[Football] Will there be TWO versions of the new home shirt next season?

It appears that Nike are following the lead of adidas (for MUFC) and producing two versions of the kit for Manchester City. In the US the shirts will be sold at an eye watering $180 (and the shorts and socks are equally scary).

There is a stadium version (for wearing to matches) and a match version (which costs 50-100% more).

I presume the stadium socks and shorts are for FKW's only.

Will the Albion follow suit?

Didn't they do similar and have two versions for the England kit a few years back? It was made a big thing of at the time, but majority still plumped for the 'normal' shirt. Can't see us having similar and expect it'll be only the 'big' teams with a presence in America and Asia that'll be offered it.

I think this has been driven by the US market where the NFL jerseys come in differing grades, and have done for many many years. They change the names a bit, but essentially you have "Elite" which is the spec the players wear, "Premium" which is a bit cheaper, and then a "Game" jersey. Roughly priced at $250, $150, and $100.

Nike are the current official NFL jerseys, and presumably it works for them, so they were bound to try and extend that to other sports markets.

It's been an option for some time now with some clubs, most MLS clubs sell the 'authentic' or player spec shirts as well as replicas. In Europe it's also been around a while, and England did do it when they first went the the Nike brand. Originally these Nike 'Code 7' shirts, or adidas Formotion shirts were exclusively used by the players of top flight teams. For collectors were the way you authenticated a true matchworn shirt over a replica. Often a replica was touted as matchworn, adorned with exotic sleeve patches and oversize 'player spec' numbers and namesets.

Nowadays it's relatively easy to get your hands on the player specification shirts, and numbers and namesets are also easy to get and apply, which has led to a proliferation of items being sold as matchworn when in fact they are nothing of the sort.

In the case of the Albion our Errea and Nike shirts have all been the same spec as the replicas sold in the club shop. If you go back to the Riberro kits the players versions always had a much larger Riberro logo for maximum visibility, and sometimes the fabric was more durable. If you go back to the Bukta and Adidas kits, generally the way to distinguish was that the club badge, and adidas logos were embroidered rather than printed or embossed, the theory being that the embroidered version would be more hard wearing to withstand the exertions on the pitch. Oddly enough more recently it's gone the other way and embroidered badges have been on replica shirts and heat pressed used on players shirts, this minimises the potential for the rear of the embroidery to irritate the precious skin and nipples of out multi millionaire football artists. The labels inside are also printed on the fabric rather than sewn tags as these might annoy little CR7s neck or itch poor Messi's tax dodging torso. They even make their player spec kit more tailored and fitted, presumably to allow them to show off their six packs and bulging biceps.

El Presidente said:

Will there be TWO version of the new home shirt next season?

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We already have two versions of a new home shirt for next season.

We've got the sleeves from one shirt and the front and back from a totally different one.

The expensive version, and the slightly less expensive (but still expensive) version.

I'm all for the "extremely cheap don't buy one" version.

Lurchy said:

Didn't they do similar and have two versions for the England kit a few years back? It was made a big thing of at the time, but majority still plumped for the 'normal' shirt. Can't see us having similar and expect it'll be only the 'big' teams with a presence in America and Asia that'll be offered it.

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My wife bought me the expensive version of that England kit for my birthday. It's essentially the version the players wear and one needs a skinner than average figure to pull it off (quite literally). It was good to train in but too far too snug for everyday wear.

Don't think we're big enough yet to get two versions. My local club Brann have got this particular design from Nike this year (in red and black) and up close it's nothing too special. I think it's alright but not worth 50 quid.

Lurchy said:

Didn't they do similar and have two versions for the England kit a few years back? It was made a big thing of at the time, but majority still plumped for the 'normal' shirt. Can't see us having similar and expect it'll be only the 'big' teams with a presence in America and Asia that'll be offered it.

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Yeah I remember that. A lot of Japanese baseball teams do the same thing with the more expensive version basically being what the players actually wear. Suprised it's taken football so long to catch on to be honest, though I suppose you could see it as devaluing a shirt which is already pretty pricey.

I stopped buying football shirts when the fashion changed from 'fashionably baggy' to '6-pack snug'

Current styles are not for the more relaxed body