This is a bit of a late one, due to my busy work schedule. I remember when the 2024/2025 Home shirt was first unveiled, I felt super underwhelmed. It looked a lot like last year’s shirt.
Same material, same collar, same colour, just a slightly different pattern on the shirt. And the pattern is so subtle that you can’t even really tell the difference at first glance. Take a look for yourself.
The angry comments came. There were even accusations of LCS staff being lazy to design a different shirt. The memes came as well.
In the off-season, fans have very little entertainment to themselves. There’s no watching the Sailors anywhere, and Singapore football doesn’t have a thriving ecosystem when it comes to transfer rumours and contract negotiation rumours. Without much else to excite us, one of the few things fans can really look forward to is the unveiling of the new shirt for the season ahead.
So why did the Sailors not design something that excited the fans? Something fun, something edgy, something … different? Let’s start by clearing up the obvious.
LCS Designers Are Not Lazy
The least possible reason in my opinion is that the LCS designers just got lazy. Believe me, as much as these designs dismayed Sailors fans, the designs would have absolutely killed the designers. I bet a part of their souls died when they realised that this design would be the one used.
The graphics dude in LCS is one Najwan Noor, who is known for his stellar design work. Don’t just take it from me, go take a look at his Twitter account yourself. Or I could walk you through a few examples –
⚙️ Process.#smsports #lioncitysailors #whiteblueandbold https://t.co/MdnEbtpDAC pic.twitter.com/hvZN4BU86d
— Najwan Noor (@najywan) January 4, 2024
I mean, just look at that amount of effort for a regular, run-of-the-mill league game. The attention to lighting and detail is quite frankly amazing. More recently, there was this –
🎨 Match poster for the League opener.#smsports #lioncitysailors #allhandsondeck https://t.co/xsElfSbF2c pic.twitter.com/IdWUYXg80R
— Najwan Noor (@najywan) May 11, 2024
If you look closely, you will see that the books on the shelves spell out chant lyrics that the Crew uses, while the TV features a Crew sticker on the left side as well. Of course, if you have a keen eye, you would also have spotted that near the left finger, there’s SailorFanTalk’s banner right there, hiding in plain sight. The attention to detail, and to fan service does not tally with the view that the club just didn’t give a shit about the fans.
If the designers put in so much effort for a matchday poster that will be forgotten after weeks, or even days, would they not want to give their 110% for a shirt that they will look at for months on end? Go figure.
So if it’s not the club, then is it Puma?
Puma Just Not Very Inspired
The short answer is “Yes”. For me at least. There was recently an article which ranked the best Puma kits of all time, and I’d urge you to go take a look. All I’ll say is Puma, if that’s your top 10, I don’t wanna know what’s your bottom 10 designs. Very uninspired, very boring, very template.
You can imagine a Nike or Adidas top 10 list would look so so sick and spark much debate about which shirt is the true GOAT. Puma’s list just leaves you wondering how they even made the top 10 at all.
To make matters worse, as some may know, we don’t even get Puma’s best designers to aid us with coming up with a design – given LCS’s status as a “small” club, we get our designs from the teamwear catalogue. I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to those who don’t know. So if we wanted a white shirt, our options were kinda limited if you take a look at this catalogue.
Well that’s Option 1. It would have looked very similar, and no less boring. One point to note is that this is made out of Ultraweave material, which you may remember as the material for last year’s blue away kit. Apparently the players did not like Ultraweave as they felt it clung on to their body too much, and it was thus uncomfortable to play in. So, let’s knock out Option 1.
Well that’s Option 2. Hmm. The less said about this the better. A truly ugly shirt. It looks like you wore a white shirt and then got run over by a car. Or you’re a zebra that really likes 50 Shades of Gray. Next.
Option 3. I fell asleep assessing this picture. Boring. Drycell material, dry in creativity as well.
And guess what, that’s that. I should have known, given that I am an Arsenal fan and Puma was far and away the worst kit sponsor Arsenal had in their entire history.
I don’t think LCS were given much to work with. Had they picked any of these options, I think the fans would still have been very underwhelmed. It would at least be different, I guess, and there is some utility in that. In that regard, I wonder if SEA or Forrest may have considered using another logo as the official “sponsor” on the shirt, just to switch things up. Maybe SeaMoney instead of the SEA logo?
Why are Puma Able to Customise Kits for Other Clubs?
Because those clubs sell kits, and are viewed as priority for Puma. That is the sad truth, I guess.
Look at those numbers. While these do not represent the total number sold, because a good amount of business is probably done at the stadium, these numbers are nowhere near what the top clubs generate. Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan, who are all sponsored by Puma, generated €73 million, €54 million and €47 million respectively.
It is thus perhaps understandable that Puma would rather not spend too much resources on manufacturing a custom kit for LCS. But should we settle for this?
Maybe LCS Needs a Supplier in the Same Position As Us
The Sailors shirt looking so similar to last season was made worse by the fact that some other clubs in the SPL came up with very good-looking shirts. Balestier Khalsa received a lot of praise for their shirts, but their is also from the teamwear catalogue – just that the Adidas teamwear catalogue is just aestheticallyl way better than Puma’s.
More crucially, fans are envious of clubs like Geylang International, Albirex Niigata (S), and Tampines Rovers for having customised kits – even if Tampines Rovers’ away kit looks like a kid has spilt Nutella all over his mum’s white marble kitchen island. But hey, at least it’s not template and boring, and kudos to these clubs for that.
It shows what is possible if we switch to a supplier that is a relative minnow. In Albirex’s example, fifty50 is a new brand set up in 2023 and looking to make a name in local football. As for Geylang International, Thai brand FBT is their provider. These smaller brands will be willing to customise their kits for a club of LCS’s stature.
Perhaps we need to find a good balance. While Puma treats us like a small club, I am not sure a brand like FBT is the right choice for us either. Our players donning a brand that can be found in Giant Hypermarket will damage the image of the team, and make us less appealing to sponsors.
We need the best of both worlds – a brand that is reputable and yet willing to also work as partners with us rather than as suppliers. A brand that sees LCS for the ambitious project that it is, and is willing to start small but grow big alongside us. The supplier must also be one that is stable and reliable, to fulfil our shirt needs across all levels from academy, womens’ and mens’ teams.
Not sure it is easy to find a supplier like this, but it’s certainly something worth considering.
Conclusion
Puma out. But not because it’s their fault. It’s noone’s fault. Their priorities just do not align with ours. And that’s OK.
It’s not you, it’s me. Let’s get the break-up going so we don’t have to endure season after season of template jerseys.
Written by Eddy Hirono
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