By Country

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Errea

Good day to all, hope everyone is doing well since the last dosage of kits I gave you.

Well today is the turn of another Italian manufacturer, Errea, famous for, well not much really, maybe being one of the longest running sponsorships in the English premier league for sponsoring Middlesbrough but other than that I can't think of an awful lot that they are famous for.

For the following kits I was sort of inspired by the crescent shape, I would say the moon but that sounds too sad to say "I was inspired by the moon". Anyway crescent shape, I think it is something which looks really dynamic in the way it has two sharp edges and a smooth curves inbetween them. So as you can see this kit is just loaded with them, from the main shirt, to two on the shoulders, and three inter twined-ones on the shorts. I do realise that the front of the shorts looks a lot like an adidas design from a few years ago but this is purely coincidental.

I have given the kits a very plain ordinary looking v-neck collar as I think Errea do sometimes tend to overcomplicate things with theirs. I have used pinstipes on the socks just because I am a fan of the groovyness of them.

For the font I have used a pretty Americana font, again for not really anyother reason that I thought it looked good and went well with the design.

And that's pretty much all the bollocks I can come up with for now.

For the Parma shirt I am a big fan of their older blue and yellow hooped shirts, it was their identity when they were at their height so I have used that as the home design, if their are any protestations I will make a white and black cross one but I really think this looks classier.

Friday 27 March 2009

Legea

Hello, today is the turn of Italian manufacturer Legea, a brand which I am not really a fan of, but they do manufacture a number of interesting teams so I thought I would have to make something.

I've tried to keep it looking typically Legea, but I was desperate to make the big brand markings on the sleeve disappear, so that doesn't feature anywhere but the back of the socks now. I took inspiration for the collar from an LA Lakers basketball jersey, I am not a basketball fan just a good thing to get you to sleep :D

I have also gone for a really simplistic look and not added any sponsor logos to these jerseys, to try and show off the design more than being distracted by garish looking sponsor logos, all that is on any of them is league logos where applicable. Something which I neglected from my previous Hummel kits as I thought it would make the sleeve area look far to busy.

I have tried to add personal touches of the club to the design where possible, bottom of the socks, top of the socks, bottom of the back, I think looking back I could have done more to make them individual, maybe some city crests etc.

I have also added a different colour waistband sort of emulating the look of a belt, this is something which I can't think of too many other designs having included other than on of my favourite Nike designs, think World Cup 2002. I think it gives a rather classy touch and breaks up the colour of the shirt from the shorts.

Opinions are welcome very much and requests taking for people who post here as always.

I have made a few more kits in this design already but I'll post them later to get you to return ;)



Thursday 26 March 2009

Hummel, the third and final

I just found one more which I neglected to upload, this is all now, I promise to you!

Hummel, the second coming

Here are a few more kits I made in the Hummel style which I didn't post before, mainly because they're not all that special.

Remember, just comment on a post if you have a request!


Wednesday 25 March 2009

Hummel

Well welcome back for another helping of my kit designs. This time it is the turn of the Hummel brand.

So what can I say about these kits? Well, not much to be honest a lot of it was trial and error, the only part of the kit which I had planned in my head before I started was the shoulder panel and the shape of that, it was something I thought had never really been done before so would be quite original the only one close I could think of was the Adidas design a couple of years ago which nations like France, Germany and Greece carried.

The shirt sports the traditional Hummel chevrons on the sleeves and shorts and also wrapping around the socks. Every shirt has its own unique water mark one it with a symbol of the club or city that the team is from. I have done this not only to add something unique to the shirt but also just because I have a weird, sickening admiration for shirts with watermarks and have noticed that they seem to look dated quicker than normal shirts, and I saw this as a challenge that hopefully this won't be the case.

The striped shirts have been given a wavy makeover and then faded out as it proceeds to reach the hummel logo and team logo which I have both placed on the right hand side of the shirt, on thing that I did admire from Puma's most recent range and think it works equally as well here.

I'd also like to say I've changed my shadowing on the shirts as I was inspired by recent kits made by the user Meyer1 at DesignFootball.com, inside the collar has been changed to the same sort of style. I have also added some shadow onto the front of the shirt, adapted from the Valencia kit I made which is also a feature of his shirts.

Enough of my gabbing now, I'm not even sure most of it makes sense.

Of course as ever if you comment here I'll make any team you request in this Hummel style, or any of my previous styles where possible.

Saturday 21 March 2009

Something old...

Well as I've not created anything recently, not without a lack of try might I add, I thought I should show you some of the stuff I did for FIFA'07. When you think about it their isn't really a whole lot different between the two styles of now and then, just with the FIFA kits I had to make sure everything was in place under the arms and stuff you cant even see in the 2D version.

These are the first ones I found and as you can see I enjoyed making kits for the not so popular teams back then and even teams that were not in the game just the the follow St. Pauli and Dinamo Zagreb kits.

Not much else to saw other than here they are.


Tuesday 17 March 2009

Ireland - Happy St. Patrick's Day

Top o' the mornin' to ya and all the other Irish stereotypes,

Well as it is St. Patrick's day today I thought I should extend the use of my Umbro template across to our Irish brothers as they will be sharing their fine brews with me today, can't wait to tuck into my first Guinness of the day.

As far as this goes for innovations it is pretty much see the England and Sweden kits, I can't say the template has been adjusted too much just the collar has been adapted to take in the tricolour of the Irish flag.

Aswell as this I have also made sure to have an original font as has been the case with the two previous Umbro kits I made, I tried to make it look a little bit traditional Irish too, not sure if I have achieved that though, I will leave it for you to decide.

I've thrown a clover on the back and wrote 'Éire' (Ireland) on the font, to try and spice it up a little on the traditional front, I did have the idea of adding a sort of Gaelic pattern to the whole thing, but I just didn't think it worked so well so I ditched it.

Right where is my sheleighley and Ireland shirt (I do own one, bought for this purpose), I'm up for some drunken shenanigens even on a Tuesday!


Oh and I also made something a little bit different, and I actually prefer this whole green version.


Monday 16 March 2009

Sweden

Good day to all, hope that you're all in fine fettle and that I may treat you to a kit cuisine today.

OK so I've had too much lazy time watching cooking shows on TV recently but that's changing now, I'm putting my foot down and wiping the slate clean. From now on any lazy time will be transferred into kit time!

Recently I came up with an England kit design and by proxy and Umbro design and was asked by someone over on FootballShirtCulture.com to make another team in this design to which I am going to duly oblige. Of course with the layout being the way it is with a lot of extra details being pointed out I found it a torrid time and had to do a bit of research to find out what I can add into the foray.

The team I chose was Sweden, having never been there my knowledge of local symbols was pretty obscure but doing the research I found a symbol which has not been used to often in the past with Swedish shirt and that is the 'Tre Kronor' (Three Crowns) which I have used on the back of the shirt and also on a logo which I came up with.

I was looking at the Swedish logo and wanted to come up with something a bit more retro looking but nothing old school and the only way I could think of doing this was to redesign it, strip it to its basics, the basics being the Swedish flag background, I then set about adding on the crowns and circling it with 'Sverige' (Sweden) aswell. I am pretty happy with the results I just hope other people agree with me.

Oh and in the crowns look a little familiar then you'd be right in thinking so, I have used the crown from the Hallmark logo just because it was the most stylized looking crown I could find and didn't think it needed any adjustments for what I was looking for.

Saturday 14 March 2009

Interlude

Well I'm giving the kits a little break for the moment to bring you some important news. Today their was a little football match taking place in the north of England in some place called Manchester, anyway the mighty Liverpool F.C. were in town and you know what they won by a pretty hearty scoreline. I'm not sure if I have ever shouted so loud in my life before this day but the decibels were definitely high when Liverpool's number 9 calmly slotted the ball past a helpless Edwin van der Sar, the first time since November since that has happened. Only for another 3 to follow suit and land in the back of the big Dutchman's net, which is the first time that has happened at to the Old Trafford outfit since 1992.

Right I'm going to start working on giving myself a hangover from heaven now, after I day like this I deserve it.

Warning: The below pictures may be upsetting for fans of Manchester United.

Friday 13 March 2009

Puma

Well hello there people, long time no see.

Since nobody commented here as to to which teams I should make in the template I opened it up to random people on MSN telling them to choose whatever names they liked best, which proved interesting. As these people knew what I like they chose a couple of eastern European teams for me to make, these being Zorya Luhansk (Ukraine) and Widzew Łódź (Poland) to add to Tottenham, Italy and the already made Feyenoord.

So now for the unveiling, but first my blurb and reasoning behind what I have done with the design. Firstly for this kit I got my inspiration from trees, as weird as that sounds, I saw their branches and though maybe their is something I could do like that on a football strip, something that maybe looks like it wraps around the body which is where the bold lines on the front, back sleeves and shorts come in.

To give the kits a touch of class I made sure gold was used as a colour on each of them lust little sprinklings here and their whether it be for the puma logo and I constantly used it with the collar as a bit of a trademark effect.

The font is a new gothic font and thought it gave a modern touch with a twist of the past also consistantly outline with gold. I also have a watermark of either the clubs crest or something that represents the club on the back of the shirt (look closely), done in a faint mesh of dots, these for example range from the Feyenoord 'F' to the full crest for Widzew.

As an added touch to the eastern kits I added a skewed horizonal pinstripe just as a different look as I haven't seen it employed too much in kit design so thought it would make a change.

Well that's all the BS I am going to spout for now. Please feel free to give me feedback on them, and I will still accept requests for kits in this style from people who post here.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

C'mooooooooooon!

I know this blog doesn't receive major views but I still notice the page view counter going up steadily. So even if you don't intend of ever visiting here again, just take a look at the list and give me the name of a Puma team. You're not signing a contract or anything that you need to come back here and see it, I just want some way to make the teams that I'm going to make automated as I feel I will probably make the same ones over and over again. Not that it's a bad thing for me, but that's not usually what other people want to see.

Their are 2 positions left, as I opened the voting on FootballShirtCulture.com and so far we have:

  1. Italy
  2. Tottenham Hotspurs
So come on and even if it does fill, I'll still allow whoever posts here to get whatever they want no matter if they're already made by Puma or not, hows about that for a deal?

Tuesday 10 March 2009

I Want You!

Good evening people, after that thrilling night of football I am pretty much lost for words and that's not the alcohol talking, Madrid taking their biggest European shafting in their from Liverpool, Michael Ballack's controversial handling of the ball, Buffon's lucky escape, Bayern giving out the biggest beating in champions league history and Panathinaikos being dumped out at home by Villarreal. Just so many things to talk about!

As this is a kit blog however, I shall not be discussing any of the above, I will however be giving you the option to tell me what kit you want to see. I completed my new Puma template earlier today and want you to tell me which teams you want to see in the new design.

Rules are as follows, the team must already be being manufactured by Puma, so you can't go around pick Liverpool for example to wear it. Also I have already made Feyenoord in the new design so they're off the list.

That's it, they're all the rules.

A pretty concise list of what teams Puma manufacture can be found on Wikipedia, but do be warned the list looks a little out of date to me as I know a few teams are no longer made by Puma.

England

Another day another dollar, but it's not that bad is it, the sun is shining, even though it's the first time it's done that in over a year and I've only just woken up, perfect. Today I'm having a dead day off see here for cultural reference, so that means for me having a beer, going for a strole, eating disgustingly fatty foods, watching some football and other boring stuff inbetween.

As I am sure you've heard the launch of the new England shirt is imminent, so I thought I'd get in the act in creating something which I'd like seeing England wear. Believe me making something cool looking for England is really hard, their isn't much to work with at all, using the red cross in the design is difficult to make look good as the garish red looks very bad concentrated in one place. White with a dark blue trim look relatively boring also, and don't get me started on using light blue as a substitute for them.

So for my first attempt I used what I define in my head as being typically England and that is white with a red trim, even though this is a more modern association I still prefer it to the previous white/dark blue strips from the 90's.

The whole design basically came up just from drawing a few shapes and working from that, and in this case I started on the back and worked my way from there. First to make it typically Umbro I took what they've been using as a base design and flipped it vertically so their is a sort of arrow pointing up to the collar, yeah I stole their idea, shame on me. I also stole the idea for the layout of the kit too, I have just been really impressed with a few other kit makers recently such as Azmie aka Switch image and also Amadeus Angelillo for kits like this, I like how they show enlarged parts of the kit to show off the detail, I am not a fan of the blurb that goes with it, but it was something that had to be done to explain why that part had been enlarged, also it means the compostion of the image is far better.


I then waited to see what comments I receieved which were all quite positive and constructive, so I took all of them on board, "England kit should have less red", "try with the new logo", "I don't like the position of the Umbro logo on the shorts", "I'd like to see it with the light shade of blue". All of which I obliged and added an extra bit of red trim to the shirt and shorts and this ammalgamation came out.


Personally I am more of a fan of the dark blue version and it turns out that everyone else was too, get that?

Anyway, if you want to see any Umbro team in this template post up a comment with the request and I'll try and get it done, maybe a bit harder since I have to find details to highlight etc. but I'll try my best to get it done.

Monday 9 March 2009

Kappa

Hello my fine blog viewing public, hope you're all well. I'm just settling down having a well earned frosty beer, and thought now be a good time to make another update.

So now I introduce you to my Kappa collection. I thought this time I should make a more detailed looking template rather than my first two Kappa kits I made, something more technical looking but like with my Nike and Adidas templates I wanted to make something which fit Kappa as a company.

As I am sure you know, Kappa like to recycle previous templates and modify them slightly to give a whole new effect, no? Well you should do to be reading something like this. Anyway, that's exactly what I have tried to do. The template in question again is from around the 2003/2005 period, a golden time for kits in my opinion, although I can only remember it being used with two teams, Auxerre and Real Betis, maybe it was used on Italy too but I'm unsure of that.

As with all Kappa kits I have tried to make the seems look like they're that inside out sort, you know what I mean right. I have also given the the kits an off center look, something which I am quite fond of looks wise, well for the most part I have. As you can see Botafogo is symetrical and so is Valencia apart from the shorts. When designing South American team kits I tend to make them a bit different from the original template as that also seems to be the norm when it comes to that.

Anyway, I have a whole stockpile of Kappa teams that I made so if you would like to see any, just post a request in the comments section and I'll post it right up for you.





Rapid Wien

Just time for a quick post, this is made from the same Adidas template as the previous Milan kit.

As with all Austrian league kits their is a whole host of sponsorship logos and I just wanted to add as many as I could to give it that little bit more realism. This is actually a kit specifically design for the club captain Steffen Hofmann, well not the kit design but the sponsors, on all the rest of the players jersey the main sponsor would usually be the 'Wien Energie' logo that you see on the sleeve, with that being replaced by the 'OWV/OMV' logo.

On the back of the collar is the crest of Vienna, which I slightly modified to contain the diagonal green and white stripes that you can see contained within Rapid's logo. An added touch of personalisation to the strip is the writing at the bottom of the back which reads Rapid ist uns're Religion ("Rapid is our religion") the slogan of the fans of Rapid.

I think this design works really well with Rapid especially with the diagonal front stripes, as their recent history has been tainted with stipes going in all different directions, horizontal, vertical and this season a singular diagonal stripe, so I think this is maybe a natural progression along with Adidas' dynamic look.

Please let me know if their are anyother Adidas sponsored teams you think would suit this design and I will work on bringing them to you.

Old 3D Kits

Hello all, I thought I would spice things up a little and chuck in something you've probably not seen before and something I haven't seen in quite some time too, it's my 3D FIFA shirts I told you about before!

All these kits were made in Photoshop to start with then modelled in OEdit which basically uses EA's 3D model for their games and displays them without having to enter into the game itself.

So I'll keep this short and just show you what I was doing nearly 4 years ago! I can't believe it has been that long at all.