My interest in New Zealand football has been documented elsewhere on the site but I’ve also recently finished a set of home kit illustrations for all eight teams who play in the domestic New Zealand Football Championship.
Its odd that some of the templates used are a good few years old (Youngheart Manawatu and Hawkes Bay United) and yet some (Waitekere United) are back up to date. There’s also a fair mix of manufacturers: Umbro (2), Nike, Lotto (4) and a brand I’m not familiar with, Suno. The shirts and shorts feature multi sponsorship and the NZFL sleeve patch. Many of the shirts also feature the logos of various trust organisations that in accordance with NZ government legislation help fund sport in the country.
Love that Waikato kit! Sad to see half the league has a template design, but also interesting that in just 8 kits, there’s quite a wide variety of designs and colours.
OK now I’m viewing this on a PC and not my blackberry, I can see that only 2 of them have a similar template. Nice to see Lotto too…don’t seem to have heard from them for a while.
Great collection John! As I may have mentioned before, NZ is a very small market for the kit companies. So it is more cost-effective to go for templates as opposed to purpose-designed kits. Unless you’re the All Blacks then adidas go out of their way to find new technology for the team to wear.
Cheers Barri – they’re an interesting mixture – I like the Waikato kit as well Rich, I think thats the only one thats been specifically designed for the club rather than a template. The away is nice too, orange and grey!
Lotto is a very strong brand here in New Zealand, especially at local level and following a template is the norm. A very years back 7 out of 10 teams in the local club competition played in a lotto verticle strips template.