The Best and Worst of Football League 2012/13 Kits (So Far)

New kits are the first real talk of debate for fans before the transfer window gets under way. As always, there are some good, some bad and some downright ugly. This post is going to have a brief look at what I think are the 5 best, and 5 worst Football League Kits to be released so far this summer. Click to enlarge any of the images.


The Best

Bradford City - Home

Now, this is my favourite kit featured, it's just so stylish. Clearly Nike are doing a great job with hooped kits this season, as this is the third featured in my top 5. The club have traditionally worn stripes rather than hoops, but the club's first kit back in 1903 took on a similar design. The kit also features white shorts for the first time in 8 years and white socks for the first time in 27. I just think it looks really slick, easy on the eye, and is typically iconic of Bradford City.

Doncaster Rovers - Home and Away

The new Doncaster Rovers home and away are probably the best all round job (i.e home and away kit) pairing I've seen so far this summer. I particularly like the away kit with the black 'v' across the chest. Simple, but sharp. The home kit has classic red and white hoop design which also looks really smart.

Crystal Palace - Home
The new Crystal Palace has a touch of Barcelona 2010/11 about it, and I rather like it. The kit is bespoke with the club asking fans to participated in the design of the shirt. Rather than a kit manufacture, the shirt has "Founded 1905" elegantly stitched opposite the club crest. The away kit is even more eye catching, taking on the same design with a bright yellow body, blue stripes and red trim. Still undecided if I like it though.

Peterborough United - Away

Posh defender Gabriel Zakuani is seen here modelling the club's new away kit for the 2012/13 season. The black and red hooped design was one of three proposed by the club, who, like Crystal Palace, asked fans to vote for their favourite. (The other two designs where pale green and black hoops or pale yellow). I think the fans made an excellent choice. The sponsor was originally in yellow, which I think looked better, but is now fluorescent green. Great work by Nike again.

Rotherham United - Home
I wouldn't say the design of the Rotherham kit is anything too special (although it is nicer than other Puma kits I've seen produced for the new season), but this kit is different. You may notice below the Puma logo is a crest. This is the coat of arms for the city of Rotherham, and sits proudly opposite the club badge. This is why I've included it in my top 5, as I think its an original idea which shows how important football clubs can be to cities and communities.

Another notably mention is Carlisle United's Fila kit for the new 2012/13, with a very smart looking diagonal red strip running through the usual blue body.


The Worst
Coventry City - Home and Away
Coventry have done something special here and produced two equally disgusting kits. Both have the exact same design (which is a little bit lazy) with the colours changed. I think both kits kits look quite old fashioned, and I the only good thing I can say about the away kit is that, at least its not as bad as this old Norwich number. Not sure that's a compliment though. Not sure we'll be seeing many of these replica kits at the Ricoh next season (and that's not just because they don't have many fans).

Millwall Home and Away

Millwall have done a double whammy too, which two pretty ugly kits. Firstly, I'm not a fan of Macron as a kit manufacturer at all - just look at Aston Villa's new goalkeeping kit. That's enough to put anyone off. The sleeves look like a child's attempt to draw a turtle shell. Anyway, back to Millwall. I'm not a fan of collared shirts either, so this was always going to be tough for me to like. That white quadrant on  the home kit just looks pointless. What else can I say? The away shirt isn't quite as horrible? Let's move on...

Plymouth Argyle - Home

Maybe the guy wearing it has got a size too big, but baggy looking kits are becoming increasingly old fashioned in my opinion. The typical green we associate with Plymouth seems to have turned into a drab, grey/silver tone on this kit (compare the colour of the badge to the shirt). "SILVER ARRRRMY!

Leeds United - Home

Do football kits still have trims? This Leeds United kit does and I don't think it does the shirt any favours. The Macron badges are slightly less visible than on other kits, situated on the shoulders rather than the sleeves. Another pedantic gripe I have with this shirt is why is the sponsors logo black instead of blue? If it was blue, it would match and would neaten the shirt up a bit. It was blue on last season's kit.

Sheffield United - Home

This is a hat trick for Macron. Just look at it. Its far too busy with the usual red and white stripes with their black outline (that wasn't on last season's kit and looked much better), which also surrounds the sponsorship logo, and I think looks quite cluttered. Too many flicks and v shapes going on. However, what really ruins this kit is the shorts. You can't see it brilliantly on this picture, but look at those Macron logos climbing up both sides of the shorts like a Mexcian wave. Truly awful. They're the kind of shorts you'd find in a primary school lost property box that are forced upon kids that have forgotten their kit.

Anniversary Kit
Gillingham - Home and Away

As many football clubs are reaching significant anniversary years, the tradition now is to release special kits to commemorate the landmark season. Notts County are doing that too with their new home kit, as they become the first Football League club to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Arsenal did something similar to commemorate their final year at Highbury. This season, Gillingham are celebrating 100 years since they changed from New Brompton to Gillingham FC back in 1912/13. To commemorate the occasion, they are reproducing that season's kit, which involves a rather medieval string tied collar. The first time I saw it, I didn't like it, but the red home kit (right) has grown on me. Although it looks like it should have a hood, it's quite a flash from the past!

Thanks for reading. If you like you can vote on the poll to the left which you think are the best and worst of those mentioned.

I would also like to recommend two websites, which helped me compile this piece.
The first is Football Kit News, which is frequently posting new photos and updates of the 2012/13 season kits for teams across the world.
The second is Historical Kits, a website with sketches of club's kits from when they were formed to modern day. Its really interesting, and well worth a look.

As always, I don't own any of the images. They are for entertainment purposes only.

You can find me on Twitter - @Bolton0301 and @NFFC_Stats