George Rawlings gives his view after the highly anticipated QPR kits drop for the 2020/21 season.
For as long as I can remember I’ve been obsessed with football kits; their design, if the kit template matches a foreign team’s, the history behind the shirt, the intricate details you don’t see at first glance. So, like many other R’s fans this summer, I’ve waited with bated breath to see what the 2020/21 season would offer us.
The design brief for a QPR home kit is simple. Thick hoops, hoops that go all the way around the back, a nice club badge, hopefully not an awful betting sponsor with a panda’s head and some red trim. That’s it. It’s not hard to get it wrong.
Although Errea seem to hit most of those points, judging by the reaction the home kit got on twitter after its reveal, it’s safe to say that this year, Errea seem to have somehow missed the mark with their execution. After hosting the QPR Kit World Cup in the summer, there was reason to be optimistic; was a kit manufacturer going to listen to our favourite design elements listed above and give us what we want? (Basically a carbon copy of the Adidas 83/85 kit)
However, their final design seems to be confused. It screams 80s – I can see the ‘influence’ of the 89/90 Influence & KLM kit and the 79/80 Adidas kit in large part due to the overbearing white on the upper chest and arms. It feels like there needs to be one more blue hoop across the shoulders, and a hoop or some sort of stripe going down the arm, there is just so much white open space. Hopefully the championship patches can break that up a bit. That being said, the red – somehow inoffensive betting sponsor, ties in nicely with the retro feel of the red trim.
Overall I’d give this a 5.5/10 – not as bad as the first Nike kit with the thin hoops, but a long way short of what we hoped for. A few entries from the Design R Kit competition would’ve been a marked improvement on this – and they were design by kids! As an avid collector, this is one I won’t be buying straight away. I may pick it up in the end of season sale, hopefully it grows on me as the season progresses.
In comparison to the home kit, the away was welcomed with open arms on twitter. The away kit is a nice change from the recent away kits that don’t tie into the colours of the club. Tiffany blue and hot pink aren’t exactly synonymous with QPR
Inspired by our 1982 kit and our first all red shirt since 1996/97 (the less said about the awful 2009 away kit the better – that doesn’t count).
Coupled with the black shorts and socks, this fits in with our desired Dennis the menace colour scheme while also harking back to days gone by. Thankfully this also provides enough of a change from the home kit so we don’t have to have any more kit clashes next season (Leeds away and Huddersfield away kit choices in particular give me nightmares).
I do get a very strong Nottingham Forest vibe about this kit. It is very similar to Macron’s effort for the 20/21 season. Obviously the colour and the fact Nottingham also have Football Index as a sponsor, as well as a suspiciously similar trim make this almost an exact replica. I would’ve liked to see the stripes on the shorts continue on the arms to offer some sort of deviation from Nottingham. With that being said, I think this will be an instant classic – and I love a throwback kit. Strong 8/10.
What is there to say about the new QPR goalkeeper kit? There’s nothing to love, there’s nothing to hate. I love a garish pattern on a keeper kit and this delivers. It’s a nice traditional keeper colour with just the right about of light to dark green. I wonder what the away keeper kit will be, I’m hoping they go even more out there with that one – for inspiration see the Wycombe Wanders keeper kits from previous years… WOW. Pretty decent for a keeper kit, not much to say really, just hope it delivers more clean sheets than last year 6.5/10.
Overall like the title says, there’s the good, the bad and the average. I must admit I’ve lost hope with Errea now- only a handful of good kits in the four years they’ve been with us has convinced me it’s time for a change. Maybe @RetroHoops could supply the kit next year, who knows…
Roll on 5th September so I get my hands on the away kit.