Harry 209

It is actually possible to have an unobtrusive sponsor, as proved by Rangers in 2012-13:

This is the 24/25 Argentina shirt that leaked a while ago. Knowing that adidas use templates, and that this has the three bold stripes that were mentioned in the Amazon doc, I think there is a very high chance this will be the NUFC design with black in place of blue.

Put some greaseproof paper over the badge and iron in back on.

Adidas were much too keen on the centrally placed badge for my liking. Hope we dodge that bullet in future.

Regarding the 'cup font' for names and numbers on the shirts - I notice that the club shop no longer displays the sign stating "still awaiting UEFA approval". But they are still printing Premier League names and numbers on shirts with Champions League patches. Given the amount of shirts sold over the last couple of months with the CL/PL combination I think it would be unwise for the club to introduce a cup font at this stage, rendering many peoples existing shirt configuration as inaccurate. Wouldn't be the best look on the pitch if we are the only team not to have a bespoke font for CL games though. Not sure why it's been a problem given it's been four months since we confirmed our place in Europe.

If they re-release the 95-97 shirts it will be interesting to see if they have a more modern, fitted look or if they will be authentically mid-90s enormous. Sleeves that go beyond the elbow, billowing cut and all that.

Yup I think 'elite' tier is out of the question at the moment. We have elite owners but realistically we are not an elite team. Its slightly disappointing to me that we wont get the very best adidas has to offer. Personally I'd be all over a trefoil t-shirt with 'magpies' in place of the adidas font.

I think we can sell a lot of merch in the region but those other 'elite' teams have enormous global fanbases which we arent even close to, at present.

I dont know how thats calculated either, but the 'elite' teams - Man Utd, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid - all have social media followers in the 10s of millions, whereas we have lower single digit millions of followers. So i'd guess its something to do with global reach.

Cautiously optimistic about the return of adidas but a couple of red flags for me: 1) is no one else slightly concerneed about the creative guy from adidas who seems to think that three bold black stripes is an 'iconic' feature of NUFC shirts? Firstly, like most marketing people, he doesnt understand what 'iconic' means, but more importantly none of the shirts he's referencing there are particulary fondly remembered or are associated with any success. If your looking for fan favourites surely you've got to be looking at 83-86 home and away, all three Asics shirts or the 95-96 home and away? I know its all subjective but I do wonder if this is the right guy to be leading the NUFC design team if he thinks that Bukta shirt or the NTL one is 'iconic'. 2) I am very skeptical that adidas will grant us 'elite' status at this stage. Only Arsenal and Man Utd have that honour in the PL. Leicester, who were fairly recent PL and FA Cup winners, were only ever a tier 2 team. So we will very likely end up with some very standard looking template design shirts, like Sunderland got, and wont have those 'player' issue bespoke designs that most fans feel we would deserve. We are probably at least three or four years off anything changing there.