For the first time since QPR signed a manufacturing deal with Italian sports brand Lotto five years ago, the kits for the new season have been met with universal approval. Ash Rose takes his annual look at the offering.
With Clive’s run down of last season’s disaster (better him then me on that one), it’s time to look forward to what new campaign will bring. For many, Wednesday’s release of the new fixture list is the best day of the summer but for me the most exciting part of pre-season happened even before that and that was of course the reveal of the 2013-14 Queens Park Rangers kits.
As anyone who has seen my articles on this site or followed me on Twitter (cheap plug @AshRoseUK) you’ll know that I am a bit of kit geek, and therefore the reveal of the new R’s strips is a very exciting time for me. There was even room in my book (second cheap plug) The QPR Miscellany –available from the QPR club shop and online here – for a rundown of R’s kits and so as you can imagine I spend/waste a good deal of time thinking and writing about them.
Here then is my review of the Lotto’s 2013/14 kits for Rangers forthcoming Championship campaign, and a few tidbits on the game’s other new numbers.
This marks Lotto’s sixth season as Rangers kit supplier, a deal that has somehow gone on longer then anyone expected or reported when they took over from Le Coq Sportif in 2008. It’s fair to say that thus far the Italian sportswear company have struggled to find the right formula for QPR kits and most of their efforts have been somewhat underwhelming. They kicked off in 2008 with the all too blue shirt, and matching blue shorts that were far too much like Reading for this writer’s liking. While away from home, the rushed templated ‘spiked’ kits where unusual to say the least. The following season saw Flavio Briatore’s favourite colour silver added to the pallet, with less hoops and the badge moved to the centre. The Dennis the Menace colours did return for the away shirt however, and the set was complemented with a very smart rare all navy third shirt.
A year later, and in QPR’s memorable Championship winning season, the silver had been replaced with the ‘classic’ red piping on the hoops and a more rounded collar, which up to this point was Lotto’s best shirt so far. Red and black halves were a nice change to the away shirt, and the green and white hoops were a good third choice, harking back to the 1992 Brooks shirt.
But it was it was once in the Premier League, Lotto pressed the self-destruct button, or in this case the ‘too many hoops’ button and never quite got it right on English football’s biggest stage. The 2011 shirt was left way late due to a sponsor issue, and when it was released the hoops had become too thin and the sponsor’s logo stuck on over the top so it didn’t blend well with the shirt. Mango was introduced as the away kit, which putting Blackpool aside, no shade or orange should ever be used on a football kit, and thankfully ditched before the end of the season in favour of the best of the lot – the 70s inspired red and white halves.
Given a second chance of showing the Premier League a proper hooped shirt, Lotto made the mistake of increasing the number of Hoops with a design that looked more like one those stereotypical cartoon images of a Frenchman – all you needed was onions round the players necks. While the all red away kit, and blue third were smart if unimaginable. At this point if I were to label Lotto’s time in charge of kit design I would have used the word mediocre.
Then came their unexpected and at the moment last attempt at a QPR kit, and well wouldn’t you know it, they saved the best for last…
Having snuck in some QPR spies a week prior to the reveal, we already knew that Dennis the Menace was back for away kit, and that they’d finally reduced the number of hoops to a more classic QPR style. But once I’d seen them in all their glory across the three-page spread in Rangers InsideR mag, I was over the moon with the results.
Home:
I’ll get this out the way first of all, I’m actually not a fan of the red piping on QPR shirts. I know, I know it harks back to the classic Guinness kits of the 80s and the dream would only be complete if Adidas made the kit, I’m just not a fan myself. I much prefer the fluro-yellow trim we had in the early 90s, but that maybe down to my obsession with Roy Wegerle. However, the red really does work on the new home shirt, and that’s maybe to do with how well it matches the colour of the Air Asia logo and those awful Lotto sleeve patches. Away from the red, as mentioned it has a good number of hoops, a simple but smart collar with a button-up feature and a nice ‘QPR’ motif on the reverse of the neck. I especially like the way the top hoop blends nicely with the sleeves. Overall it’s the best home kit they’ve produced, and the most QPR-like shirt we’ve seen since the Car Giant kit of 2007.
Away:
The change strip (as it’s more now commonly being referred to) repeats most of the same aspects of the home kit, but in Rangers most famous away colours. We really feel like QPR when we have hoops for both our home and away kits, and even better when the ‘Dennis the Menace’ colours return – although we seemed to not gone as far as throwing out the Beano characters for the actual launch this time around. I like the addition of the white piping to each Hoop and the lines on the cuffs give it something extra. A welcome return that has been nicely designed to boot.
Third:
The best thing about third strips is the license to do whatever you want with them, and variety is key for me when it comes to kit design. Over the years we’ve seen Rangers appear in orange at the start of the 90s, all yellow at the beginning of the millennium and the sky blue design that saw the Binatone logo start to fall off after a few washes. Next season we have our first ever all-green number, as a nod to Tony Fernandes F1 team Caterham. I have no real problems with Fernandes using his colours for a third shirt, after all it’s his club and it’s the least important of the three shirts anyway. Also it gives the club a unique design that in years to come will probably become a collector’s item as much as the Influence orange and black kit is now. Again the shirt features hoops in yellow this time, but they are much thinner and lined with a white trim. Those horrible red Lotto patches (really can’t wait to see the back of them) remain and slightly unbalance the colours but it’s a stylish kit that could have been a whole lot worse given its origins.
Goalkeeping:
Perhaps the most surprising and my personnel favourite design of all the new kits – and I’m not someone who buys goalie kits. It seems like we’ve had pretty much the same design from Lotto between the sticks for the past few seasons, that spiked look that has only really varied in colours through Cerny, Kenny and Cesar/Green last season. Next year though Lotto have really mixed things up with an all navy number with white pinstripes across the shirt, and a collar to match the other three strips. It reminds be of the 1995-96 away kit, which is still my favourite ever Rangers second strip and it really finishes off the fresh look of all four designs from Lotto.
Before these latest designs I was more than happy to see Lotto end their relationship with QPR, but they’ve thrown a shiny spanner in the works with their 2013-14 range. I still could do without the arm patches as I think they are overkill, but I’d give them a chance to pitch for another contract if they keep up the same level of design. Tony Fernandes has suggested that Lotto are in the running for 2014, along with Nike, Adidas and American firm Warrior. I wouldn’t be adverse to any of them, however a word of warning, with Nike and Adidas comes a lot more ‘templating’ then we are used to. You only have to look at Bolton/Hull/Sunderland/Stoke to see that the ‘bat wing’ style seems to be Adidas’ chosen design this season, while Nike have toned their shirts right down as you’ll see from the new England and Man City strips. As for Warrior, I’d be interested to see what they’d do with a QPR shirt, especially given the craziness of Liverpool’s kits, but given my choice would be Under Armour. I was mightily impressed with what they did with Spurs last season, and they are new enough in the industry to prevent templates across their portfolio. And if it’s good enough for the Dillon Panthers, it’s good enough for me.
Looking around at the others that have been released so far, I think it could be a real vintage year for football kits, with some of the newer brands really starting to experiment with designs. The headline act is surely Warrior’s Liverpool away and third designs which have taken creativity to the extreme. Having just written a book about 90s football (cheap plug number three, out this August), Warrior’s creations seem to have come from this era, when designs were at their craziest. Which I have no problem with, I’d much rather that then stare at kits like Barnsley’s new dull Nike affair.
Man Utd’s is possibly Nike’s best so far, while Erra continue to do a sound job with Brighton’s kits. Down in the lower leagues, Wycombe’s dash of graded colours sees their shirt stand out in League Two, and Wolves Puma kits, which include a striking purple away kit lead the way in League One. My favourite thus far though, would Macron’s Aston Villa kits. Yet another smaller company experimenting nicely with their designs, and has seen them produce a retro inspired home kit for the Villains and a unusual quartered away kit that will no doubt spark as much discussion as their lime green shirt of last season. Watch out for West Ham’s too when they are officially released as Adidas seem to have steered them away from templates, and as for Cardiff the less said of ‘shortgate’ the better. Now that’s how you don’t launch a shirt.
View a wide selection of the other kits released this summer on our message board.
Tweet @AshRose83, @loftforwords
Pictures – Kit launch courtesy of QPR and Back Page Images, others from Action Images