Casualwear (Russia)

For the next few posts I'll be displaying something a little different from kits, but still football related so don't despair. Basically what I have made are a few t-shirts and stuff such as that which you would wear in everyday life 'casually'. For my choice in teams I just used a random number generator and went with whatever it picked and then counted it on the UEFA list then, associated numbers with teams in the league it picked and drew numbers again so it was a totally random process.

Well the first number drawn gave me the Russian leagues to choose from. From that, I made sure it was just the top two leagues to choose so I would at least know something about the team. First team out of the hat, so to speak, was Luch-Energiya Vladivostok of the Russian First Division (below the premier league). Luckily I know a little about them and their geographic remoteness makes them quite an anomaly in European football. If they were in a European competition and drew an Icelandic team it may be the first time a team have had to fly across America to get to their European tie as it would be closer than going trans-Europe.

When I set out to make casualwear I wanted the shirts to have original qualities unrelated to the club combined with history, so a mix of the old and new. With the Vladivostok t-shirt I was inspired a bit by American basketball shirts and I stuck with this idea for it, using a kind of Americana writing, I have also used a kind of 80's/early 90's style star shapes with solid colour bands to give a funky retro look. The blue colour scheme in one that features in Vladivostok's home shirt although as a secondary colour behind yellow. The tiger is from the teams logo and inside the collar is an old map of the Vladivostok region with the word Восток (Vostok - Russian for East) highlighted. I realise now looking at these I have made the collar far too small, just poor drawing from me.


Second out of this mystery hat was current and maybe soon to be consecutive champions, Rubin Kazan. Kazan has a rich history being the capital of the tartar region, which is actually where the club colours come from, the flag of Taratarstan. So I thought it was quite important I included these making the majority of the shirt an unusual shade of dark green with a reasonably light red to highlight it. I have given this t-shirt more of a grungy look as I thought it suited the colours quite well. Also featuring on this shirt is a huge star highlighting their success in last season's premier league, a bit Hollywood styl-e, their is the Kazan dragon and the coat of arms of Tartarstan within the collar.


Finally is FK Moskva, the government owned capital side. They are quite a newish team just like Midtjylland were being founded in only 1997 but only being known as FK Moskva since 2004, I have gone with a burgundy colour which is similar of that of their shirts. The spirally shape is a bit random but I also think it has a bit of an element of the space race look to it, so in that way fits with a government owned team, in the collar is the coat of arms of Moscow as I had no better ideas.