“Well, I’ve seen the away version now as well. There’s really no way to put a good spin on it, these are really quite unattractive.

Seeing as how the vast majority of fans, also known as the consumer, were fairly happy with the old crest and the old jersey style there wasn’t much chance that any new designs would be met with overwhelming approval. But to come up with a new crest and a new kit and have the overwhelming majority of fans – again, the people you want to buy the products – strongly dislike them is a terrible misstep by the club.

How could this happen? Do they figure that the fans will buy anything Arsenal-related so who cares what they think? Not as bad, but still scary, is the thought that the people in charge of this sort of thing at Arsenal actually thought these things looked good. Could the person calling the shots be that far out of touch with current fashion trends. And a special thumbs down to the folks at Nike. You won’t find a bigger Nike fan them me, but who designed this abomination?

Perhaps were missing something here. Most of us in Arsenal America are in our 20s, 30s, 40s and above. Perhaps we’re not considered the target market. Maybe kids 17 and under are the market and that they love the new designs. I can’t say I’ve heard an opinion from the under 20 set.

The real shame of it is that the focus group/market research on this sort of thing would have been so easy. Arsenal could have asked AISA (Arsenal Independent Supporters Assoc.) to provide 50 people to take a look at three or four designs. Each person ranks their choices and you form a decent opinion. They could have still disregarded the results but at least they would have known ahead of time that they were asking for trouble. What would it have cost them? Nothing. If Arsenal came to you and said which of these designs do you like, would you have told them you weren’t going to give them your opinion unless they gave you $100? Of course not, you would have been excited and felt honoured and privaleged that they gave you the opportuntiy. I can’t understand why they don’t do that sort of thing. It’s great PR, costs nothing and potentially saves you some headaches.

“

“First reaction: On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it about an 5. Although I’m a big Nike fan, I think they did a mediocre job on these 2002 kits. The problem is that their previous designs were minimalist and clean. So where do you go from there? Unfortunately in the opposite direction. I’ve got an Arsenal shirt from ’97 where they had designs or cannons subtley woven into the fabric. They realized that was crap and went with a cleaner look during the SEGA era. Now the pendulum swings back. Having said that, since seeing the jerseys in action on the US and Nigerian national teams they wear a lot better than when they are just in a picture.

As far as the sponsor goes, mixed feelings. They could have done A LOT worse. A stupid foreign airline (Chelsea) or a second rate pizza shop (Fulham) are expamples. On the other hand we look like we’re just trying to keep up with Man United, who also has a mobile phone sponsor. Also, I’m not crazy about having a big zero on the front of the jersey. Though it has already been pointed out that you can add a “”be a Gooner”" to the “”oh to (02)”" of the logo.

Then of course there is the new crest as well. We’ve already killed that as a topic so I won’t bother bringing it up again here.

Final verdict? I suppose if I was a Spurs fan and I had nothing better to worry about, like winning the league, winning the FA Cup, playing in Europe next year, I could get riled up about this. But the bottom line is with a team like Arsenal have they could play in G-strings and turbans and I would still watch. Ok, that last example had a quasi-homoerotic tone to it that I didn’t intend, but you get my drift.”