The wait is finally over for the release of the brand new Bradford City Macron home kit for the 2022/23 season. Some fans may have had an inkling that the Bantams would be walking out in the classic early 80’s Bradford City style offering that contained the large amber stripe in the centre with two around the edge. And it was interesting to see that Motherwell, who famously got their colours from Bradford City, currently have their kits supplied by Macron as well, and wore an almost identical kit as the one described above in the early 80’s, had that design as their kit for their launch earlier in the week. The kit impressed a lot of Bradford City supporters, so expectations were already high.
One clue that fans were given in the run up to the 2022/23 kit launch was a sneak preview of some shorts, it was even suggested that the white shorts are from the new home kit. Anyway, it turns out that like most of the transfer rumours doing the rounds on social media, that was a load of bollocks too! At least with the shorts they could still feature in our away or 3rd kit which is yet to be released.
Finally at 5pm Bradford City launched their kit with a nice and inclusive video. My expectations had been really high and I was expecting to be raving about the new home kit which we did know was taking us back to the good old stripes. And with Macron as our kit supplier, the sky was really the limit. And that’s probably why I felt so let down when I saw it. To be blunt, it’s a bit boring and way too safe. That isn’t to say the kit is awful because it is still better than any of the home kits we have had from Avec, but it just left me thinking they could have done a lot better and added a bit of creativity and turned it into a kit that could be iconic.
On to where the shirt seems to take some of its inspiration from. The black collar with a slim claret and amber stripe running around it brought back memories of a shirt from the late 80’s. Although in this case it has the same design on the bottom of the sleeves and the collar. It is a kind of mixture of that classic Admiral kit worn in 1985-86 and the Bukta shirt worn from 1988-1990. As with the latter they’ve opted for the claret stripe down the middle. Having said that, I do find that the badge and the logo do look better when they’re set against an amber background. Another point about the Macron logo is that it is white, which looks much better than black, especially on a claret background that some people may have expected.
A bit more about the collar and logo’s. It is a bit unfortunate that the kit reminds me of a relegation season, namely 1989-90. And like its Bukta counterpart I just hope the ironed on badge and manufacturer logo are much better this time around. In the case of the Bukta shirt, the manufacturers logo peeled off and the Bradford City badge’s colour faded after only a few washes. On the rear of the shirt I’m back to being impressed. The embroidered BCAFC in white on the collar and the black ribbon on the shirt is something that really adds something personal to the new Bradford City shirt.
The shorts are black, and that’s about it, except for the claret & amber stripes that I do like! The white Macron logo’s don’t offend me, so although once again it sticks to the basic rules of how football shorts should look, I cannot help thinking that maybe they could have done something a bit more interesting. However to be fair to Bradford City, I could make the same argument about a lot of clubs kits. Shorts are all too often treated as an after thought, maybe because they sell far fewer than the shirts and it is just not worth the same time and effort to get them just right. However it would be a real treat to see a bit more thought go into the shorts from a playing point of view, rather than just a sales point of view.
As for the socks, maybe it is a personal thing, but I detest black socks on our kit. It kind of feels that after going through the designs for the shirt and the shorts, everyone got bored. Asked how the socks should look, with everyone in the room looking at their watches to see if the pub is open after a long day, somebody asked the question and the response was “who gives a fuck about the socks, just do whatever, make them black”. The two stripes around the top are as boring and standard as it gets. I know they’re just the socks, but at least try! On this particular kit I think that claret stockings would have been the way to go, as I’m not sure whether amber would have been a bit too much this time around, but I’d have preferred to see amber than black. At the very least maybe they could have copied the stripe design from the shorts and applied it to the top of the socks instead of the claret and amber hoops. It would just work to tie the whole kit together. However I’m not a child or a full kit wanker, so that’s not something that’s going to be a deal breaker on whether I buy the full kit, I was never going to, for the reasons I set out.
Summing up, the 2022/23 kit is nothing to really write home about. Understandably there are fans who will think anything that has claret and amber stripes and a Bradford City crest on it will make for a great new kit, but I try to be more objective than that. To me, I just feel that we could have attempted something that would be a bit more iconic, but re-sales on eBay in 10 years time don’t make the club or manufacturer money, so isn’t in the forefront of considerations. It is definitely much more fashionable than the kits we have had in years gone by, and does have some nice touches to it, but that is about it. I really did want to rave about the new Bradford City shirt, I don’t like sounding negative about everything to do with Bradford City, but, I just can’t lie. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either, it’s just ok.
The Bradford City Training-wear
But just hold your fucking horses for a moment! There’s the training kit. Oh Macron you’ve excelled yourself and cheered me right up. I will definitely be buying a combination, or all of these. At last some proper claret and amber training kit, like they’re actually meant for Bradford City, not the Avec template that you could have bought for £20 cheaper and simply embroidered your own Bradford City badge on to! If the zip top is anything to go by, I cannot wait to see the tracksuit top that has a full zip (quarter zips aren’t my bag). How can anyone not love the patterns on the sleeves, they’re fashionable and just unique! Love it, love it, love it! I really cannot make my mind up which I prefer, the claret on amber or vice versa.
So this is the first offering from Macron, now we eagerly await the launch of the away and third kits which as always will be released on a staggered basis, something which keeps up the interest and gives fans more time to speculate about what the design may look like. City signed a six year deal with Macron and the early signs are so far so good, an improvement on the Avec kits already! I’m hoping the 3rd kit will be where the boat on doing something cool and fashionable will really leave us with something unique to remember.
The 2022/23 Launch Video from Bradford City
Anyone wanting to buy the kit of trainingwear can head to the Bradford City website here.