underboyleheating

It can look fluorescent on some online images, however, in reality it was just an adidas ‘off the shelf’ team wear yellow (adidas probably weren’t prepared to provide custom amber tops for a small team like us). The material was quite shiny and this sometimes gave a false fluorescent yellow impression on photographs.

If we had still been with Puma potentially the new Huddersfield Town away kit would have made an interesting away kit.

It’s no secret that I have old school views on training and match wear, however, the younger and perhaps a few of the older generation will be embracing our new training wear. Personally I would only have C&A training kit (or gear with flashes of C&A), however, I am not sure if a club of our size can command full training gear in C&A anymore. Unfortunately we don’t have the pulling power of Manchester United and the best we can hope for these days will be a club badge stitched onto a off the shelf training top.

It can change (I work in the design industry and initial ideas and concepts change all the time), however, if Xara have already designed a kit and they just match ‘the winner’ to their closest template you would be entitled to feel slightly cheated (however, i understand the economics behind this). I am sure it was Flow (he sat on the judging panel with John Boyle) who said to me that the sublimated players name idea was dropped due to cost, however, he was probably just letting me down gently. I remember the away kit winner (I can’t remember his name) said to me that his submitted design didn’t really look much like the final shirt, so I have to be content that it was pretty close to my rough sketch.

I agree, I think Clarkson will suit Baraclough’s vision of how he wants us to play. Despite his ability to score goals, Sutton was probably not mobile enough for Baraclough.

I didn’t know that information and I was always under the impression that the kit was produced to match the submitted competition designs (What is the point in having a competition if the shirt has already been pre designed by Xara?). I had assumed that St.Johnstone had just nicked our bespoke template.

As with any design it usually ends up slightly different from the initial concept. The shirt was a homage to our white collar 1950s hooped sleeve shirt (Apart from this design we haven’t had hooped sleeves since 1958). The shirt was meant to have all of our notable (and some not so notable names sublimated onto the claret chest and arm hoops), however, due to cost the name idea was ditched. It’s a pity as this would have made the shirt a bit more unique and it’s a shame that it was dropped. The collar also changed slightly as my original design was more crew neck than V neck. The original quick sketch is available to look at here.

I agree Yassin it really depends when you first attended games, for me that was the 1960s, however, historians not associated with Motherwell would probably select the similar shirts that I chose. Iconic shirts tend to differ from the tops that people feel attached to from their childhood and usually have some historical significance to the club as a whole. Different shirt designs can have an emotional attachment for some people, however, they will not be iconic in the broader sense. I designed our 2006-07 home kit and whilst I am emotionally attached to that shirt, the team that wore it achieved nothing of note. Although not easy, you need to be able to distance yourself from any emotional attachment to a particular design and look at the historical significance the kit had.

Yes the away kit is still fair game. Lol It takes a lot for a club kit to reach iconic status and it is usually associated with success on the park. In my opinion we only have five or six home tops that I would class as iconic and in my opinion these are: 1. Our first ever C&A top used from 1913-1924 (Toffs can supply this without the Bradford City badge, however, I am sure that I read somewhere that they charge extra for not sewing the badge on! We copied Bradford’s top at the time in an effort to emulate their success). 2. Our 1932 Championship winning shirt (the Well shop are currently selling a nice Copa retro version of this top, however, unlike the original it has a MFC monogram stitched onto the shirt (this was not on the original shirt and it didn’t feature on our tops until 1969). 3. Our 1952 Scottish Cup shirt (this was similar in design to the 1932 shirt, with the exception of the white collar and amber cuffs) 4. Our 1960s Umbro crew necked claret hooped ‘signature’ top (In conjunction with Puma and myself the Well shop produced a 125th Anniversary version of this top) At one time Toffs did sell a long sleeved version of this shirt, however, they appear to have discontinued it. They now sell only one Motherwell retro shirt (the unforgettable one season 1972-73 Amber shirt). 5. Our 1973-74 Umbro Claret sash top is an odd one as we never won anything wearing this top. It has gained iconic status purely from the players who wore it. At one time The Well Shop did sell a retro version of this top, however, there were a few historical errors with their version. Bizarrely when this shirt was released in the 70s it came with two different collars, one design for the long sleeve and one for the short sleeve (don’t ask me why!) On The Well Shop release they put the short sleeve collar on to the long sleeve version of the shirt. The monogram stitched onto this shirt was also the wrong font. These two small points would not bother 99% of the buying public and only really effect someone as historically detailed obsessed as me! 6. Our 1991 Admiral Scottish Cup top (enough said!) You could make a case for a few others, however, these are probably the main iconic shirts from our kit history.

I think it’s to help create a 70s retro feel harking back to the days of Pettigrew and Graham. I am not opposed to it being used for the right reasons and any return to the diagonal sash would seem like a legitimate excuse. I’m biased as I championed it’s return (the original monogram and not the other font that we use from time to time on training kit). It looked superb on our 125 retro top and I am sure this will be no different.

I probably agree Stu, I enjoy the guessing and creating fantasy kits, however, when it gets to the point that there is no guess work required there isn’t much use in mocking it up. The alleged kit design has been so well described on here that I think it is now best to wait for the official pictures. However, It will be interesting to see if all of the in the know people’s predictions are correct when the top is finally released. I am hopeful (and excited) about the prospect of them using the MFC script badge that I redrew for the 125 retro top, as that is in keeping with the style they used back in the day. I think we just now wait for the release.

I’ve done so many that they all merge! Lol

I suspected that it would go in the opposite direction as the sash graphic on all the promo stuff (season book) goes in that direction. Do you know the shirt template that Macron have given us?

I am not sure what you mean? What is the ‘vrfc’ part?

Have they ditched the usual club badge in favour of the MFC monogram that appeared on the original 70s top?

That is my concern Linsey, I am not sure if we are developing younger players who can sustain the instant success that they are currently experiencing. Older experienced players like Mandy can’t play forever and if they are not preparing for the future it will come back and bite them in the arse.

It’s a pity he wasn’t posing in the new kit.

I am not sure what to make of the Clarkson signing, he started really well for Dundee last season, however, he faded in the in the latter part. Does this put an end to any hope of signing McDonald or is there still a slim chance of that happening?

A super quick paint job...The 1860 Munich pinstriped Macron template in C&A

His potential to piss all over the opposition should not be ignored either.

It’s always interesting to listen to different peoples opinions on tops and I know that in recent times fluorescent colours have had a resurgence. It’s maybe an age thing, however, I have never really taken to them although admittedly I am not the target market for football shirts.

It is certainly a love it or hate top, however, in my opinion the only team who can get away with this colour is Dortmund.

Fluorescent yellow should only be used by the emergency services.

I am still receiving medical treatment over our fluorescent yellow away kit. My psychologist says that there is no cure for the flu-orescent virus and as long as we don’t re-introduce it the virus is manageable.

Humping Rangers at any level has to be celebrated. A few of my wife’s co-workers play for the team and I went through last night to give them some support. Rangers were a good side, however, our experienced proved too much for them in the second half.