Every season there is an almost audible buzz about what the new designs for football shirts will look like. Which team will look better? Which team will look worse? Will teams go with old fashioned shirts, or will they try new cutting edge designs? The speculation adds excitement to the preseason and keeps people guessing until the very last minute.

This year the most talked about new design is for Manchester United’s away shirt. Photos of their new shirts have been passed around the internet and they are not getting favorable reviews. The shirts are white with a large V pattern in red across the chest. With a lace-up top and the logo shoved off to the side of the V, these throwback shirts are being hailed as a design nightmare. Football fans are even joking that Manchester United players will all request transfers because of the hideous new shirt design.

There is also a psychological aspect to new designs for football shirts. For example, there are rumors that Arsenal plan to change their shirt colors from yellow to green this season. That change makes fans a little squeamish because the last time the Arsenal used green shirts they finished in a dismal 10th place. Unfortunately the Arsenal away shirts look more like something an official would wear with light pinstripes and a small ribbed collar.

Some of the new designs for football shirts this year show a strange robotech type of effect. The illusion of body armor is stitched into the shoulders and midriff of the new Chelsea shirts. The blue and white design is nice, but the addition of a zipper at the neckline seems unusual for a football shirt. This year’s Blackburn Rovers home shirt and Chelsea third shirt are brilliant examples of traditional football shirts. The Blackburn Rovers will wear a large blue and white checkerboard pattern trimmed with red, which is interesting while conservative. Chelsea’s third shirt is classic football with alternating light and dark blue stripes on the torso and dark blue sleeves. The bright yellow accents finish the design nicely.

The many different uniforms that football teams wear throughout the season can be a challenge when creating new designs for football shirts. The teams need home shirts, away shirts, and some have third shirts as well. The home and away shirts are strikingly different from one another, and no team would be satisfied to have just the same shirt in a different color. Each team strives for individuality, and sometimes creativity wins out over good taste.

Fans, however, will support their teams whatever design they wear. Even when a team’s new shirt design is horrid, you will find bleachers filled with rabid football fans that are proud to wear the same tasteless shirt their heroes wear on the field. New designs for football shirts add variety and interest to the game, and give fans something to look forward to every year as the season approaches. While the design of the uniform is not as important as the players who wear the uniforms, sometimes it can be just as interesting.