Episode 5: In which the listener is queen I mean king

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Kit Nerd Corner podcast. Kristin is once again missing <insert sad face> but we included her input on a bunch of your questions, and your enthusiastic panel did its best without her.

You can listen here or subscribe on Apple, Stitcher, or Spotify (more options maybe coming soon).

In our fifth episode, we changed things up – we took questions and topics from listeners, and tried to discuss them all. One of the questions was HUGE, but you’ll love it: We name our favourite current / new shirts from each major kit manufacturer. (Prepare for a LOT of shirt pics below…)

We talked about how many sponsors is too many, our favourite shirt manufacturers, good books on shirts to check out, and how much money is okay to spend on soccer shirts.

We did talk briefly (ha) about a few recent shirts that caught our eyes, and then we finish off with a couple shirts we bought. Because we do that a lot.

—

Episode rundown, with times bolded:

0:00 – Introduction – No Kristin!

LISTENER QUESTIONS / SUGGESTIONS

1:55 – Question: Would more sponsors on shirts help lower div leagues?

Local sponsors rule.

11:40 – Question: What is the best kit manufacturer?

Kristin – Macron, no, hummel!
Mark – hummel edges out Macron.
Rich – It’s errea; his team and they’re great, but damn all this Italian sizing.
Brenton – You can’t go wrong with Adidas, but it’s … Umbro!

You can go wrong with Nike.

19:40 – Favourite current shirt from each major manufacturer?

21:30 – Adidas
23:57 – Nike
25:16 – Puma
32:57 – Macron
37:00 – hummel
42:45 – Umbro
48:30 – kappa

52:50 – Great books to get for kit collectors?

Brenton: World Football Club Crests, by Leonard Jägerskiöld Nilsson
Mark: 1000 Football Shirts by Bernard Lions; any of the True Colours series by John Devlin; A to Z of Weird and Wonderful Shirts by Richard Johnson
Rich: three key websites for doing your research are footballkitarchive.com, oldfootballshirts.com, and sartorial.soccer.

56:30 – How much money is too much to spend on kits in a year?

Don’t spend too much. Wild advice.

1:00:35 – Teams who’d be better off with other suppliers

We didn’t answer this one, but we talked about how we might answer it. Really looking forward to digging into this.

(Rich did insist on talking about MLS…)

END OF LISTENER QUESTIONS

1:02:50 – Recent shirts that caught our eyes

Rich: Japan World Cup 2022 home and away in longsleeve by Adidas, plus the reversible accompanying jacket
Brenton: Shakhtar Donetsk 2022-23 away / Champions League by Puma
Mark: Cruz Azul 2022 warm-up or maybe third / special? by Joma

1:11:45 – Two of us bought shirts!

Rich: Real Betis 2020-21 fourth by kappa, an homage to the 1995-97 away, also by kappa.
Brenton: Leeds 2019-20 away also by kappa, in pink and grey.

And we’re out. Holy shit we talked about a lot of soccer shirts.

Intro music: Definition by Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli)

Outro music: Movin’ On Up by Primal Scream

See below for images of all the shirts we talk about, and jump on over to twitter to let us know what you think about all our blathering.

The podcast: @KitNerdCorner

Mark: @kitnerdmark

Kristin: @kzknowles

Rich: @teaathalftime

Brenton: @capsoffside

Shirts we discuss in this episode – note: there are a LOT

Question 1 + 2: sponsors and best kit manufacturers

TSV Hartberg’s atrocious sponsor billboard, 2022-23 home by Adidas; Tigres done well, 2022-23 home by Adidas; Club América 2017-18 and 2022-23 for how multiple sponsors are now incorporated by Nike; Boca 2022-23 home by Adidas

Question 3: Favourite current shirt from each major manufacturer

Adidas

River Plate 2022 home; Scotland 2022 home; Mexico 2022 World Cup away

Nike

top: Spurs 2022-23 third; FC Utrecht third; Finland 2022 home;
bottom: Chicago Red Stars 2022 away; France 2022 Euro home; Galatasaray 2022-23 away

Puma

top: York City 2022-23 home and away; Italy 2022 home;
bottom: Dortmund 2022-23 away; Valencia 2022-23 Senyera third

Macron

top: Greenland 2022 home and away; Crystal Palace 2022-23 home; bottom: Nottingham Forest 2022-23 away; Pacific 2022 away; Vitoria SC 2022-23

hummel

top: Southampton 2022-23 away; Crotone 2022-23 home and away;
middle: Crotone 2022-23 third; Brøndby 2022-23 away; AFC Wimbledon away;
bottom: Levante Las Planas 2022-23 away; Minnesota Aurora 2022 away; Ayr United home

Umbro

top: Santos 2022 third; Luton Town 2022-23 third; Vfl Osnabrück;
upper middle: Rayo Vallecano 2022-23 away; Dynamo Dresden 2022-23 away; Fluminense 2022 anniversary;
lower middle: Rosario Central 2022 home; Avai FC 2022 away; Santos 2022 away;
bottom: Moroka Swallows 2022 third

kappa

top: FC Metz 2022-23 home and third; CD Lugo 2022-23 home;
bottom: Venezia 2022-23 home; Vasco da Gama 2022 third; Deportivo de La Coruña 2022-23 third;

Take a breather…

Question 4: kit books

Recent finds

top: Japan World Cup 2022 home and away by Adidas
upper middle: Japan’s World Cup 2022 reversible jacket
lower middle: Shakhtar Donetsk 2022-23 Champions League by Puma
bottom: Cruz Azul 2022 special / maybe warm-up by Joma