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Design Football Memebrs Blog


Jul 14
2012

Enhanced by the Sponsor

Posted by Jay29ers in Untagged 

Jay29ers

Whilst I make no apology for being opinionated, it occasionally becomes necessary for me to qualify my remarks.  For example, I recently railed against the use of sublimation in football shirt manufacture, only to have it pointed out to me that major sportswear manufacturers utilise the technique to create stripes, hoops, sashes and other integral patterns.  I was, of course, aware of this and merely hadn't been explicit enough in outlining that I was referring to sublimation's use when adding finer details such as single, double or triple striping on sleeves, manufacturers' logos, crests and sponsors.

Ah, sponsors.  Even more recently I wrote a piece taking aim at football clubs and associations - FAI, this means you - which allow shirt sponsorship to impact negatively on a design or reputation.  What I didn't make quite clear enough, it seems, is that I actually like football shirt sponsorship.

In fact, the right sponsor can make a football shirt.  Cork City/QPR with Guinness, St Pauli with Astra, Scarborough with Black Death Vodka (really!).  In my last article I referred to Liverpool's association with Carlsberg - as opposed to Standard Chartered - as being one which was celebrated by the fans, but I'm more of a Candy man (ha) myself, with a fondness for Crown Paints and, naturally, Hitachi.  In fact, befitting someone born in Kettering - home of the first British club to wear a shirt sponsor - I am keen to embrace brand logos appearing on shirts, if it's the right brand and the right logo, and the bigger the better.

CR Smith was a particular favourite with Celtic - though the larger player style rather than the downsized version used on the replicas.  And, whilst I understand the desire to get one's hands on a rarity, Uefa's limiting of the size of shirt sponsors is generally to the shirts' cost, even considering Borussia Dortmund's dispensing of the Die Continental wording on their run to Champions League glory in 1997, and creating a perpetually out of reach version of their 97-98 shirt in the final.

On the other hand, the Uefa rule that teams in oppostition cannot wear the same sponsor - seemingly now defunct - has thrown up some great one-offs, as has the barring of alcohol and gambling sponsorship in certain countries.  Arsenal imploring people to visit Dubai paired up, in a cross-generational illustration of the UK's north-south divide, with Newcastle recommending a more modest outlay on a trip to Center Parcs.   Blink and you'll miss them but they attain legendary status.

Equally, an increased quantity can be as effective as an increased size.  The French - also prone to cross-competition sponsorship rotation - and, even more notably, South and Central American team's football kits are covered in logos.  It's cluttered and it must detract from from the original design but a large-sized main sponsor surrounded by smaller indicators of more modest deals, short sponsors - and here I do prefer sublimation, and will forever regret lending my 1994-95 l'OM shorts to a teammate, never to see them again - and even iconic sponsors on socks just, somehow, looks cool.  Like a Nascar or Piccadilly Circus, nay, Tokyo in football kit form.

If I haven't demonstrated my love for football kit sponsorship enough then I should point out that I've dreamt, for many years, of my own staccato-fixtured football team Marceltipool wearing an Away or Third kit displaying a whole array of sponsors.  How many?  Let's just say I have a number in mind...


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Comments (11)

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Scarborough & Black Death Vodka was possibly one of the sweetest shirts ever! And didn't St Pauli have a shirt for at least one season sponsored by Jack Daniels, or was that my imagination? (I seem to recall a white shirt with the standard Jack Daniel's logo in black, rather than the reverse......).

Staying in Germany, Fortuna Dusseldorf were sponsored for a couple of seasons in the early 2000s by Die Toten Hosen, who used their skull and crossbones logo in a black star very effectively on the shirts - take a look for yourself here: http://www.kulttrikot.de/f95-und-die-toten-hosen/
bullybwoy , July 16, 2012
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Jay29ers
St Pauli were indeed sponsored by Jack Daniels, though I'm not personally a big fan of those shirts.

Thanks for the Fortuna Dusseldorf/Die Toten Hosen info! I was most certainly not aware. Some great shirts there!
Jay29ers , July 16, 2012
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Nah, I can't agree. Sponsors are a necessary evil, but they are just that, an evil.

Sponsorship is whoring yourself to a company, to have their branding writ larger than your own clubs.

I think Milan's shirt is enhanced by the smaller sponsor, I'm all for sponsors not becoming the focal point of the shirt. Look at Derby's new home kit, Derby's 'brand' is barely noticeable.

I'm wondering what temperature I'll need to wash the new Hull City away shirt at to get the screen printed sponsor to peel off.
SombreEthyl , July 21, 2012
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Jay29ers
The Derby one is a billboard in shirt form. I agree that the visual identity is all the mobile company. Trouble is, I actually think it looks great, especially with the beautifully stripped-back - consequently extremely subtle - crest.

You know this serves as an addendum to a previous piece bemoaning certain shirt sponsors, right? http://bit.ly/M3xAzZ You might like that one a touch more.

Even the NBA has decided sponsors are, as you say, a necessary evil. Though a 2"x2" square I think most football fans could live with. http://yhoo.it/Of6Dak
Jay29ers , July 21, 2012
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The NBA caving in is frankly depressing, I've always admired US sports for keeping jerseys sacrosanct, and if that meant squeezing every last dollar out of TV deals, pitchside adverts etc then so be it. Now they want to do that AND take shirt ad money, ugh.

A club is about community, not about being a billboard for a corporation, and the shirt is the ultimate symbol of a club. Not everything has to be boiled down to pounds and pence value, somethings transcend that, and a feeling of community and identity should be something that does.

Some shirt sponsors look better than others, no doubt, but in my view a sponsor NEVER enhances a shirt, it detracts from what a shirt IS meant to advertise, a club, it's city/town and community.

We have to have a line drawn in the sand where it ends, we already have Championship clubs with 3 kit ads, front of shirt, back of shirt and shorts. Welsh clubs have sold their clubs name to the highest bidder, Total Network Solutions, Inter Cable Tel, how long till that infects bigger leagues?

I just cannot see how having tonnes of sponsors on a kit is cool, I don't think selling out identity is cool in the slightest.
SombreEthyl , July 22, 2012
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Jay29ers
Ok, but if the sponsors are those of local, ethical businesses which contribute positively - not necessarily just financially - to a local community then are they not intrinsically linked with everything that the shirt represents? In that case, should we not be getting as many sponsors as possible onto the kit?

I may be being a touch facetious but I don't think sponsors are always bad. Often the logo on the front of a shirt advertises the name of a benefactor which stopped the club from folding, for example.

When I talk about a multitude of sponsors appearing on kits looking cool, my experience is, generally speaking, limited to being from the point of view of a neutral. L'OM have had their moments but they've got nothing on the kits of South America, whose sponsors' ethics I have to admit I usually know little of. If I ever do get to plaster a Marceltipool kit with loads of logos then I'll just have to ensure what the companies stand for is in line with the club's own moral compass.

I'm only really trying to offer another viewpoint. Seriously, if you read the other piece you'll see I agree with much of what you're saying http://bit.ly/M3xAzZ
Jay29ers , July 22, 2012
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Best ever sponsor enhanced kit was Newcastle from the 1990's with the Scottish and Newcastle blue star. The 1993-1995 ASICS shirt was just beautiful.
Ming8670 , July 27, 2012
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Jay29ers
Very good call. That's one that I definitely should have included but forgot. Unfortunately I've written two articles on this now so your comment will have to be the extent of its featuring.
Jay29ers , July 27, 2012
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actually, it was dortmund's 96-97 euro kit.
futilimotivi , August 08, 2012
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Jay29ers
Actually, Dortmund wore a specific European kit in 1996-97 which had no Die Continental wording below the company's logo but in the final wore the 1997-98 Home shirt which again had the Die Continental C with no wording. In 1997-98 they were sponsored by S.Oliver but Die Continental sponsored replica shirts were produced, complete with wording.

Here's Dortmund wearing their Euro kit in 1996-97, against Manchester United http://gty.im/1620122

Here they are in the Final http://gty.im/79046866

Here is the replica shirt which was released for 1997-98 http://bit.ly/QG1P16

Here they are against Bayern in 1997-98 http://gty.im/1632156
Jay29ers , August 08, 2012
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The scarce , rare and infamous “Black Death Vodka” shirt is apparently now available as a Toffs replica.

http://www.scarboroughathletic.com/article.php?article=NDYyOQ==
Richard OLdale , November 12, 2012

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