on this shirt. The obvious drawback (to some), however, is the - well I don't really know what to call the jumbled smorgasbord of lines and shapes that spans the front of the shirt. But it works.
Marseille Home Kit
5/5 StarsAdidas is really starting to piss me off. If they keep pumping out these quality kits for 2011/12, I may have to stop bashing them so much (which has become something of a pastime for me on this site). I love the sets of diagonal mini-stripes, I love the colors, I love the collar.. my only critique would be in the color of the sponsorship. I like how Marseille integrated the color scheme of their away kit into the sponsorship (above), and think it would have gone a long way to do something similar on the home version - or at the very least limited the sponsor to one color. A tad nitpicky? Sure. But that wouldn't keep me from getting my pre-order in ASAP.