Chelsea FC reveals final adidas away kit

adidas revealed their final away kit for Chelsea FC. The German apparel manufacturer apparently still resents Chelsea exiting their sponsor contract to take up with Nike.

When a player is marked for transfer or finds out his contract will not be renewed, no one is surprised to see a drop in his level of play. He is distracted by the uncertainty of what’s next. He already has his mind and one foot out the door to his new club. He feels a sense of betrayal and cannot motivate himself to fight for his soon-to-be former club.

Apparel companies are the same way, apparently.

adidas unveiled their final away kit for Chelsea FC. The settlement between Chelsea and adidas to terminate their sponsorship contract six years early must have been sufficiently heavy that adidas does not need to sell many kits to cover their balance sheet.

The prison-inspired horizontal stripes in black and grey recall…. well, they recall absolutely nothing about Chelsea’s history. The neon-highlight shoulder stripes harken to the waning trend of hyper-bright yellows pioneered by Nike’s running division 10 years ago, which Chelsea incorporated into the 2007/08 away kit.

The flat-hanging fabric – or what the official release calls “engineered mélange stripe fabric” – is inspired by the ill-fitting tee’s favored by highly unathletic hipsters worldwide. Somehow Brooklyn and Camden ironic chic found its way onto the lions of West London.

The heavily-filtered promotional photos in the release drown out the full impact of the kit. Combined with Willian’s snarl, Diego Costa’s quizzical eyebrow raise and Azpilicueta’s “blue steel,” the official unveiling goes overboard trying to set the attitude rather than letting the kits speak for themselves. And for good reason.

Designing kits for a club like Chelsea should be among the easiest tasks for any apparel company, let alone one that has been doing it worldwide and for Chelsea for so many years. The conversation should go something like this.

“What is the colour?”
“Blue is the colour.”
“Is the foundation colour black or white?”
“White.”
“What is the historical third colour?”
“Gold.”
“Very well. Blue at home, white on the road, gold for the third kit.”

The decision to release this kit on Antonio Conte’s first day is particularly galling. A much simpler argyle-style diamond pattern contributed to Chelsea’s relegation in the late 1980s. With the tasks awaiting Conte at Stamford Bridge, this was one more source of bad karma that he clearly does not need.

adidas’ away kit swan song shows what happens when apathy kicks in and a company assigns either a troll, an intern or a Gunners’ fan to design Chelsea’s strip.

Next: Four questions for Antonio Conte's first day at Chelsea

If Nike wants to create a positive impression and have a profitable first year with Chelsea next year, the bar is good and low for them to sell a record-number of new jerseys. In the meantime, Chelsea invited fans to join the conversation about the kits on Twitter and Instagram. Let them (and us!) know what you think!