Back In Time: Arsenal

This week’s Back In Time post ventures into Arsenal’s kit history, uncovering the best and worst kits that have appeared since the club’s inception back in 1886.

Best 3 Home:

Loving the design and the template of this Arsenal Home Kit. The design on the collar and sleeves is a really nice touch while the pinstripes across the front of the kit are also a great addition. It’s funny how in the Back In Time posts we find all these old jerseys that, if the fit and material are updated, would not be outdated! Its amazing to think this kit was in action 28 years ago!

If you thought the last kit looked advanced, this kit is even more modern looking and is from 1981! It is almost identical to my next favorite arsenal kit from the 2010 season. The design is pretty much exactly the same except for the sponsors, logos and emblems. It still shocks me that this kit was designed over 30 years ago. I much prefer Arsenal’s emblem on this kit than on the one they are using today.

I love this kit because it is classy and truly looks like an Arsenal kit. It is modeled on the very early Arsenal kits like the 1981 kit, to which it definitely does justice. As you know from reading the previous ‘Back In Time’ posts, I’m a big fan of the modern take on classic designs and like how Nike went back to that mentality when they experimented with the home kit for a couple of seasons.

Worst 3 Home

It seems like Nike tried to make a round neck collar with an old school collar and it just looks really strange. I don’t think I have ever seen another kit with this kind of design. Not only do I dislike the collar but the white patches on the sleeve are really odd and don’t look like an Arsenal home strip. The zig zag pattern down the front of the kit is pretty cool but it does not do enough to salvage this kit.

Like the previous kit, this one just does not look like an Arsenal home kit at all. Arsenal can’t have a home kit without fully white sleeves as it is their signature look and how fans around the world distinguish Arsenal’s red kit from Liverpool’s and Manchester United’s. It would not be a bad design for a practice jersey, but for a match it just isn’t Arsenal. What did you Arsenal fans think of this kit?

The last kit of the home kits this weekend is Arsenals kit for the 2004/2005 season. I’m not a fan of the material, as it looks cheap and doesn’t seem like it would be that comfortable or sweat wicking. I also don’t like the template, which is made worse by the gold accents which don’t really feature on many Arsenal home kits.

Best 3 Away/Third 

I’m a huge fan of this third kit. I love the collar and the colors used on the kit as the yellow really stands out from the navy blue. I also love how the shorts and socks are yellow which as an overall package make it one of my favorite Arsenal kits of all time. Check up on google images to see the whole outfit, not just the top. Do you feel the same that I do about this whole kit?

I know I talked about how much I disliked this collar in one of the previous posts, but really the only reason why I chose this kit is because I love the colors used and the zig zag design on the front of the kit. I would love Nike to do a modern interpretation of this kit next season as I think it would look fantastic, especially if they got rid of the shiny material and appalling collar. (So Nike if you are reading this, please do a modern interpretation of this kit!)

I love this Arsenal kit. I think its one of the best ones Nike have done for Arsenal and it looks fantastic when they wear the black shorts with it. It’s modern and classy which is my recipe for success in the kit world. I also love the away version of this kit which was done in navy blue, but I feel this one tops it just by a bit, especially with the contrasting shorts.

Worst 3 Away/Third

I mean, what is there for me to say that isn’t blatantly obvious? The pattern/design all around the kit is really really ugly and I can’t see how Adidas would of thought that it would be a good looking design. The design and colors also make the Adidas logo not very visible which I guess is a good thing so people couldn’t really tell what brand designed this horrible kit.

The template is not too bad; it’s just all the colors together that I really don’t like. When it comes to the red across the sleeves, I feel like if they had just left it navy blue, or changed the template up a bit the kit would have looked a lot better. It would have also been cool if the colors were flipped and the base was navy while the sleeves were blue. If any one is good at photoshop, try re-creating one  for us!

I guess this kit is pretty cool, maybe because I have looked at it a bunch more times while writing this post. However, I have to go with my original instinct that I felt when I first saw it: I really did not like it. The only thing wrong with this kit is the weird, slightly futuristic graphic across the front of the kit. I wonder what it would have looked like without all the navy blue lines, and just the blue fading in and out. Overall, I think it is the nicest of the Worst Away/Third kits but not nice enough to be excluded from this section.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this week’s Back In Time post on Arsenal. Feel free to disagree with any of my choices and tell me which ones you think deserved a place in either one of the sections. Next week we have a look at Tottenham’s kit history!