Mantis Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 (edited) The shade of claret we had with the Nike shirts was fine but Macron have never seemed to get it right, though it's probably down to whoever is in charge of our kits at Villa more than Macron. The shiny look the material Macron use on our kits doesn't help either and it does look like a horrible shade of pink. It's one of the reasons I haven't bought a home shirt since Macron took over. Hopefully if we get new owners they'll decide not to extend the Macron deal further than this year and choose a better kit manufacturer for next season. The fact that Burnley have someone like Puma making their kit, it's embarrassing a club of our size uses Macron. Yes, they gave us the most money and that is the most important thing, but I think we'd sell more shirts if we had a better quality kit maker. Burnley's shade of claret is a little too brown for my liking, though. West Ham's is quite a nice shade, but that's unsurprising since Adidas are a quality kit supplier. I've really never understood this argument. Fair enough if you don't like Macron's designs (although how much of that is down to the fact that Macron aren't seen as a big manufacturer I wonder?) but why is it embarrassing that a club of our size uses Macron? They're not some tin-pot manufacturer - they make quite a lot of kits for fairly big European clubs. To name a few: Napoli, Lazio, AZ, Vitesse, Real Betis, ourselves and Sporting Lisbon. I don't really get the hype around Nike and Adidas - if you're not one of the top top clubs you just get a boring template every season. So many clubs use them these days anyway. Edited August 18, 2014 by Mantis 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Villa's Clare & Blue should be set apart from Burnley's and West Ham's their's is usually all dulled whilst ours traditionally seems to have an extra vibrancy to it. It's the undertones that do it when it' done properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benireduk Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I find it increasingly annoying that we seem one of the only teams to change our shorts and/or socks at away games to prevent a clash. Take Saturday for example, yes we change out shorts as Stoke also have white, but why we're wearing white & claret socks. What's wrong with our sky blue socks? Our kit looked awful on Saturday and very un-Villa for me. The game before was Man United v Swansea where both teams wear white shorts. WBA v Sunderland both teams wearing dark shorts that clash. Who at our place makes these decisons? Particularly claret shorts. Why can't we have sky blue ones which personally I think looks a lot better. I know there's more important things to worry about but I find it annoying! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 The shade of claret we had with the Nike shirts was fine but Macron have never seemed to get it right, though it's probably down to whoever is in charge of our kits at Villa more than Macron. The shiny look the material Macron use on our kits doesn't help either and it does look like a horrible shade of pink. It's one of the reasons I haven't bought a home shirt since Macron took over. Hopefully if we get new owners they'll decide not to extend the Macron deal further than this year and choose a better kit manufacturer for next season. The fact that Burnley have someone like Puma making their kit, it's embarrassing a club of our size uses Macron. Yes, they gave us the most money and that is the most important thing, but I think we'd sell more shirts if we had a better quality kit maker. Burnley's shade of claret is a little too brown for my liking, though. West Ham's is quite a nice shade, but that's unsurprising since Adidas are a quality kit supplier. I've really never understood this argument. Fair enough if you don't like Macron's designs (although how much of that is down to the fact that Macron aren't seen as a big manufacturer I wonder?) but why is it embarrassing that a club of our size uses Macron? They're not some tin-pot manufacturer - they make quite a lot of kits for fairly big European clubs. To name a few: Napoli, Lazio, AZ, Vitesse, Real Betis, ourselves and Sporting Lisbon. I don't really get the hype around Nike and Adidas - if you're not one of the top top clubs you just get a boring template every season. So many clubs use them these days anyway. You bring up a fair enough point and I didn't express myself very well. It just irks me when I see lower league teams - or dare I say smaller teams - with in my opinion better kit manufacturers. Burnley are one example. Their kit is made by Puma and looks like a better fit and is made from a better material than ours. I just really hate Macron and I think a club of our size could at least supply our supporters with a really nice, quality brand kit. I know the kit manufacturer isn't one of the biggest issues and the fact they gave us the best deal is the important thing, but I just think our kits look so damn cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree there as it's purely a matter of taste, but what I will say is that Macron are a fairly big kit manufacturer - certainly not small at the very least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 (edited) They do seem to be adding teams to their portfolio and increasing their profile in the game. Perhaps calling them a small-time manufacturer is wrong nowadays, I just personally think the kits they make look cheap and nasty. The away kit this season is the best design they've given us by a million miles, but it's still made from a cheap looking and cheap feeling material and isn't a very nice fit, in my opinion of course. As you say, it's down to personal taste. I would prefer us to go with someone else next season and onwards. Edited August 18, 2014 by Ginko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I think our kits this year are among the best in the league, Macron or not. Also the shade of claret this time is really deep, and I just couldn't help but admire how the kits looked on Saturday (including the claret shorts). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Really? I hate claret shorts with the home shirt, especially when they're two different shades of claret. The home shirt claret is too pink for my liking. The claret used on the away kit is a shade darker. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody1000 Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Look, I totally understand fans wanting Nike/Adidas/Puma making our kit. We had Nike for 5 years, and they basically treated us like s***. We were treated like an after-thought, one year not even being able to buy a shirt until the November, and it was simply not good enough. I've got to be honest, I've really liked the Macron kits on the whole. It's the little touches that personalise them, like this years away shirt - the old badge embossed on the back. I just like the way that Macron treat us like a club of our stature should be! As much as we may want a trendy name, if Macron want to treat us like a priority & just happen to be offering the most money, then it's a no-brainer for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 It isn't about a trendy name, it's about a quality product. In my opinion, Macron produce poor quality shirts that fit badly and look cheap. As for Nike 'treating us like shit', that's just hyperbole. It was only one season that we got our shirts late. Is that acceptable? No, not really, but considering no one knows the ins and out of what happened, it's too simplistic to suggest Nike basically said, 'Meh, it's only Villa, we have bigger fish to fry so **** 'em.' And even if that were true, there's nothing to suggest that one of the other quality kit suppliers like Adidas, Puma, Umbro or even manufacturers like Le Coq Sportif or Kappa would treat us that way, and they all produce merchandise of a higher quality and better standard than Macron, again, in my opinion. An embossed lion on the back doesn't make up for cheap material, weird and unnecessarily complicated collars, ill-fitting clothing and on the whole poor shirt designs. For all intents and purposes we have a claret body and blue sleeves. There are plenty of high quality kit suppliers who could make a simple kit like that look high quality. Macron just aren't one of them. And those **** crappy-looking Macro men on the shoulders too... seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 The Macron men actually improve the shirt IMO - didn't think I'd be saying this two years ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 The Macron men actually improve the shirt IMO - didn't think I'd be saying this two years ago! You just lost the right to be taken seriously Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Nike treated us like garbage, and with our efforts on field the last few years, we'd be getting a cookie cutter template if we were with Nike, Adidas or Puma this year. The people on here could do mock ups of what we'd look like in Adidas and you know they'd be 100% correct, because Adidas use about 2 different templates for everyone who isn't Chelsea or Real Madrid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Nike treated us like garbage, and with our efforts on field the last few years, we'd be getting a cookie cutter template if we were with Nike, Adidas or Puma this year. We were a lower priority with Nike, admittedly, but only one time were our away shirts late and as I said earlier, no one will ever know the reason behind that. You've also not seen the West Ham kit Adidas have made this season, since it is not a 'cookie cutter template' at all. We only ever have claret body and blue sleeves anyway, and that's all that's ever necessary. I would prefer a plain claret body and blue sleeves shirt made with high quality material and with a better fit over a cheap, tacky looking, poorly fitted shirt that makes our claret look pink just because they can put a couple of pinstripes on our shirt. And anyway, we didn't get 'cookie cutter' shirts with Nike at all. The checks were original, weren't they? You assume too much. The reason we went with Macron is because they gave us the most money for the deal, end of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Nike treated us like garbage, and with our efforts on field the last few years, we'd be getting a cookie cutter template if we were with Nike, Adidas or Puma this year. We were a lower priority with Nike, admittedly, but only one time were our away shirts late and as I said earlier, no one will ever know the reason behind that. You've also not seen the West Ham kit Adidas have made this season, since it is not a 'cookie cutter template' at all. We only ever have claret body and blue sleeves anyway, and that's all that's ever necessary. I would prefer a plain claret body and blue sleeves shirt made with high quality material and with a better fit over a cheap, tacky looking, poorly fitted shirt that makes our claret look pink just because they can put a couple of pinstripes on our shirt. And anyway, we didn't get 'cookie cutter' shirts with Nike at all. The checks were original, weren't they? You assume too much. The reason we went with Macron is because they gave us the most money for the deal, end of. The 2014/15 West Ham kit is such a cookie cutter template that they didn't give them blue sleeves because it would interfere with the template too much(the same template they've used for countless other sides). It's literally an identical template to the AC Milan away, or the Forest away, or the Sunderland away, or many other club's kits based on the Adidas Condivo template. All that makes it unique is some afterthought horizontal pinstripes. Actually when Nike took us over we had just been bought by an American billionaire and we were the next big thing and got the full unique kit treatment from them. Our first few Nike kits were truly brilliant, the best home kits we've ever had. However as we dropped down the table we slipped down the priority list. Our kits were regularly late. But at least we got unique, Villa specific designs. These days we simply wouldn't get that. We're not a big enough team anymore. We'd get something very basic from Nike with a thick sleeve cuff like every other side who has them. It would be good quality, but Macron have improved a long way from the first shirt we had with them. This year's kits, especially the away, are absolutely brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 (edited) Well the addition of these 'afterthought horizontal pinstripes' on the West Ham home kit surely makes it an original design? I mean, football shirts are football shirts and they don't deviate all that much. They're all templates with subtle changes here and there really. I think the change to Macron was more down to getting more money because it coincided with the time we were putting measures of austerity in. It just made sense to get the most amount of money for the club at the time. It had less to do with how much of a priority client we were to Macron over Nike, that was just an added bonus. Unfortunately, the shirts are shit. The Nike designs were much nicer, obviously in my opinion as such a thing is incredibly subjective but I can only express my own feelings on the matter. And you're still neglecting to the possibility of a host of other, better quality manufacturers such as the ones I've listed and doubtless a few others I forgot who would see us as a higher priority client than Nike did in the latter years and produce higher quality kits and nicer designs than Macron. It's all moot anyway since it's subjective. I'm glad some people like the Macron designs and I realise a lot of people don't care so much about the kits, but I've always looked forward to seeing the new shirts and buying them. Unfortunately I just don't like any of the Macron shirts enough to part with my cash, so naturally I can only hope we go with someone I see as a better manufacturer in the future and it irks me when smaller teams like Burnley can get nice kit designs from decent manufacturers like they have this season. Their shirt blows ours out of the water. Edited August 19, 2014 by Ginko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Really? I hate claret shorts with the home shirt, especially when they're two different shades of claret. The home shirt claret is too pink for my liking. The claret used on the away kit is a shade darker. Yeah, they need to go with the darker claret, the touch of pink is troublesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 I find it increasingly annoying that we seem one of the only teams to change our shorts and/or socks at away games to prevent a clash. Take Saturday for example, yes we change out shorts as Stoke also have white, but why we're wearing white & claret socks. What's wrong with our sky blue socks? Our kit looked awful on Saturday and very un-Villa for me. The game before was Man United v Swansea where both teams wear white shorts. WBA v Sunderland both teams wearing dark shorts that clash. Who at our place makes these decisons? Particularly claret shorts. Why can't we have sky blue ones which personally I think looks a lot better. I know there's more important things to worry about but I find it annoying! To be honest I actually prefer it when we wear Claret shorts and more Claret as we look more unique and less Burnley, West Hamish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 I find it increasingly annoying that we seem one of the only teams to change our shorts and/or socks at away games to prevent a clash. Take Saturday for example, yes we change out shorts as Stoke also have white, but why we're wearing white & claret socks. What's wrong with our sky blue socks? Our kit looked awful on Saturday and very un-Villa for me. The game before was Man United v Swansea where both teams wear white shorts. WBA v Sunderland both teams wearing dark shorts that clash. Who at our place makes these decisons? Particularly claret shorts. Why can't we have sky blue ones which personally I think looks a lot better. I know there's more important things to worry about but I find it annoying! To be honest I actually prefer it when we wear Claret shorts and more Claret as we look more unique and less Burnley, West Hamish! But it was those clubs who copied Villa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_eristic Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 I like the new kits. Favorite kit ever is probably that blue/black Nike away a few years ago, though, template or no. Wish I could've gotten one with Laursen on it. The one that looked kinda like an old baseball jersey was class, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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