The league phase of the Champions League concludes on Wednesday night.
*
Manchester City, currently lying in 11th place – the lowest of the five English teams, host Galatasaray, who are in 17th.
*
We have made an educated guess on the kit match-up – Gala’s first-choice shorts are a nice white set with a gold stripe on one leg and red on the other, but they can’t be used. Quite white the Puma logo, crest and number are all on the left leg is something of a mystery, though.
Whatever kit the Istanbul club opt for, it will be a Puma-v-Puma affair and, while it may not be immediately apparent, the teams have the same template.
In the ultra-online modern world, some fans will take it as a grave insult that the outfits of their beloved team share similarities with others but, logistically, for firms fulfilling a huge number of orders each season, it is unavoidable. The trick is to be able to be able to provide individual flourishes on a common platform.
This is something Puma do well, in our book – a uniform shirt construction across their contracts, but with different panels that can be used to increase the levels of differentiation. Their 2004 design is a fine example of that and one that we will explore further in the future.
Taking their 2025-26 design, there are three neck options – crew, V and a classic collar – and then customisation is made possible with the use of panels at the shoulders, down the side of the torso and on the arms, as well as sublimated patterns on the front. The kits of Rennes, Heidenheim, Parma and Valencia illustrate the variety well, we feel.
