Football club championships for the season 2014/15 are over, new season is almost at the door, so we decided to take a look at how some clubs introduced the new kits for the 2015/16 season.
Some of the clubs have already done the introductions of all kits, some have presented only home game kits, and some of them are waiting for the season to begin to showcase their new uniforms.
Based on how kits are being represented, we decided to show how big names in world of football are covering these kind of events, and what kind of commercials are being used in order to engage fans to buy new kits for the upcoming season.
Because revenues from selling kits are big item in some club’s budget, and because that budget is being used to purchase football players, we decided to cover some of the bigest names in club football.
Arsenal
Arsenal has just presented home game jerseys for the next season. Other kits are to be introduced mid-July.
Presentation was made just outside Arsenal’s stadium in front of more than a thousand people, and all gathered fans were entertained by a DJ, while a special guest for the event was Gunners legend Thierry Henry.
Since they have a contract with Puma, Puma’s official Youtube channel live streamed jersey presentation, which put the event on a higher level and it all resembled a rockstar concert.
The home kit continues the red and white tradition that first appeared on Arsenal jerseys in 1933. and has remained till now.
West Ham United
The „Hammers“ enter the new season with an old jersey. In cooperation with their sponsor Umbro they have decided for an identical design like they had when they first played in Upton park in 1904.
In that way they have honored their rich history, tradition and heritage of playing at the same stadium for over 100 years.
Since West Ham is moving to a new venue in 2016/17, they encouraged fans to post photos with the new 2015/16 kit on social networks with hashtag #FarewellBoleyn.
Kit presentation was done with a standard photo session, and then published on Wes Ham United official social networks.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid has a sponsorship deal with Adidas and under catchphrase „only perfect counts“, they have revealed new kits for the season 2015/16. Home and away game kits were presented while alternate kit is yet to be revealed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9GlCxvmlM
For this occasion Adidas has made a commercial that they have published on YouTube, also with the catchphrase „only perfect counts“.
Real Madrid is also encouraging their fans through their social network accounts to buy the new jerseys and then publish their photos with hashtag #OnlyPerfectCounts.
Barcelona
Barcelona currently has a contract with Nike, and their home and away kits for the next season have been presented by the end of May, while we are still waiting to see their third kit.
With hashtag #BuiltForBrilliance, Nike and Barcelona are encouraging their fans to buy the uniforms and then post them on social networks.
Since Barcelona has been extremely successful this year by winning the Spanish primera, Spanish cup and Champions league, the kit presentation did not get that much attention.
Nike did publish a short official video on YouTube, and Barcelona also covered new kit presentation on their social network accounts, but with a lot of other, primarily Champions league material, it was left it the shadow.
However, what did catch the eye of public is that the home game kit has horizontal stripes for the first time in club history, as opposite to all seasons before when the stripes were vertical on the home kit.
Atletico Madrid
Atletico Madrid has presented just their home kit.
They have kept their classic vertical stripes, and the whole jersey was inspired with 1996., the year when they won the Spanish double crown, so the jersey is somewhat a copy of the one that the team wore in the season 1995/96.
Atletico currently has a contract with Nike, so they are, like Barcelona, trying to persuade the fans to buy the jerseys, share their photos on social networks and use the same hashtag catchphrase #BuiltForBrilliance.
Bayern Munchen
Bayern has remained loyal to their sponsor Adidas, so the new home kit was presented in their last game of Bundesliga in which they celebrated winning the German championship.
Away kit, and also the alternate kit are yet to be presented.
The presentation of new home kit for the next season was not made in any spectacular way, so we expect a better presentation when the other two kits arrive.
Roma
Roma has in cooperation with their sponsor Nike, presented the official kit for the season 2015/16.
Maybe the most interesting story behind all the kits presented is Roma’s, whose jersey is inspired with the city of Rome and Roman history. New kit is a symbol of old Roman legions armor and it sends a message that Roma will fight till the end on the field.
Roma has presented the new kit with a short video on the official YouTube channel, which covered the players photo session wearing the new jersey.
Since Nike is Roma’s sponsor, they are also presenting their new kits with catchphrase „built for brilliance“, as well as encouraging their fans to post photos of the new jersey with that catchphrase.
Swansea
At the end we have a club that is smaller in comparison to before mentioned giants of football, but this club has, in cooperation with their sponsor Adidas, made the best advertisment in form of an excellent video.
Under motto „History takes time“, video takes us 150 years back in time when Swansea was producing half of world’s smelted copper needs. The stadium has been turned into an industrial zone, and the Swansea players are acting as workers that are drawing the new jersey on the field.
The motto „History takes time“ encourages fans that better times are coming and that Swansea is on a way to become a great club. The story starts with new jerseys that will help them in that endeavour.Truly a great kit presentation commercial that has ashamed a lot of big european football clubs.
In the end we should conclude that only few clubs represented their full kits for the 2015-2016 season. Clubs mainly presented their home game kits, while rest of the kits will be shown later this summer before the season kicks off.
Also, some of the biggest names in football such as Barcelona, had more important issues on their mind than making a big fuss over introducing new kits, which was really disappointing in terms of offering their fans value for their money when buying new kits.
It’s the early stage of new season, there are many more kit presentations to come, and we are hopeful for more creative campaigns such as one we saw from Swansea.
