SW11_Saint

Unbelievable. Once again - it is SO easy to get it right. Lucky old Sunderland. History and tradition in tact, and a nice looking new kit.

You will always sell well, particularly in the Premier League. And no one is arguing against change, we, like most clubs, are clearly going to change our kit every year, and most people have no problem about that, or at least accept it. Like everyone else, I get excited about a new kit coming out (only to be desperately deflated on the last two seasons). We have a strong brand and colour template (red, white, black) and that can be used in any number if innovative ways, whilst still retaining our brand and our identity - as has been shown by some of the great designs that people have come up with on here. As I have said many times, this is SO easy to get right. being innovative and progressive, while still retaining your identity are not mutually exclusive. Have no doubt whatsoever, Cortese runs EVERY ASPECT of the club - I know this for a fact - and I have no doubt that the red rebranding will be his doing. I am sure there are those at the club will have wanted to go back to a design more in keeping with our identity, but I doubt they will have voiced that opinion...

Less than 20% approval rating can never be seen as a success. If NC is the smart businessman people say he is, he should be focussing on the opportunity cost of the disenfranchised 60% of the club's fan base, and working out how to engage (monetise) those fans. [Hint: it involves black shorts and vertical stripes]

Are you for real?! 'If you don't like the (sh1tty) new kit and make your feelings known, go and find a new club?' I've heard some pathetic things in my time but that takes the biscuit. PS 65% IS a majority.

Ssshhh! Don't say that - Cortese will ban it!

If I avoid the obvious (Le Tiss, Channon) it would be Steve Williams, closely followed by David Armstrong. All playing in the iconic red, white & black (no, I won't "get over it"!).

Agreed. As I keep saying this is something that is SO EASY to get right, and to therefore get all fans behind. All of which concerns me re the motives behind these two successive monstrosities we've suffered.

http://www.footballshirtculture.com/13/14-kits/swindon-town-2013-2014-adidas-away-football-shirt.html Ooh, I like Swindon's away kit. Actually, that'd look nice in red and white - perhaps with black shorts? Adidas could never come up with something like this. Oh, hang on...

So we're not quite as bad as the club who has despicably thrown aside its heritage colours and identity and totally p1ssed all over its own fans - whoopee doo!!

Presume the OS has already gone into overdrive about he queues, record sales etc? Love a bit of creative PR. My one mate who said he was going to buy it thought better of it having got own to West Quay - presumably having seen it is even worse 'in the cloth'...

Correct. It does.

The point is we shouldn't want to look like anyone other that SOUTHAMPTON FC! This whole pro-change lobby gets more and more pathetic by the minute...

I just can't fathom why all of a sudden people have a problem looking like SOUTHAMPTON?? In my 40+ years of supporting Saints, I have never once thought "Christ, we look like Sunderland! We need to change to look like someone else!". So, to continue your line of thought Turkish, if the whole point of changing kit is to 'look like someone more successful', why aren't we wearing the Barcelona kit, or Spain maybe? And if Sunderland go on to dominate the PL and Europe for the next decade will you then be lobbying to change back to 'look like' them? Let's stop these childish worries about other clubs eh, it's embarrassing mate.. Let's just be comfortable looking like he club we are - Southampton FC - in red, white and black.

Sheep and kids will buy them regardless. They will shift a few units due to that fact alone, and just being in the Prem. The stats on the poll and the comments below it - and on other forums - seem entirely representative, around 9% approval rating. P1ss poor, and strange given that this is something that is SO EASY to get right.

Exactly. That is what amazes me about this whole fiasco - it is so ridiculously easy to get it RIGHT!

They were accepted, but then they always retained our red, white & black palette. Some were fantastic, some were bloody awful - but they were always identifiably Saints. The move from some form of stripes is a big issue, but so is the removal of the black shorts. Swapping a clear identity for genericism is never a good idea.

Good for you. The last hundred odd years must have been just terrible for you...

Red, white and BLACK. Other past combinations - even when they have strayed away from the traditional stripes - have stayed with that colour palette, and are always therefore identifiable as 'Saints kits'. That is the other big difference here. The lack of originality and the blandness of this paltry effort just add insult to injury.

Thought it would be difficult to top last years monstrosity, but they have managed it. A drab, boring, bland, generic Adidas template, which says NOTHING about the history and tradition of Southampton Football Club. Truly awful. Four replica kit sales lost in this household. Give the fans what they want to see the team in next year - red & white stripes.

Happy days. I used to write for Red Stripe. And I know who you can blame for that cover...

Commentators do just fine - they have the teams sheets, and their notes, right in front of them on paper...

Though of course nothing is permanent - eventually people move on, or well, you know, depart this mortal coil. So at some point the stripes will be reinstated and sanity (and identity) will be restored. Even Cortese may have a rethink if sales don't go well. If the (unfounded) rumours are true that NC doesn't like stripes or thinks solid colours imply a more successful image, I wonder what he thinks of Barcelona, Inter, AC, and Juve etc?

The sash kit was indubitably Saints - represented our first ever kit, and was explicitly offered as a one-off 125th anniversary kit. In stripes, we don't "look like Stoke or Sunderland" (you just said yourself "our history is stripes"?!?). Why is it people started trotting out this idiotic statement last year?? It is embarrassing - stop it! (Do you confuse QPR and Reading too? Spurs and Fulham? ). PS You seriously need names on the back to know who our players are?!?

It's a lovely kit. For Rotherham Utd.

They only bother doing original designs for the big boys - where there is a truly global market. The rest of us also rans get the bland, generic templates. Of course if you have a distinctive kit - like stripes or hoops - you can still retain some form of identity. Unless of course you decide to ditch it to join the truly generic masses...