New technical kit partnership announced - LUKE 1977 & Fanatics

[stuart445]

Let's hope we're not just a tad naive about the fact he's a Villa fan.

He's a bloke and he designs stuff. People will still love it or hate it; who he supports isn't really relevant.

Pretty much this.

Not really, if you asked most people on here, or any other fan site, what a villa kit should look like you'd get fairly similar answers:

proper claret body (not some pinky purple)
blue sleeves
white shorts
and a disagreement over the socks (blue for me)

Given he's a fan he'll know those 'rules'.  That doesn't mean he'll feel obliged to follow them but if he chooses not to it it won't be through ignorance, that's the real difference.

So basically have the same design that we have had for what 17 years straight?   Personally i want to see a different design.  Things need freshening up so it's time to change the tired old design.  Obviously the same colours,  but how much longer can it be justified to charge premium for what is near enough the same design it's been since around 2001.

nope, basically the same design we've had for 120 years (I'm ignoring the really early stuff because, like all clubs, we were some really weird shit in the 1870s and early 1880s).  In all that time we've had about 20 seasons where those 'rules' don't apply.  You still have lots of room to play with the design though. Aside from that how many of those kits had complaints about the claret being the wrong colour?

What I expect to see, and this is just a guess, is something that leans more towards the '82 kit with the blue side panels and the v-neck (but with some twist to it), that's not based on anything other than an expectation that part of the brief here will be about reconnecting with fans and a homage to that shirt would be a very good step in that direction.

The wrong colour argument will always happen i can't remember a season when it didn't. 

as i said IMO it needs refreshing as how can it be justified to pay top price that hasn't changed in that amount of years

[Ads]

I think the slim fit shirts look better.

[Drummond]

So now we're arguing about how shit a design it is before we've even seen it.

Has anyone said anything about it being shit? There's a few comments about shirts getting 'skinnier' and stuart decided to disagree about what most fans would want the basic design to be but I can't see anyone saying it's going to be shit.

*White Knighting? 

I was trying to be a little tongue in cheek. Didn't come across very well. Sorry.

[paul_e]

He did say 'personally' he'd like to see a different design. Don't see a problem with that point of view really.

I didn't say he was wrong to want something different, I disagreed with the 'same for 17 seasons' bit because it's, as I said, more accurate to say 'the same for the majority of our existence', which does make a difference.

Stuart, the price thing is misleading, the cost of shirts is obscene regardless of how much they change.  My original point is that the basic design for a villa kit is very simple and because he's a fan he'll know that. I'm not saying he won't differ from it (or that he shouldn't) but merely pointing out that if he does deviate from the standard it will be an educated choice to do so. I'd actually say he's more likely to do something a bit different because he won't be playing safe using a boilerplate and adding the colours as will have been the case with a number of the recent kits. That's why I think we're more likely to see an '82 style shirt than something like we've had the last few years, because that's still largely following the expectations but different enough from what we've seen to be noticeable.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Apologies for going all Gok Wan here, but wasn't the 2013/14 Macron kit based very much on the 1982 kit? Even down to the strategically placed Dafabet logo in the middle of the shirt

[Keeno]

The more I've thought about this today I've become more respecting of it - when they said it was an innovative and pretty unprecedented idea they weren't lying! It's certainly really interesting from a business perspective and could set an example for clubs in the future to take more ownership of their brand. In today's market with the massive TV revenues available, I think clubs need to rely less on signing a kit deal for financial security which could offer them a bit more creative freedom and involve fans more!

There are pros and cons of course - I'd imagine more revenue goes direct to the club from each shirt, but equally we lose out from the marketing and distribution channels of not being with a big multi-national like Under Armour and getting our shirts into sports shops around the world. Does offer a lot of interesting flexibility for the club in how it markets and releases designs too - as someone mentioned, we won't have to work as strictly to the annual release cycle that being with a big third party label usually entails (for example - an 'FA Cup' or 'Play Off' special edition design). Which I think is pretty cool.

As long as it looks good I'll be buying one cause it will be a really unique shirt either way in the masses of cookie-cutter Nike/Adidas/Puma/UA designs. Similar to the Acorns initiative a few year back, I'm quite proud its us who have done this.

[Legion]

Not interested in all the pretentious marketing shite. Just give us proper shirts.

[VinnieChase84]

Could we see Fanatics logo featured on the sleeve maybe? I’m in no doubt this deal is significantly better for us under FFP also

[Mister E]

Not interested in all the pretentious marketing shite. Just give us proper shirts.

define "proper".
Everyone seem to have a view on what a Villa shirt should look like.
I rarely get very obsessed by it but if I were forced to make a choice I'd want the kit to approximate the 1970-71-72 version with the true colours and unadorned lion; with yellow shirt / blue shorts as the away kit.

[The Edge]

I think the slim fit shirts look better.

Not on me it won't

[Mister E]

Could we see Fanatics logo featured on the sleeve maybe? I’m in no doubt this deal is significantly better for us under FFP also

I don't see what FFP has to do with it other than the kit presumably costing the club less (unless Luke Roper is ploughing a load of money into the club as a sponsorship favour; but he could do that regardless of FFP).

[Walmley_Villa]

Liking the colour on the press releases - maybe a hint? Compare it the existing one (note the texture on the new one too...):

[Drummond]

Ah, but the current colour is the Claret Pantone someone reliably told us last time this came up....

[four fornicholl]

circa 77 texture. mmmmmmmmmmm

[VinnieChase84]

Could we see Fanatics logo featured on the sleeve maybe? I’m in no doubt this deal is significantly better for us under FFP also

I don't see what FFP has to do with it other than the kit presumably costing the club less (unless Luke Roper is ploughing a load of money into the club as a sponsorship favour; but he could do that regardless of FFP).

A better deal, more margin would all count toward FFP