MLS Kits 2019

[ManuelCh]

I hope they at least pair it with dark grey shorts. That would improve that lazy ass kit. 

[simtek34]

On 1/2/2019 at 2:36 PM, Gothamite said:

This is going to be a very good-looking league next year.

 

Except for the Rev's goddamn Crayon Logo...

[njdevs7]

I feel like the Revs are waiting until they get a stadium to update their logo.

[WarriorFight]

1 hour ago, njdevs7 said:

I feel like the Revs are waiting until they get a stadium to update their logo.

 

Which will be never, yeah?

 

 

 

 

Just playing but it seems that way.

[WarriorFight]

3 hours ago, simtek34 said:

Except for the Rev's goddamn Crayon Logo...

 

YARP

[Jer15]

13 hours ago, WarriorFight said:

Toronto's is pretty alright. Wish they had done some sublimation or something instead of just solid red but it's pretty alright as is.

My thoughts exactly, it would be right in line with what TFC have done in the past.

[PrimalCookie]

16 hours ago, upperV03 said:

Here’s a mockup of what the full Toronto primary could look like:

I wish that Canadian teams playing in American leagues didn’t feel the need to shout “We’re from CANADA!!!” with every essence of their being on everything they put out. That was my first thought when I saw this: they’re trying to emulate the Canadian national team’s kits.

[twi]

2 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

I wish that Canadian teams playing in American leagues didn’t feel the need to shout “We’re from CANADA!!!” with every essence of their being on everything they put out. That was my first thought when I saw this: they’re trying to emulate the Canadian national team’s kits.

While I agree that sometimes pops it’s head up, I don’t see it here. The red is Toronto’s established color and the only maple leaf is located in an area that most clubs use for a local or distinguishing mark. Looks like a fine (if non-remarkable) kit to me. 

[Beantown77]

12 hours ago, njdevs7 said:

I feel like the Revs are waiting until they get a stadium to update their logo.

Having spoken to the Revs' COO, that's exactly what they are thinking. A full blown rebrand will happen if/when they move to Boston proper.

That said, from a fan standpoint, it's beyond frustrating because we have no exact timetable for that and the rest of the league is running circles around the Revs with their branding efforts - and subsequent merchandise sales.

[Brian in Boston]

3 hours ago, Beantown77 said:

Having spoken to the Revs' COO, that's exactly what they are thinking. A full blown rebrand will happen if/when they move to Boston proper.

Good grief. Given Brian Bilello's thoroughly underwhelming tenure as Chief Operating Officer (2006 - 2011) and President (2012 to present) of the New England Revolution, I wouldn't trust him to name a goldfish, let alone preside over the "full blown rebrand" of a professional sports franchise.

Bear in mind, it has been under Bilello's leadership that the Revolution once promoted a Hispanic Heritage Night with a special "Family 4-Pack" that included four tickets to the match, along with vouchers for four sodas and... four nachos grande. The inclusion of the nachos grande differentiated the Hispanic Heritage Night "Family 4-Pack" from the Revolution's usual "Family 4-Pack"deal, which included a voucher for hot dogs. Let's just say that creativity - to say nothing of cultural sensitivity - hasn't been a strong suit of the Revolution with Bilello at the helm. I suppose we should count our blessings that Bilello's Revolution didn't throw an Asian Heritage Night that offered a "Family 4-Pack" featuring tickets, beverages, and four servings of General Tso's Chicken.

Bottom line? While the Revolution's "Crayola Flag" logo is an abomination, there's absolutely no reason to believe that the franchise's current leadership team is capable of overseeing a rebrand that wouldn't result in something worse. Then again, given that said rebrand will supposedly occur when the team "moves to Boston proper", we likely have nothing to worry about. After all, the Krafts, Bilello, et al. have been paying lip-service to constructing a soccer-specific stadium within the Greater Boston urban core for at least 12 years now... and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

[DrJack]

I don't know if I can remember a more boring kit than Toronto's new one. 

 

All red, no design at all?  Not even contrasting stripes or piping or cuffs or a collar anything?  Head-to-toe plain red?  Wow.

[DrJack]

5 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

Good grief. Given Brian Bilello's thoroughly underwhelming tenure as Chief Operating Officer (2006 - 2011) and President (2012 to present) of the New England Revolution, I wouldn't trust him to name a goldfish, let alone preside over the "full blown rebrand" of a professional sports franchise.

Bear in mind, it has been under Bilello's leadership that the Revolution once promoted a Hispanic Heritage Night with a special "Family 4-Pack" that included four tickets to the match, along with vouchers for four sodas and... four nachos grande. The inclusion of the nachos grande differentiated the Hispanic Heritage Night "Family 4-Pack" from the Revolution's usual "Family 4-Pack"deal, which included a voucher for hot dogs. Let's just say that creativity - to say nothing of cultural sensitivity - hasn't been a strong suit of the Revolution with Bilello at the helm. I suppose we should count our blessings that Bilello's Revolution didn't throw an Asian Heritage Night that offered a "Family 4-Pack" featuring tickets, beverages, and four servings of General Tso's Chicken.

Bottom line? While the Revolution's "Crayola Flag" logo is an abomination, there's absolutely no reason to believe that the franchise's current leadership team is capable of overseeing a rebrand that wouldn't result in something worse. Then again, given that said rebrand will supposedly occur when the team "moves to Boston proper", we likely have nothing to worry about. After all, the Krafts, Bilello, et al. have been paying lip-service to constructing a soccer-specific stadium within the Greater Boston urban core for at least 12 years now... and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Damn.  Yeah, that is worse than Toronto forgetting to design their new red kit.

 

That "Nachos Grande" bit reads like a weird combination of a Cinco de Mayo Trump tweet and a 90's SNL sketch.

[WarriorFight]

1 hour ago, Brian in Boston said:

Good grief. Given Brian Bilello's thoroughly underwhelming tenure as Chief Operating Officer (2006 - 2011) and President (2012 to present) of the New England Revolution, I wouldn't trust him to name a goldfish, let alone preside over the "full blown rebrand" of a professional sports franchise.

Bear in mind, it has been under Bilello's leadership that the Revolution once promoted a Hispanic Heritage Night with a special "Family 4-Pack" that included four tickets to the match, along with vouchers for four sodas and... four nachos grande. The inclusion of the nachos grande differentiated the Hispanic Heritage Night "Family 4-Pack" from the Revolution's usual "Family 4-Pack"deal, which included a voucher for hot dogs. Let's just say that creativity - to say nothing of cultural sensitivity - hasn't been a strong suit of the Revolution with Bilello at the helm. I suppose we should count our blessings that Bilello's Revolution didn't throw an Asian Heritage Night that offered a "Family 4-Pack" featuring tickets, beverages, and four servings of General Tso's Chicken.

Bottom line? While the Revolution's "Crayola Flag" logo is an abomination, there's absolutely no reason to believe that the franchise's current leadership team is capable of overseeing a rebrand that wouldn't result in something worse. Then again, given that said rebrand will supposedly occur when the team "moves to Boston proper", we likely have nothing to worry about. After all, the Krafts, Bilello, et al. have been paying lip-service to constructing a soccer-specific stadium within the Greater Boston urban core for at least 12 years now... and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

 

Mate, I understand the frustration, but Bilello wouldn't be the one doing the design, it'd be a professional firm or a pro artist (like how LAFC contracted Matthew Wolff to do our crest and elements, or how Cincy contracted the firm that did Juve's rebrand). Now that may go nowhere in reassuring you, but I wouldn't place branding on Bilello's shoulders. Just to be fair.

[Digby]

So one theory I've had as to the sudden appearance of light blue on New England's home kit last year and away kit this year is that, maybe however long ago they started designing these things, they thought the rebrand would be happening about now? And that they were stuck with it even when whenever some half-baked plan fell apart? Boston's city flag is light blue, I should mention.

 

Anyway. I'd rather we not discuss how woefully bad their branding is anymore. Maybe they keep the crayon flag because the frequent "wow, can't believe that still exists" is the only relevance the Revs have in any soccer conversation anymore, locally or nationally.

[Digby]

 

Branding minutiae of the day. Minor bones to throw to the Save the Crew crowd, I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see another new logo from the new ownership group, and it would be quite something to see a club formally get rid of a "SC" type modifier these days, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

[Mingjai]

3 hours ago, WarriorFight said:

 

Mate, I understand the frustration, but Bilello wouldn't be the one doing the design, it'd be a professional firm or a pro artist (like how LAFC contracted Matthew Wolff to do our crest and elements, or how Cincy contracted the firm that did Juve's rebrand). Now that may go nowhere in reassuring you, but I wouldn't place branding on Bilello's shoulders. Just to be fair.

 

The designer still works within the design parameters set by the client, and the client will need to sign off on the final product, so if the client is incompetent, sometimes the designer is limited on what he can do to salvage the product.

[WarriorFight]

4 hours ago, Mingjai said:

 

The designer still works within the design parameters set by the client, and the client will need to sign off on the final product, so if the client is incompetent, sometimes the designer is limited on what he can do to salvage the product.

 

Yes, but nobody wants to turn out garbage and have it be attributed to them. Yes, they have to work within constraints, and I understand that every fan has different tastes for what they want and they feel very strongly about it, and I am no graphic designer, but speaking from this theoretical standpoint, there is a LOT one can do with the Revolution as a brand given the history of the region and the Revolutionary War, and, if we're talking about the Krafts visual eye, the Pats have a decent brand. So I would not be worried.

 

While their FO might be varying levels of incompetent, or may have earned fan's ire (in this case it would appear rightly so), I think people being worried about them screwing up a theoretical rebranding that is at least several years out from actually happening, because of missteps elsewhere in their running the franchise, is probably a bit excessive.

 

But that is my own opinion, obviously.

 

The league also has a say in it since they are the one that own the franchises, and while people may disagree about their taste, one has to admit, overall, they have overseen a pretty well designed league in terms of branding in 2019. The only logo remaining that is sorely in need of updating is NE's, otherwise, the league has a pretty solid look.

[Brian in Boston]

15 hours ago, WarriorFight said:

 

Yes, but nobody wants to turn out garbage and have it be attributed to them. Yes, they have to work within constraints, and I understand that every fan has different tastes for what they want and they feel very strongly about it, and I am no graphic designer, but speaking from this theoretical standpoint, there is a LOT one can do with the Revolution as a brand given the history of the region and the Revolutionary War, and, if we're talking about the Krafts visual eye, the Pats have a decent brand. So I would not be worried.

 

While their FO might be varying levels of incompetent, or may have earned fan's ire (in this case it would appear rightly so), I think people being worried about them screwing up a theoretical rebranding that is at least several years out from actually happening, because of missteps elsewhere in their running the franchise, is probably a bit excessive.

 

But that is my own opinion, obviously.

 

The league also has a say in it since they are the one that own the franchises, and while people may disagree about their taste, one has to admit, overall, they have overseen a pretty well designed league in terms of branding in 2019. The only logo remaining that is sorely in need of updating is NE's, otherwise, the league has a pretty solid look.

Robert and Jonathan Kraft's management of the New England Revolution has been marked by indifference for 23 seasons. While the Kraft family has been driven to establish the New England Patriots as a benchmark, best-practices organization within the National Football League (indeed, it can be argued, amongst all major professional sports franchises), they've been content with operating the Revolution with minimal effort... as an afterthought.

 

Put simply, the Revolution are nothing more than an entry in a ledger to Robert and Jonathan Kraft. The franchise is a means by which the Krafts maintain a share in Soccer United Marketing, stay on the radar as a potential host for high-profile international tournaments and matches (i.e. the World Cup, Gold Cup, country and club friendlies), fill dates on the Gillette Stadium event calendar during the Patriots' off-season, and drive foot-traffic to tenants within Patriot Place. 

Season after season, the New England Revolution payroll has been amongst the lowest in Major League Soccer. The team has, throughout its history, repeatedly failed to maintain a roster up to the league's minimum number of players. With the exception of the Jermaine Jones signing - a situation in which MLS leadership all but forced one of the league's least-ambitious teams to acquire a truly difference-making talent - Revolution designated players have been DPs in name only. Off-season efforts to add meaningful player talent has been slapdash, more often than not resulting in the squad failing to develop cohesiveness during training camp, and entering the season lacking the chemistry necessary to get off to a strong start. If the likes of Brian Bilello and Mike Burns are any indication, the primary qualification for holding down a front-office job with the Revolution seems to be toeing the Kraft-dictated line without so much as thinking of rocking the boat. Marketing... public relations... scouting... in area after area of operations, the New England Revolution have been run as a bare-bones, bargain-basement outfit. 

 

The Krafts' stewardship of the New England Patriots is born of passion and rooted in the experiences that Bob shared with his sons - Jonathan, Daniel, Josh, and David - as Pats' season ticket-holders for 20-plus seasons. By contrast, their investor-operator status with the New England Revolution is born of pure, profit-driven pragmatism. Plain and simple.

Bottom line? The Krafts are about as emotionally-invested in the Revolution as they are in Rand-Whitney and International Forest Products. Which is why the Revs' matches so often have all of the atmosphere of the interior of a cardboard box. 

[MJWalker45]

17 hours ago, Digby said:

 

Branding minutiae of the day. Minor bones to throw to the Save the Crew crowd, I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see another new logo from the new ownership group, and it would be quite something to see a club formally get rid of a "SC" type modifier these days, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I would like to see them update their current crest into a mix of the STC crest with the German accents on the current badge but I expect the simple fix will be to slap 96 on the badge where SC is now.

[panthers_2012]

22 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I would like to see them update their current crest into a mix of the STC crest with the German accents on the current badge but I expect the simple fix will be to slap 96 on the badge where SC is now.

In my perfect world, I would keep the design in the middle the same. I would remove the SC and move the Crew wordmark over to have it centralized.