Nine out of ten, perhaps more, football strips are irredeemably hideous. They are not even funny, especially when one thinks of the pedigrees of the clubs who end up wearing them. They are invariably over-designed, tasteless and classless and too frequently bear only a perfunctory link to their club's traditional look. It's a sin that a 'designer' can't take a basic classic model and give it a contemporary look without adding or indeed removing bits all over the place, flashes, stripes, patches, whatever, and can't even retain the club's colours or basic pattern. What the fuck is it with these big solid patches on the backs of teams who wear stripes? It's like two different strips sewn together.
Some are outstandingly bad. The Barcelona strip, worn this season, with the graduated tint should be displayed in a design museum as an egregious example of exactly what extremes of bad taste can be waved in the face of the public with rude abandon when 'designers' are let loose on a football strip -- is it really any wonder Barca lost the Champions League semi-final wearing it? The designers of the second strip, the sunburst one, should have been arrested. I am surprised the players didn't refuse to wear it.
Closer to home, some of the strips worn by Hibs in the past have been nothing short of absolutely fucking appalling. Garishness, overstatement, intense brightness, pastel colours, all busy, busy, busy do not make for good design components in the hands of an incompetent designer.
My top five frights in reverse order:
The Home Top with Stripes Down the Arms. Did they run out of white material for the sleeves? Or was this actually the result of some conscious decision? Either way, an utter abomination only befitting Alex Miller's last dismal season with the club. Both strip and Miller were waved off with much rejoicing.
The Purple and Green Striped Top. A combination of two colours that just can't work. Evidently the designers knew they had created something bad, but to take it that bit further and create something truly awful they had to add the chevron piping on the collar and cuffs. Nice touch, boys!
The All Mint Green Away. I can't imagine what bizarre and convoluted chain of circumstances could contrive together to end up with this actually been worn by a Hibs team. A combination of drink, maybe even drugs, foolish bets and dares might have been involved. Whatever the story it was instantly regretted and quickly mocked out of existence.
The Purple Bukta. Where it all started to go wrong. Hideous principal colour fighting against the white and yellow of the sleeves. That it should never have got off the drawing board leaves one wondering just how bad the rejected concepts were.
http://www.toffs.com/Hibernian-1977...ball-Shirt/productinfo/2093/&source=fs?awin=1
Green and White Hoops. Every time I see it on some Celtc scaffy I thank the good sense demonstrated by our founding fathers who abandoned this affront to the senses before it took hold. A perpetual bullet (soap) dodged.
