New Kit - Rate the kit POLL ADDED

[Alan Partridge]

Well you live and learn. Assuming you're right.

Was from Andy West at the club, if you choose to believe him.

[Sun Tzu]

What is the suggested motivation for this awful lie ?

And why is there such a fuss over it ? I'd have been more upset if we'd lost our hooped shirts than I have been because we had a white panel on the back.

It sounds more like a Boyd Butler issue than an Andy West one though. Andy may have spoken the words but I'd lay odds they originated from Boyd and I'd also suspect that they were a misinterpretation of some kind of regulation than an outright and rather pointless 'lie'. But I'd have no way to find any evidence to back that up - or see any reason why anyone would want to....

[Alan Partridge]

What is the suggested motivation for this awful lie ?

And why is there such a fuss over it ? I'd have been more upset if we'd lost our hooped shirts than I have been because we had a white panel on the back.

It sounds more like a Boyd Butler issue than an Andy West one though. Andy may have spoken the words but I'd lay odds they originated from Boyd and I'd also suspect that they were a misinterpretation of some kind of regulation than an outright and rather pointless 'lie'. But I'd have no way to find any evidence to back that up - or see any reason why anyone would want to....

It was on the official site as I suppsoe a few people had complained about it, it was on there as these are the regulations that there needs to be panel sothe names and numbers are far clearer for TV and everything else, words to that effect. Truth is it's a load of rubbish and there was no such ruling. Not saying Andy West was behind it but in an email he said there was no such ruling just the club and manufacturer had decided to have a panel.

Personally I was interested to know why Reading MUST have a panel yet the likes of Sunderland didn't.

[rabidbee]

ISTR that they said they were bringing in in anticipation of the rule change, or something. Not that it really matters.

[Sun Tzu]

Before we had the panel it was a regular feature of live games that commentators complained they couldn't read the numbers on the shirts.

Never bothered me - I know what our players look like and roughly where they play on the pitch so in general terms never look at the numbers (I did used to find it tricky telling Sammy Igoe and Nicky Shorey apart though).

I still don't really see why it appears to have caused such deep and lasting hurt to some fans ! It's just a panel on the back of a shirt.

[Stooper]

Which was the last shirt with 'complete' hoops?

[Alan Partridge]

Before we had the panel it was a regular feature of live games that commentators complained they couldn't read the numbers on the shirts.

Never bothered me - I know what our players look like and roughly where they play on the pitch so in general terms never look at the numbers (I did used to find it tricky telling Sammy Igoe and Nicky Shorey apart though).

I still don't really see why it appears to have caused such deep and lasting hurt to some fans ! It's just a panel on the back of a shirt.

No deep and lasting hurt at all. Don't think it looks particularly good but it's their choice at the end of the day. I was interested to know, found out what they'd said was rubbish as predicted. That was all.

[rabidbee]

2004-5, the last season of the Westcoast sponsorship.

This one, I think:

[Sun Tzu]

I'm not sure it looks any worse than an unreadable number on the back of the hoops !

But it's a football shirt, it's not quite a classic in the Brazil / Barcelona / Arsenal mold but it's different to your bog standard blue / red / white tops and I'm glad we've stayed with the hoops after too long without them a few years back. I'd rather we stuck with one design but then I'm not a marketing person....

[Alan Partridge]

I'm not sure it looks any worse than an unreadable number on the back of the hoops !

But it's a football shirt, it's not quite a classic in the Brazil / Barcelona / Arsenal mold but it's different to your bog standard blue / red / white tops and I'm glad we've stayed with the hoops after too long without them a few years back. I'd rather we stuck with one design but then I'm not a marketing person....

It's only unreadable if they do something truly genius like put the number in black!!! In red it was absolutely fine.

To be honest Puma have yet to amke a really decent kit for RFC in the 5 years or so they've been doing them. The best kit in recentish years was in 2000.

[rabidbee]

Actually, the best thing to do with two-tone shirts is to put the numbers on in two contrasting colours as well. That could mean red numbers with a thick black outline, or black numbers with a thick white outline. The quality of the printing matters too. Back in the 90s, the plastic used to print the numbers was so thin, the blue of the hoops underneath showed through, making them impossible to read.

[Sun Tzu]

I'm not sure it looks any worse than an unreadable number on the back of the hoops !

But it's a football shirt, it's not quite a classic in the Brazil / Barcelona / Arsenal mold but it's different to your bog standard blue / red / white tops and I'm glad we've stayed with the hoops after too long without them a few years back. I'd rather we stuck with one design but then I'm not a marketing person....

It's only unreadable if they do something truly genius like put the number in black!!! In red it was absolutely fine.

To be honest Puma have yet to amke a really decent kit for RFC in the 5 years or so they've been doing them. The best kit in recentish years was in 2000.

I'll take you word for that !

For me kits fall into 3 categories

- absolute classics (the aforementioned Brazil / Barcelona / Arsenal types)
- the absolute disasters (Hull's tiger stripes, Chelsea's roadmender effort, Newcastle's deckchairs)
- everything else - functional and does the job of allowing players, refs and fans to identify which 11 players are on the same team.

Our's could get into the 'classics' with a nice strong, clean design withthe right number of hoops in the right blue but essentially they all fit into the 'functional'. The one with the wany lines may have crept into the disaster box !

[Ian Royal]

2004-5, the last season of the Westcoast sponsorship.

This one, I think:

Nope, I've got that one and it has blue breathable side panel things.

[Thaumagurist*]

The back panel was just that - a fad. I'm pleased to see it die a death.

[Platypuss]

Surely it just came down to the fact that Puma's standard templates came with a blank panel? We then simply had a choice of going with that and accommodating hoops around it or pay more to have a custom design made up.

As per what has become the general norm for RFC, we had to come up with some marketing bollocks justification rather than the plain and simple truth - rather like with the special gold edging we had last year (like it seems every other Puma club also had).

[ArfnipIsARoyal]

Think 2003/04 was the last complete hoop shirt IIRC. If not then the 1999-2001

[Alan Partridge]

Surely it just came down to the fact that Puma's standard templates came with a blank panel? We then simply had a choice of going with that and accommodating hoops around it or pay more to have a custom design made up.

As per what has become the general norm for RFC, we had to come up with some marketing bollocks justification rather than the plain and simple truth - rather like with the special gold edging we had last year (like it seems every other Puma club also had).

Well remembered!What a load of shite that was!!

[wickedwhispers]

NEW KITS

[Thaumagurist*]

.

[Sun Tzu]

There is a league rule that means we have to change our name, just in case any other team called Reading joins the league.

Hence we have our new name on the kit this season.

There is some nice gold trim added (at no extra cost) to celebrate our new name.