MLS Kits 2021

[PaleVermilion81]

3 hours ago, pepis21 said:

I start to hate MLS for trying to be too much European. Be yourself for f#$k sake!

 

As a newer fan to the league, it's especially annoying when the few established teams are changing their brands to the most boring version possible of European names. The rule for MLS should be no new CityName FC/SC brands. Really sucks to see brands like Columbus Crew and Montreal Impact just neuter the crap out of their unique identities that have established history, and then blah names like Austin FC, Charlotte FC, Nashville SC be the newest teams to enter. (I know I should hate LAFC just as much, but they actually have an awesome crest so I give them a pass.) Charlotte FC I hate the most because their crest looks like clip art.

[29texan]

17 hours ago, _RH_ said:

I mean if you want it to look like their flag and have a "C", why don't you rotate the flag?

 

This would be fine for like a football helmet, maybe. 

[Lights Out]

I've said it many times, but there's something deeply pathetic about MLS teams cosplaying as European soccer teams. All it does is reinforce their image as a second-rate JV league.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 minute ago, Lights Out said:

I've said it many times, but there's something deeply pathetic about MLS teams cosplaying as European soccer teams. All it does is reinforce their image as a second-rate JV league.

 

MLS IS a second-rate JV league though, and there's no shame in that.

 

MLS was on a good clip of rebranding and naming teams. But then circa Atlanta/Orlando/NYCFC/Miami, they kind of went overboard with the United/FC/CF etc. However, the Columbus SC is the absolute bottom of the barrel. It reeks more of new owner meddling than the broader MLS naming issue (which, considering MLB and NFL are beginning to ape the approach, perhaps isn't so bad after all).

[TaylorMade]

19 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

That's exactly why we're complaining. Second to how butt ugly it is. 

 

Not everyone, though. I definitely saw a lot of people only complaining about the logo, not even knowing that the name was changing due to the team's intentionally ambiguous marketing.

[upperV03]

Here’s the link to all of this week’s kit assignments, both for the midweek matches and the ones at the weekend:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/kit-matchups-what-your-club-is-wearing-for-mls-week-5
 

Pretty standard stuff for a lot of the matches, but still several things worth noting:
 

- Miami will be wearing their secondaries at home tomorrow.

- LAG, RSL, and SKC will all be wearing their secondaries at home this weekend.

 

- Dallas will be wearing white clash shorts and socks with their red primary shirts for the second time this year, this time at Minnesota.

- Nashville will be debuting their new secondaries at RSL on Saturday.

- Montreal, Portland, SKC, and Orlando are all wearing their secondary kits for the first time this year (along with Nashville, obviously). I believe that leaves Houston and Vancouver as the only teams who have only worn their primaries so far this year.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Do you think if the refs had a yellow shirt they'd wear a yellow shirt for this one?

 

 

[upperV03]

2 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Do you think if the refs had a yellow shirt they'd wear a yellow shirt for this one?

I would think so, yeah. Would definitely provide more contrast than the light blue.

[_RH_]

20 hours ago, WBeltz said:

I actually hate this more than what they made. I dunno if if it’s just the shape of the new badge turned or what. But this ain’t for me lol

After much discussion with stakeholders, I've taken a step back to listen to the supporters and will ensure that future doodles better represent the CCSLC

[Saturn]

On 5/10/2021 at 4:55 PM, spartacat_12 said:

 

So many contradictions here. "We're no longer calling the team the Crew because people were just referring to them as the Crew and leaving out the Columbus part. Having said that, we encourage people to call them Crew sometimes, but also Columbus SC sometimes." 

 

At least Montreal ditched the Impact name altogether, and didn't try to have their cake & eat it too.

 

The whole emphasizing the city as the brand doesn't make sense either. It's not like Columbus, Ohio is some glorious urban center that has a brand of it's own, the way places like LA or Nashville do. Arsenal plays in one of the world's most famous cities, and yet has never made any effort of working London into their branding. This doesn't seem to hurt them.

The current ownership hates the name but also doesnt want to face a giant backlash changing it so they're trying to do it in slow motion so its "not as bad".

[TenaciousG]

Does MLS not realize the three key franchises that kicked off the 2010s for them (Seattle/Portland/Vancouver) all kept legacy franchise names? And the success of all there had literally nothing to do with the addition of “FC” at the end. In fact most fans in the PNW likely wouldn’t even notice if you eliminated the “FC”. But there would be riots in Portland/Seattle for sure (and probably in Vancouver) if you tried to rebrand without the team nicknames. 

I fear the Wizards to SporKCs rebrand is what set them off in this direction... but honestly I feel like the stadium and the improved play of the team was what made that transition successful more than anything else. I mean they played for a while on a minor league baseball field WITH DIRT on the pitch. 

[Digby]

8 hours ago, TenaciousG said:

Does MLS not realize the three key franchises that kicked off the 2010s for them (Seattle/Portland/Vancouver) all kept legacy franchise names? And the success of all there had literally nothing to do with the addition of “FC” at the end. In fact most fans in the PNW likely wouldn’t even notice if you eliminated the “FC”. But there would be riots in Portland/Seattle for sure (and probably in Vancouver) if you tried to rebrand without the team nicknames. 

I fear the Wizards to SporKCs rebrand is what set them off in this direction... but honestly I feel like the stadium and the improved play of the team was what made that transition successful more than anything else. I mean they played for a while on a minor league baseball field WITH DIRT on the pitch. 

i agree with all of this, but also just need to point out that MLS TRIED to kill the Sounders name … what was one of them? Seattle Alliance? Jesus. 
 

Only took, yet again, a near riot from fans to even keep the Sounders name alive. They never learn.

[Digby]

16 hours ago, upperV03 said:

Here’s the link to all of this week’s kit assignments, both for the midweek matches and the ones at the weekend:

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/kit-matchups-what-your-club-is-wearing-for-mls-week-5
 

Huh, and they’re already Columbus SC in the league docs! Still the old crest on the shirt, though, so we give them half points on the Beckham rebrand plan.

 

This all reminds me — anyone else feel like the league has tried to reduce team names to their location wherever possible this year? Like where their website lists schedules, standings, club sites … those used to be full team names in previous seasons, now it’s just locations. Frankly it looks a lot cleaner than a complete mish-mash of “international naming conventions”, but also supports this apparent leaguewide thing of only caring about the city name.

 

Of course this new scheme gets awkward where you have “LA” and “LAFC”, and “New York City” and “New York”.

[Gothamite]

Yeah, but here in the city we're used to having to specify.   

[Brian in Boston]

Like it or hate it, the word Crew was part and parcel of the official name and logo that graced the Major League Soccer team in Columbus, Ohio from October 17, 1995 to May 10, 2021. For 25 years, 5 months, 3 weeks, and 2-1/2 days... for a U.S. Open Cup victory, three Supporters' Shield wins, and a pair of MLS Cup Championships... "The Crew" was more than just a nickname. It was officially part of the authentic and storied history of professional soccer in Columbus.

Sadly, this is what it's come too...



F*** Lying J and Dee-ceiptful Haslam and f*** the MLS suits!

[Corvus]

3 hours ago, Digby said:

i agree with all of this, but also just need to point out that MLS TRIED to kill the Sounders name … what was one of them? Seattle Alliance? Jesus. 
 

Only took, yet again, a near riot from fans to even keep the Sounders name alive. They never learn.

 

It wasn't certain the Whitecaps were going to keep their name either, when moving to MLS, they considered dropping it. I don't recall any of the alternatives they were thinking of, but it would have been tremendously stupid, but they really considered throwing out their history going back to 1974. Just astounding, like why even go down that road?

[kmccarthy27]

There is talk with the Crew rebrand. (via reddit) was supposed to happen before the season started but they won the MLS Cup this year and all the Championship Gear had the roundel logo, and they felt it was not the right time, so they wanted to wait for the stadium to announce because its going to be decorated in the new name/logo signage, but they had their mind made up about this change for quite a while. 

Another thing that is speculated is that this allowed them to take the Nordecke's complaints and make all those Crew secondary logos to act like they did not want to erase the Crew name. When we all know they did. 

[beachperroAZ]

On 5/11/2021 at 10:42 AM, PaleVermilion81 said:

 

As a newer fan to the league, it's especially annoying when the few established teams are changing their brands to the most boring version possible of European names. The rule for MLS should be no new CityName FC/SC brands. Really sucks to see brands like Columbus Crew and Montreal Impact just neuter the crap out of their unique identities that have established history, and then blah names like Austin FC, Charlotte FC, Nashville SC be the newest teams to enter. (I know I should hate LAFC just as much, but they actually have an awesome crest so I give them a pass.) Charlotte FC I hate the most because their crest looks like clip art.

I tried really hard to follow MLS in the first decade of the 2000's.  I mainly liked Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders.  I got sick and tired of the constant expansion, constant rebranding to cheesy european names, the fake barra bravo plastic fanbases that they manufactured for each team to force Europe/Latin America even harder on the MLS brand.  I decided to just stick with Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro in the Brazilian League instead of trying to also follow MLS and their Euro cosplay.  

[TaylorMade]

4 hours ago, Digby said:

i agree with all of this, but also just need to point out that MLS TRIED to kill the Sounders name … what was one of them? Seattle Alliance? Jesus. 
 

Only took, yet again, a near riot from fans to even keep the Sounders name alive. They never learn.

 

Seattle FC, Seattle Republic, and Seattle Alliance

 

Not sure I'd call it a "near riot" but the team included a write-in option on the poll that was sent out and 49% of people wrote in Sounders.

[PrimalCookie]

23 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

MLS was on a good clip of rebranding and naming teams. But then circa Atlanta/Orlando/NYCFC/Miami, they kind of went overboard with the United/FC/CF etc. However, the Columbus SC is the absolute bottom of the barrel. It reeks more of new owner meddling than the broader MLS naming issue (which, considering MLB and NFL are beginning to ape the approach, perhaps isn't so bad after all).

 

13 hours ago, TenaciousG said:

Does MLS not realize the three key franchises that kicked off the 2010s for them (Seattle/Portland/Vancouver) all kept legacy franchise names? And the success of all there had literally nothing to do with the addition of “FC” at the end. In fact most fans in the PNW likely wouldn’t even notice if you eliminated the “FC”. But there would be riots in Portland/Seattle for sure (and probably in Vancouver) if you tried to rebrand without the team nicknames. 

In defense of Orlando, Minnesota, and Cincinnati, the Euro-style names are the legacy names from the lower leagues. It's not like they were the Orlando Lions, Minnesota Loons, and Cincinnati Lions before joining MLS.

 

IMO things began to go overboard in 2015 (although Orlando City was the first with City and NYCFC was only the third [City] FC) and then went off the rails in 2017. Two new Uniteds in one year was bad, and it hasn't gotten better since. LAFC, FC Cincinnati, Inter Miami (at least it's a new to MLS Euro name), Nashville SC, Austin FC, Charlotte FC, and St Louis City. 5 [City] FCs in what will be 5 years when Charlotte takes the field is insane. The cherry on top of all that is losing Impact and Crew to Club Foot and SC.

 

If the trend continues, expect to see New England FC sometime within the next 3 years.