I want a classy shirt. Is that too much to ask for? This season’s kits are far from the worst that we as Bolton Wanderers fans have ever had. The 2008/2009 kits take that honor for me. Many of you will say that our worst designed shirts in recent memory were the infamous bar code shirts (that I personally liked).
The best looking kits in football (soccer) today are those built around simplicity. Take a look at just about anything that Umbro has made this season (except Canada’s awful shirts). Those simple designs from Citeh to Forest to Peru look absolutely brilliant. Why can’t that be us? Why can’t we have a shirt that people can look at say "wow, I want that" like they did with the new French kits. I was bored and decided to jump into Photoshop to make the above mock-up. I think that would be a great looking away kit for us built on an already existing Reebok template.
It’s not like Reebok’s design house is completely inept. Our kits from 2006 to 2008 were all brilliant. It’s difficult for us Americans to get our hands on Bolton shirts but I made a point of owning every single one from those years.
Have a look at SC Internacional out of Brazil or Russia’s CSKA Moscow and you can see that Reebok are capable of designing a simple, good looking kit.
Can we have simplicity back? How great would a shirt inspired by the 1964 design be? Couple that with blue shorts and some blue and white hoop socks and we could have a winner on our hands.