Sports apparel.

You know, there are national team kits & club team kits that look so fitting. The Serbia, France & USA kits for the FIBA World Cup looked great. I'm not a Manchester United fan but their 2024/25 season home team shirts are alright. AC Milan looks great, Real Madrid needs some work with the number prints, Liverpool is ok...  Lots of people complained when Orlando Pirates brought out the red strip & I couldn't understand because it looked really good. Adidas, Puma, Reebok & Nike gave us some of the best kits in the recent past. Adidas Euro 2008 kits were great, the kits & number prints for the 2010 World Cup were ok & in 2014 the kits were great. Puma gave us the best African kits in the late 2000s also, I still remember that number design with the little line shadow for Ivory Coast, Ghana & Egypt - those AFCON shirts were iconic. With Junior Agogo (R.I.P.) & Michael Essien looking like real national heroes. Puma also gave us really good designs with the Italian shirt of the 2006 World Cup, that shirt had a great print layout. With Nike; Barcelona's sponsorless home shirt of the early 2000s, some of Manchester United's shirts, the Dutch & Portuguese kits with the circles around the number during the "Next Level" Nike campaign. Those were great. Reebok gave us a great shirt for Liverpool in the mid-2000s also. Italian clubs changing the crests came as a shock to many & I still think the old Inter Milan & Juventus logos were better. Minimalism is only good on some things, not everything. 

Then there are teams with just the most horrendous kits I've ever seen; teams with these pattern prints other than stripes. Is it camo? What purpose does an irregular or pattern with many colours do in a football match? Who is it meant to disorient? A plain shirt is not always a bad thing. If it looks empty, a tasteful stripe pattern or different complementing shades & colours could work as well... not microprint & triangular, zigzag or unrecognisable patterns. The Arsenal third kit of their JVC sponsor era looked terrible with the multicoloured triangles.

I think a good kit manufacturer needs to speak to the team & it's players also for input, I hate seeing a player wear a kit & they have this "I don't really like what I'm wearing" demeanor when wearing it. When I see a Real Madrid kit, I want to see a kit like the 2017 Real Madrid kit. The kit looked professional & had intent, it looked... serious. And there's nothing wrong with a serious kit. Serious kits are often the best kits. Adidas even did their research for the 2014 World Cup when they made the black & red kits for Germany. Red & black kits have been surveyed to be the most intimidating colours in sports apparel which works in favour of the team wearing them. This may explain why alot of successful football teams have red kits & why Adidas made the red kit for Orlando Pirates. 

Ilangabi sportswear

South African national team kits: 

For both the Proteas & the Springboks they usually have a decent all green or white shirt, green pants design. It looks ok, sensible. But for the national football team, Bafana Bafana, we have a yellow top & green shorts. Sure, if it were a long-sleeved shirt with a basic design, it would look great... but, to be honest, as someone who's a little fussy about sports apparel, the Bafana Bafana home kit doesn't look all that great. Adidas once made us a white shirt & green shorts design which did look like a training kit because we weren't used to it but it looked really professional & Bafana Bafana did reach AFCON semifinals in 2023 in an all-white kit so maybe there's something in a white (or light grey) shirt that could help Bafana Bafana's success. 

Conclusion: 

I think if a kit design works, there's no problem sticking with it for a decade, including the number font. I'm not a fan of the colour yellow but I've seen some great yellow kits but wouldn't mind Brazil reverting back to their old, original white home shirt & the 1998 World Cup kit design. Juventus had an iconic shirt in 2008 & many would have no problem if they still used that shirt today. That consistency would validate fans buying shirts in any case because designs won't always be changing. Microprint patterns on shirts are also nonsensical because the fans & TV viewers can't see it, it's better to have dozens of sponsors on shirts like in South American leagues than some print nobody notices. I think resurrecting great kits & keeping them for decades should be the norm. The 2008-era Adidas Liverpool kit was so iconic that I don't think fans would mind if it stuck for a decade or two until there was a majority agreement that the design was getting outdated. 

Ilangabi Apparel concepts 

Postscript: 

How kits could be ideally:

• No sponsored shirts sold to supporters. Just team badge & kit supplier logo printed on the shirt/jersey. This will ensure old sponsors who may no longer be on good terms with the team aren't worn to the stadium & annoy the team owner, coach & players. 

• Football teams keep their kit designs (including player name & number font) for a minimum of three years. This will ensure fans aren't left in he stands with outdated team shirts/jerseys.

• Player numbers are their registered positions in play (see picture below) & can only be changed at the end of the season i. e. no number ninety-nine unless there are ninety-nine players in the team. 

...numbers continue in the goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward pattern for the whole team e. g. 20) Goalkeeper, 21) Defender, 22) Midfielder, 23) Forward & so on... 

The same with basketball kits, I suppose: 

...a team couldn't have more than four players in each position & should they do, the numbers would continue; 21) point guard, 22) shooting guard, 23) small forward, 24) power forward, 25) centre & so on.