By Jay from Design Football
English League Two side Walsall, whose kitman Marc Roe recently appeared on The Football Kit Podcast, have launched three Erreà outfield kits for 2021-22 which have been met with not-insubstantial acclaim.
Featuring a trio of very different shirts, yet still sharing traits, the wardrobe is a fine example of marrying functionality with thoughtful aesthetics and arguably even outdoes the lauded efforts of last season.
The primary release has a timeless look and a tri-coloured trunk. Putting my Design Football hat on for a second, that timelessness is evidenced, somewhat, by the design being akin to the away shirt the USA wore at Brasil 2014 – which itself bears a striking similarity to a popular concept design from two years earlier – and perhaps even more so an Erreà’d concept from DF in 2012.
This relatively clean look is in something of a contrast to the away shirt design, which again features the red, white and green but in reverse order, and has a sweeping pattern in the lower portion. Not so much timeless as specifically 1990s or ultra-modern, but still betraying an exercise in restraint.
And the nominally white third shirt continues the palette – though it increases, via the sponsor, the black of the club crest. It also boasts, in light grey, the relatively modern trope of including the names of supporters – in this case, those who did not request a refund of their season ticket payment despite the attendance restrictions of last season – but does so in such a fashion that they resemble a shirt texture more than on most.
Handy that the more names you include, the better the shirt looks – a fringe benefit of honouring more of the fan base.
The real treat, however, for those who wish it could be Christmas every matchday, is that the home shirt has white and green shorts and red, green and white socks, the away green and white shorts and red socks, and the third red and green shorts and white socks. Plus, due to the consistency of the said palette, each shirt can be combined with every pair of shorts and every pair of socks. By my calculations, that means Walsall can sport 27 kit combinations over the coming season – below are just some of them.
They won’t, of course, unless they plan to set some sort of record – Marc Roe could perhaps be convinced – but it’s a beautiful thing that the option is there. Erreà seemingly continue to offer flexibility and common sense as well as an artistic eye in their output.
