The9

Good spot. I wonder where white/light blue is on the contrast scale? Well, there goes all the logical argument out of the window again...

I note with interest that Hughes says nothing about formations. Litmus test. Southampton Way or Hughes' Way?

This is hardly sticking your neck out when the blue and yellow shorts have already been leaked.

Spurs had some crappy UA designs and and Villa barely had the chance to have a bad kit, they only had the deal for two seasons.

Mmmmm, close call, though that one had a faffy plain white round neck I wasn't too keen on, and was completely overshadowed by the mental green away kit, which was tremendous. As I'm here, Watford have launched their new adidas home kit - yellow and black stripes - with a plain yellow back.

Because we signed a deal to wear at least two new shirts every year for the 7 years of the Under Armour deal, which was announced alongside the deal.

I'm fine with the home shirt (and the third shirt) and awaiting a leak for the yellow kit to see whether it's yellow and blue or blue and yellow, striped or pinstriped or plain. Can't see them going with predominantly blue due to Palace, so pretty sure it'll be yelllow with blue - but there's been nothing other than the home and third leaks and the away short colours leaked to give us an idea of what the away will actually be.

Oh, one other thing about that yellow mock up - the collar's wrong on it too. The collar doesn't overlap camera right over left on the two leaked shirts (home and third), it comes to an even V with a piece under it which lines up with the band across the chest.

Yeah, I don't get it either. Back in 2003 when we had to change for European regulations I could understand the fury about a plain coloured back, but we're 15 years down that road now and tv's always going to win that one with the money it wields. As for the front, it's striped, it looks better than the "not a bra" kit, and it's barely got any more red on it than the own-brand red-sleeved skintight veho one or the adidas red-sleeved striped one that followed that. Plus of course it dumps all over the two awful all red things we had prior to those. In fact I'd say (ignoring last season) it's the best striped shirt we've had since the Umbro mainly white Championship promotion shirt.

Yellow kit isn't confirmed, it's just a mock up based on what's been leaked (which isn't the yellow/blue shirt yet). And tbh if you don't like that, I've no idea what you would like?

All indications so far are that the Premier League are adopting UEFA's existing regulations, which people have been saying was going to be the case for the past two years. Last season Stoke had a white panel, Brighton a blue one, we had a broad white stripe, but two of the promoted sides had "normal" stripes, presumably because they had already ordered before knowing they were going up. That includes Newcastle, whose red numbers on black/white definitely wouldn't pass the contrast test. We'll see if everyone has plain backs or contrast panels pretty soon. We'll also see if matches seem to be all "light" v "dark" kits, assuming they haven't actually published the Prem kit regulations before the start of the season.

I think it's great, subtle homage to the Le Coq shirt of the mid 80s.

The player shirts have had heat sealed badges for the past two seasons.

Third kit to be worn against teams in white, because the home shirt has white on the front and the away kit isn't sufficient of a contrast using the Delta L measurement.

That's not the away. That's a mock up by someone who's seen the home kit and presented a yellow shirt in the same way. It's lacking some of the detail that's also missing from their representation of the home shirt. I mean it *might* be the away shirt, but I suspect its more likely to have pin stripes, if not stripes. I'll be interested to see if they can actually mess it up too.

Mostly because UA are quite good at not giving away clues until they want to and when there's no change in supplier or sponsor there's not much to discuss. The seasons we had plain red kits (including the first one back in the Premier League and the meltdown summer when there was PLENTY to talk about) there were loads of comments because we were changing kit brand or sponsor or had a kit that most people hated.

Yeah, noticed it wasn't finding "Southampton" or "replica" when I looked about half an hour ago. Took a bunch of phone screenshots earlier though, you know how it is.

Yeah, love that one, despite the plasticky tacked-on sponsor patch and weird red shoulder detailing it was unique and stylish (as football kits go). Also the last home shirt to last more than one season. The last away shirt to do so was the yellow aap3 Umbro from the Championship promotion season, and even that only made a second season because the all white away kit in the return to Premier League season was only of any use in one away match and we needed to keep the yellow shirt because of it. Another genius Cortese decision: to sell the yellow off for £15 in April in a clearance sale and then not have it available to buy at all the following season when we wore it about 10 times.

Yeah, I notice detail - but I think there's something around "we know it will be stripes, oh there's a sash one, I'll get that", that doesn't remain the case if the sash becomes the de facto - we'd lose a load of sales from people going "oh another sash" which we wouldn't with "oh another stripe". What I mean isn't that we can't create distinctive sash designs, just that they might not have as much impact on the casual buyer after the first one. At some point in there what becomes the norm changes, and you get the "return to stripes" boost that currently a one-off sash would get. I'd be more interested to see what happens if a club committed to not changing their shirt design for 5 years, whether they'd shift more shirts to people knowing they wouldn't have to buy another for 5 years, or whether they'd just massively lose out on revenue from the "buy anything" idiots like me. I suspect the latter, because no-one has tried it, even though NFL teams go years at a time without changing uniform brand or style. My NFL jersey is into its 4th year of relevance (unlike the player on the back, which I suspect is how the NFL teams keep selling jerseys of the same design). It's a different model, probably tied up with image rights somehow - I wonder if any Prem side would refuse to sell shirts without a name and number but keep the design the same for multiple seasons to exploit the same model?

Here's the detail from Annex D in the UEFA regs for your amusement/bemusement... it is assumed that the Premier League is now using these regulations too (though it'll be interesting to see if any of the promoted teams use striped away kits as none of them have striped homes this time around). The whole of the SIXTY-SEVEN page doc is about kit regulations, this is just the most technical bit around colour clash and contrast measurements. ANNEX D: Colour and contrast-related terms Using a spectrophotometer UEFA may measure the values of the colour, the reflectivity and the contrast of the various colours used on a kit. This method helps to ensure better legibility of the numbers against the background colours and to avoid reflectivity of colours, and also provides an objective means of decision-making. 1. Spectrophotometer An instrument that measures the spectral reflectance. 2. Measurement method The measurements are to be recorded using a spherical spectrophotometer with an aperture of 6.6 mm and a measurement area of 4mm on a white-point of D65 and Standard Observers Angle of 10°. All sample measurements are an average of three readings, 0°, 90° and 45°. A spectrally neutral 18% Reflectance Grey Card must be laced under the single layer of fabric to be measured. 3. Delta E Delta E is a formula to calculate the difference between a pair of measured colour samples. The Delta E CMC 2:1 equation is used by UEFA to determine the colours of decorative elements. 4. Delta L Delta L is a formula used to calculate the difference in light between a pair of measured colour samples. UEFA may use it to determine the contrast of colour. 5. Number-zone colours In order to be approved, the contrast between shirt colours in the number zone must be less than or equal to a Delta L of 25. Colour combinations with a Delta L value greater than 25 are considered as contrast colours and require a neutral patch on the back of the shirt. 6. Contrast to player numbers In order to be approved, a player number must contrast with its background colour(s) in the number zone. A number must contrast by a Delta L value equal to or higher than 30. 7. Decorative elements In order to be approved, a decorative element as defined in Article 12 has to differ from the shirt colour(s) by a Delta E CMC 2:1 value of up to 10 maximum. The background colour will be measured before the decorative element. 8. Reflective effect No kit item (including player numbers) must be too reflective. In order to be approved, the spectral gain of a material used must be less than 0.009 (representing as “spectral Gain x 100’ being lower than 0.9). Spectral gain is defined as the average positive difference of the specular-excluded subtracted from the specular-including readings, within the range of 400 to 700 nanometers at 10 nanometer intervals.

I think they'd really struggle to sell 5 years' worth of different sash kits though - it's one of those things where the sash is the defining characteristic, and people who like the sash kit will just buy one sash kit. For some reason in my head that's different to people who like Saints kits buying multiple striped ones... I dunno...

FWIW I don't like any of those mock ups much. The light blue one is ok, the black away is ok, the home one is bloody awful and the blue trim is particularly poor for a Saints shirt. Weirdly I actually like the look of the actual new home shirt with the blue away shorts though, just for a moment there I was thinking "oh blimey, they've done it now"...

In case anyone cba to read UEFA's regs, all the stuff about contrast and a billion other faffy regulations are here: https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Tech/uefaorg/General/01/75/63/78/1756378_DOWNLOAD.pdf A bit of research says that the calculation UEFA (and now the Premier League) are interested in for shirt back is "Delta L", which is where the colours are on the light and dark scale measured by position on a colour wheel. From the regulations: "Number-zone colours In order to be approved, the contrast between shirt colours in the number zone must be less than or equal to a Delta L of 25. Colour combinations with a Delta L value greater than 25 are considered as contrast colours and require a neutral patch on the back of the shirt. " Konica defines the Delta L value as this: ΔL* (L* sample minus L* standard) = difference in lightness and darkness (+ = lighter, - = darker) So there's a number value given to how different the number colour and shirt colour need to be. And our red and a black number doesn't cut it. I shall leave you with the word "spectrophotometer".

Stops the big 6 getting a subconscious bias and enables the opportunity for a delayed, what's best for business, considered bias via VAR. Yeah, great.

Same thing every season. Fundamentally all things are futile, we all die. Enjoy it or do something else, no biggie.