Kit Deal

[underboyleheating]

As long as the quality of tops is better I will be quite happy. And the design of course.

 

I rarely buy tops, however the Puma 1960s retro 125 anniversary top was excellent quality, although this wasn’t designed to be a matchworn shirt. I always found that the Xara gear was also very good quality but I have to admit that I am no expert when it comes to material. As for the design you are in the lap of the gods as regards the templates any given company produce. Apart from the addition of a band or hoop we have no real control over any other aspect of the design. I enjoy creating fantasy kits, but they only exist in my own digital world. So as regards any new supplier or design we will just need to wait and see what templates are on offer and choose the one that best suits our needs.

 

As always I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with and surely it can’t be as bland as the recent black away kit.

 

 

 

[sbcmfc]

I've liked the Puma kits.

 

With the exception of the current away strip, which to be fair isn't hideous, it's just very dull and doesn't really say Motherwell.

[underboyleheating]

I know it’s only a very small section of our support (to date 88 members have cast their vote), however, the poll shows that people are either not bothered who makes our kit or are happy to continue with Puma/Genesis Sport. Interesting to note that the option of moving to a different supplier received the fewest number of votes, and that appears to be exactly what we are thinking of doing.

 

For the record, I voted to continue with Puma/Genesis sport as I think in the main they have done a good job. In an ideal world I would like to see us to design and brand our own kit, however I am sure that is not as easy as it might seem. As a fan of kit design I do care about who makes our kit, and for me the design and quality of our kit is paramount. I only hope whoever gets the nod take some time to look over our kit archive and ask which kits worked and which didn’t work so well.

['Wellfan 2k7]

To be fair, when the poll was made, many people, including myself, would still have been warming to the current kits and that certainly affected my vote. Now, I wouldn't be overly bothered by Puma Staying! In fact I would be a little more excited for next seasons kits after the couple shockers we've had this season!

[Frazzie]

I have always been happy with Puma - I've not loved every design but I think that's an unreasonable expectation. The quality, the availability and the shade of claret and amber have all been decent so I'd be happy to stick with them.

 

The thought of us playing in those jaunty Macron shorts that Leeds had give me the fear.

 

 

[Welldaft Mk1]

I would not say the quality of the puma tops has been that good at all. I have the anniversary top and that is good quality as alluded to in a post above. The other tops material has been low grade and nothing like what you would get buying a Arsenal or Chelsea top. Now I know they sell in their 10's of thousands - but our Puma tops definitely have an inferior quality v Bukta and Canterbury tops.

 

If it is to be Macron then bring it on

[something else]

I'd like to stay with puma. Not only have I liked the kits (apart from the hideous blue effort), I have loved the training and leisure wear.

[Pettywulliegrew-2]

See all the Puma replica kits at club shop are half price......if you buy the full kit

 

and all Puma training wear/gear is half price as well........looks like Puma are out the door at the end of the season as some have predicted.

[underboyleheating]

I personally would opt for the new Umbro template as in my opinion it would be a classic Motherwell top. There is a nod to our 50s hooped sleeves and also our iconic 1960s shirt.

 

The smart money is on Macron, however, I reckon this would be a far better shirt...

 

[Frazzie]

A beautiful top undoubtedly but perhaps a bit too similar to the 125th anniversary one for the club to market.

[underboyleheating]

perhaps a bit too similar to the 125th anniversary one for the club to market.

Sides like Celtic/Ajax have have had similar home shirts for years and have still managed to flog shirts to the fans. The away and third kits are both good outlets for any experimentation, however, as a traditionalist I am of the opinion that a teams home kit should never change too dramatically. Being a small team we need to work within existing templates, although there are other creative ways in which you can make your kit a little more bespoke. This could be as simple as printing or stitching the club name on a collar or printing a subtle pattern on the material. We are lucky in a sense that nearly all of our home tops will contain a claret hoop or a band. Along with our unique in Scotland colours this has always helped our shirts stand out from the pure template crowd. The tops where the hoop or band have been omitted tend to look a little more like off the shelf team wear. This in my opinion should be avoided at all costs. The first question that any new supplier should ask the kit man is... “How wide do you want your claret hoop?”

 

 

 

[Frazzie]

Sides like Celtic/Ajax have have had similar home shirts for years and have still managed to flog shirts to the fans. The away and third kits are both good outlets for any experimentation, however, as a traditionalist I am of the opinion that a teams home kit should never change too dramatically. Being a small team we need to work within existing templates, although there are other creative ways in which you can make your kit a little more bespoke. This could be as simple as printing or stitching the club name on a collar or printing a subtle pattern on the material. We are lucky in a sense that nearly all of our home tops will contain a claret hoop or a band. Along with our unique in Scotland colours this has always helped our shirts stand out from the pure template crowd. The tops where the hoop or band have been omitted tend to look a little more like off the shelf team wear. This in my opinion should be avoided at all costs. The first question that any new supplier should ask the kit man is... “How wide do you want your claret hoop?”

 

I would agree with that but Celtic and Ajax are worldwide brands- a fairer comparison would be St Mirren or Killie and they do mix it up a bit and can cut corners by using a template. I can't think of many smaller clubs that have their own design these days sadly.

[underboyleheating]

a fairer comparison would be St Mirren or Killie and they do mix it up a bit and can cut corners by using a template.

Killie chose to go down the route of designing their own kit and apart from this years in my opinion they have been average at best (Killie fans may disagree). So even with control there is no guarantee that you will have a good design. I have nothing against templates, manufacturers spend a lot of money and time designing them, it’s up to whoever is in charge of the kit to choose the one that best suits the club. I am not sure who at Motherwell has the final say, however, people with some background knowledge of good design and a clubs history will always be best suited to the task. The players should also be consulted, as at the end of the day they will be putting them through the toughest test. I also support fan involvement, if only to cast a vote for their preferred design (Fans are usually pretty good at selecting a kit that best suits their club).

[mio]

Really hope we don't go down the MACRON road!! They really have cornered the market in honkin strips!! Their kits remind me of the sort of no name kits you bought at Wishaw Market in the early 90s!!

[Pettywulliegrew-2]

I would agree with that but Celtic and Ajax are worldwide brands- a fairer comparison would be St Mirren or Killie and they do mix it up a bit and can cut corners by using a template. I can't think of many smaller clubs that have their own design these days sadly.

 

Our close neighbours Clydebankonians or what ever they are called now have managed to get suppliers to design/provide a diamond/ "V" on their kit in recent years.(Hummell/Avec/Le Coq Sportif/Diadora/Surridge/Pumato name a few)...........how come on occasions we have struggled to maintain the hoop/band ?

 

Are we not the biggest team in Lanarkshire after all ?

 

We should be demanding our traditional hoop/band from the kit suppliers IMHO......

 

 

 

[underboyleheating]

Our close neighbours Clydebankonians or what ever they are called now have managed to get suppliers to design/provide a diamond/ "V" on their kit in recent years.

 

We should be demanding our traditional hoop/band from the kit suppliers IMHO......

A good point about Clydebankonians they still get the diamond on their kit, however, to be fair to our suppliers they don’t usually have any issues about our hoop/band. These days you can take a basic template and sublimate any design on top without too much of a problem.

 

 

 

[Welldaft Mk1]

Really hope we don't go down the MACRON road!! They really have cornered the market in honkin strips!! Their kits remind me of the sort of no name kits you bought at Wishaw Market in the early 90s!!

 

That's as maybe. But at least the quality should be a damn sight better than the Puma tops which is low grade prison material...

[underboyleheating]

Really hope we don't go down the MACRON road!!

They just need to be reigned in, although, I doubt whether we are important enough to Macron to be able to demand that. Macron normally have an Italian fashion show to showcase their new templates, which should give a clue to their design direction for 2014-15. The collars on some of their 2013-14 tops were iffy. In particular the style used for the 13-14 Napoli and AS Monaco tops. If they are announced as our new supplier we will just need to keep our fingers crossed the new 2014-15 templates are not as busy as some of their previous designs.

 

 

 

[Andy_P]

Assuming it is Macron, would there be anything that would prevent MFC electing to go with an earlier design if they wished? I was flicking through the channels when I got up this morning and noticed Crusaders were wearing this...

 

 

It would an interesting move if they used that for the home kit, but replace the black and red on there with claret and amber and you'd have a pretty clean and classy looking Motherwell away kit.

[Steve Diggle]

They could regurgitate the Roma kits

[underboyleheating]

Assuming it is Macron, would there be anything that would prevent MFC electing to go with an earlier design if they wished?

Most manufacturers tend to use the new templates for all their pro kits. I would imagine that sportswear is no different from other products with the older designs being slowly phased out. You can usually still get the older templates from team wear suppliers for a few years after release, however, pro sides usually deal direct or with more specialised suppliers. The new Puma two stripe collar is a good example as nearly all the Puma pro teams had this on their kit, however the basic online 'amateur' team wear suppliers were still supplying older designs. The exceptions are the big International sides who nearly always get bespoke kits with big teams like Barca or Man U having first refusal on any new design.

 

They could regurgitate the Roma kits

Although loosely based on existing templates, they were non branded bespoke kits made for Roma by Macron before their imminent move to Nike. Although they were very classy designs, I suspect sadly we won't have the opportunity to utilise them.

[something else]

That crusaders kit is actually quite smart. Noticed it last night on sky. Macron must be targeting clubs in ulster as I'm sure they make glentorans kit as well.

[underboyleheating]

That crusaders kit is actually quite smart.

The Crusaders kit is from the Macron Kuma team wear range. and it is available ‘off the shelf’ from Provan Sport Limited. PSL run our club shop, however, I am not sure why they out source our current Puma kit from Genesis Sports when they offer a Puma team wear supply option themselves. One reason may be is that Genesis offer the latest pro designs, whereas, PSL’s selection appear to be older in style. If we decide to move to Macron our kit will more than likely come from them direct with PSL arranging the deal. This arrangement has worked very well in the past and I see no reason to change it. PSL have been brilliant and as older posters will testify our current shop is lightyears ahead of anything that we had in the 70s/80s.

[underboyleheating]

In recent times Macron have produced good and bad designs depending on your taste. One persons good may well appear boring to others.

Here are some extreme recent examples from Macron to illustrate my point.

 

[something else]

The Lazio one is simple but i love it, give me that in amber with just a simple claret collar and that will do just fine.