The Pompey Chimes Forum

Hi everyone, I'm not a fan of the club per se but have always kept an eye out for results due to a couple of stints managing Pompey on Football Manager and because of the presence of a compatriot once upon a time (no prizes for guessing who).

I write a weekly article for my own wee site about interesting football shirts, and this week I've covered the home shirt from 2017/2018. With the big debossed crest on the front, the last bespoke design before Nike came in. Figured it would make for an interesting (if long) read for you all, so I'm proud to share it;

https://club25football.wordpress.com/20 ... ome-shirt/

What might also be worth reading is this article about the first Nike shirt that Pompey shared with Northampton;

https://club25football.wordpress.com/20 ... 2018-2019/

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts about recent and older kits; are you happy with Nike, or keen to return to the more unique designs from the smaller suppliers? Got a wee collection of shirts of your own, any favourites? I'd love to own the first Goodman's top one day, but with the pricetag on shirts of that age I'll probably need to part with a kidney for it.

I feel a lot of the older kits were a lot more durable. I still have some tops from the 90s and early 2000's that are in good nick. Compare that to the more recent kits and by the end of the season feel like they are falling apart. I think a big part of that is most of the logos and branding etc are now heat transferred on rather than the way my older shirts had them embroidered on. When I was in the Pompey Store earlier in the year I could hear people talking about the kit on the shelves and having to pick and chose as some of the items were already showing signs of the logos etc peeling off. If that's what happens before they are even worn then no surprised they tend to look tatty after a few washes. I even made another post on this a few weeks back:

http://thepompeychimes.net/forum/viewto ... =2&t=78587

The cynic in me makes me think maybe they are happy with this as it means people are more likely to buy more tops when the old ones start to look faded. I'm really not happy if that is the case for multiple reasons.

I'd say my favourite one is the TY top. Maybe because it's the first one I purchased myself. I still have two from our promotion winning season and apart from a few stains they are in really good shape. I doubt any of the newer kit will last a few years let along almost 20!

Ignoring the logos etc I do like the Nike kit a lot and the way it feels and looks. It might be a bit vain and because I'm in my early 30s but I'm much more happy to wear a Nike top than a Sondico one or some other low price brand. I've probably bought more of the Nike kit in the last two seasons than all the kit I purchased in the last decade combined!

A mixture of the fact our principal sponsor is the Uni and the make is Nike makes me feel proud for the first time in a long time to wear a Pompey top. I'd like to see that partnership continuing if they could just find a way to make them more durable and not look tatty after a few washes!

Sam_Brown wrote: ↑Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:33 pm I feel a lot of the older kits were a lot more durable. I still have some tops from the 90s and early 2000's that are in good nick. Compare that to the more recent kits and by the end of the season feel like they are falling apart. I think a big part of that is most of the logos and branding etc are now heat transferred on rather than the way my older shirts had them embroidered on.

That does seem to be the case, if I'm not mistaken most of the Ty shirts used a thick felt-like material for the sponsor rather than stickers. Those obviously take a lot longer to wash off, especially when contrasted with the fiddly Uni logo and all its comparatively tiny letters - which peel more easily than one big sticker!

Both Errea and hummel are respectable brands that eclipse Nike in terms of quality and design, and the former especially is happy to sublimate sponsors rather than use stickers. Would love to see either of them take a stab at a Pompey kit, but I imagine the Nike contract runs for at least one more year, if not longer.

Had to go to the drawer to check and yeah you're right the older kits are mostly several larger logos rather than lots of tiny fiddly letters. Hadn't really considered the complexities around smaller writing. You're absolutely spot on in that's it is the smaller writing that has seen the worst effects over the last few years!

I'm not familiar with the brands you mentioned but to put things in perspective the Oki Printing Solutions (Canterbury) and Job Site (Sondico) tops I have had have long since been thrown away due to falling apart. A bit of a strange one with Canterbury as I have an England Rugby Top they made that is still in great condition after many years.

I wonder how much of the quality of the tops is actually down to the supplier and how much is down to PFC trying to maximise profits? Some of the Nike stuff is lasting well. I love the full zip training tops and if I'm doing any jogging or footy in the cold I'll have one on and they've lasted really well.

Although they have limited branding on:



I would be interested in seeing the profits from the Nike kit vs others other the years. As mentioned previously I've definitely purchased more kit since we partnered with Nike than any other time in the last two decades. Only so many times you can have the ****** ripped out of you for wearing Sondico at 5-a-side before you take the hint lol. Be interested in knowing if I'm the only one or not who has bought more since we partnered with Nike or I'm the only vain one who falls for the "brand". Could be we make less on the Nike kit but we sell twice as much? I wonder if there is scope to keep the Nike kit and go for better logos etc?


EDIT: The best Pompey top I think I ever had is one someone on here gave me for free a few years back. It was a Jako Training Top from mid 2000's. I can't recall who sent me that but thanks so much because it still gets loads of use and is very warm!

The recent interview with Mark Catlin revealed a bit about the kit choice process. In short, Nike is the most popular choice, but any creativity or design decisions go out the window. Unless you are Man U or Barca, kit choice is based off limited older existing templates where Nike can just change panel colours and rattle off a quick 20,000 batch. Whereas lesser kit brands are much more open to design suggestions.

I was looking on eBay the other at Pompey shirts for sale, and you can see the quality of design really peaks when we were an established Prem club and Cup winners. As we slid down the leagues, kit design gets less impressive. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t have bad shirts now, but they’re far less notable than 10-12 years ago.

Weybridge wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:10 pm I was looking on eBay the other at Pompey shirts for sale, and you can see the quality of design really peaks when we were an established Prem club and Cup winners. As we slid down the leagues, kit design gets less impressive. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t have bad shirts now, but they’re far less notable than 10-12 years ago.

For me the big issue with the recent Nike shirts is that everyone and their mom wears them; this year's home shirts we shared with Preston and Southend (with them in the same division!) and a truckload of foreign teams as far-flung as the Young Lions in Singapore, while last season's 'camo' was worn by four other teams from Prem to League 2 (Preston among them again https://twitter.com/Club25Football/stat ... 68640?s=20 ).

Sam_Brown wrote:Had to go to the drawer to check and yeah you're right the older kits are mostly several larger logos rather than lots of tiny fiddly letters. Hadn't really considered the complexities around smaller writing. You're absolutely spot on in that's it is the smaller writing that has seen the worst effects over the last few years!

Let's hope the Nike tops stand the test of time. Trainingwear seems good enough but then there's no sponsor to disintegrate on most of those items.