Wear your Brighton shirt with pride… even if it is made by Nike
The news that Brighton have extended their kit supply deal with American sportswear provider and global brand behemoth Nike has not gone down well with some fans.
It is just over 10 years since the Albion made the switch from Errea to Nike; two seasons before promotion to the Premier League.
Back in 2014, Brighton signing with Nike seemed a step up. A signal of ambition at the time. The club had moved to one of the “big two” kit suppliers because it saw itself soon joining the big league at the top of English football.
Italian company Errea have few big-name deals in the UK anymore outside of a two-sport dominance in Wigan. Nike supplies kit to hundreds of big clubs and franchises in the United States and Europe, and has revenues of around $52 billion a year.
Their European football customers include Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Spurs and Chelsea. In the US, they supply all 30 teams in the NBA basketball league.
Nike also count amongst clients in their home country baseball giants the Yankees and the Dodgers, two-thirds of the teams in the MLS and too many NFL teams to list.
The biggest competitor to Nike is of course Adidas. The German giant have global revenue of around €23 billion annually. The story of the Dassler brothers feud and the subsequent Adidas/Puma rivalry is the stuff of legend.
For those of us of a certain vintage, the three stripes are synonymous with the golden age of Dutch and German football in the 1970s.
Of such brilliant, contiental players as Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer. This is probably why I have always been a fan of their stuff and own about five pairs of their trainers.
Other shirt manufacturers are challenging the market, though have hit some issues. Castore had a nightmare last season with Aston Villa and that infamous “wet-look” kit.
Villa subsequently ditched Castore and are now with Adidas. Everton have stuck with Casore this season, wearing their shirts in their recent 1-0 win at the Amex.
SUDU is a new name providing the Old Gold at Wolves. Crystal Palace use Macron. Puma supply Manchester City and Southampton. Brentford, Bournemouth and West Ham have gone old school with Umbro.
Nike only have four Premier League contracts in 2024-25 with the Albion, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs. The remaining seven are all Adidas; including Arsenal and Manchester United.
One of the criticisms directed at Nike is that whilst the biggest teams get bespoke designs, others are given variations on a template. I am not sure if that is entirely true, or if Adidas are any different.
Design is in the eye of the beholder, and opinions tend to vary and change with time. I did not like the 2020-21 lockdown season blue pinstripe kit produced by Nike.
This despite it being a homage to the early 80s “blue silk” home shirt which saw Brighton to an FA Cup final and is now a popular classic. Made by Adidas, incidentally.
For many though, the lockdown kit was a bit hit, judged as one of the best kits of that campaign by websites which rank that kind of thing.
I have warmed to this season’s home kit, as I often do. Plain red (Liverpool), white (Spurs) or blue (Chelsea) give kit designers a bit more of a blank canvas to play with.
Blue and white stripes is a lot more restrictive in terms of the variations designers can come up with, particularly with the complications of sponsors logos and club badges.
Designing something which looks totally new when working with stripes requires radical thinking; thus the ‘H’ home shirt from the 2022-23 season.
Deeply unliked when it was first released, opinions again shifted over the course of the season. Undoubtedly helped of course by that kit securing its place in history by being associated with Roberto De Zerbi leading the Albion to sixth place and an FA Cup semi final.
General complaints about Nike shirts from some include the quality of replicas in terms of material, finish and sizing not being consistent.
I think if we are paying £65-75 for a shirt, we should expect a good quality item. With new home kits released every season, some shirts will not be worn more than 20-30 times.
As the Albion have become an established Premier League side with a bigger global fan base, unlicenced bootleg replicas have started to be seen on market stalls in holiday resorts and online.
More and more fans with limited cash are turning to these because they do not feel the official replica kit offers value for money.
Why pay £70 for something with only one year’s currency that you may not wear other than to 19 homes games at the Amex, when an identical looking alternative is available for a tiny fraction of that price?
Of course, it is not just the home kit. Those with unlimited pockets can fork out around £70 a go on the away strip too. And the third strip. For the kids and the full kit… er, enthusiasts… there are shorts and socks to buy too.
Brighton also now release three or four different warm up and training tops per season. There is a huge range of Nike branded Albion accessories, jumpers and coats.
And if the Albion are particularly successful on the pitch, maybe even a souvenir kit like last season’s Europa League white.
The pay and conditions of people who make all these products is a whole other issue. I would hope that a club with the values and ethics of Brighton would raise it, but realistically there is little the Albion alone can do with a company so huge as Nike.
So for another five seasons at least, the Nike swoosh will sit opposite the seagull on Brighton shirts. Hopefully, as the Albion continue to push for top five places in the Premier League, silverware at Wembley or glory in Europe.
Regardless of who makes it, it is our kit and we should wear our badge with pride.
Warren Morgan @WarrenBHAFC
