This season is an unusual one in which to review a Barcelona shirt - provided here by Kitbag.
Most years, the designs are filled with expectation, promise and, frankly, the torso of one Lionel Messi.
While Barça haven’t recently been the force they were between 2005 and 2015, removing them from the Champions League, where their current Third shirt becomes the first choice, has still been a daunting task.
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Messi-less, however, Barcelona don’t strike as much fear into an opponent and many have assumed the current Nike crop of shirts will forever be associated with disappointment.
This isn’t certain. Despite defeats to the fearsome Bayern Munich and Benfica, the Blaugrana are coming off back-to-back victories over Dynamo Kyiv and have just welcomed back club legend Xavi on a wave of optimism as he takes over as Head Coach.
Therefore, the Champions League shirt by Nike may become iconic for the right reasons, and deserves to be (re)appraised on that basis.
The first thing to say about the design is that, for better or worse, it is the FC Barcelona 2021-22 season home shirt for those who don’t like the actual Home shirt. The latter provides an approximation of the famous stripes, but with a heavy flavour of the crest literally writ large. Not for everyone. This shirt, somehow, is more traditional.
While the colours arguably aren’t the aforementioned “blaugrana” - Nike has the blue as “Hyper Royal” and the yellow detailing as “Varsity Maize” - the bolder look, with patterning inspired by Barcelona’s Poble-sec, Poble Nou, Gràcia, Raval and Les Corts neighbourhoods, and created with help from the city’s young artists, is certainly on-trend. Daring graphics are back.
The use of yellow rather than connotation-heavy white may also be a winner for some, while the navy neck and cuffs is a calming element to the chaos it houses. The use of Catalan on the stretchy side-of-torso trim - “El Nostro Barça” - is a neat touch too, if perhaps an unrequired extra layer of design.
In terms of the construction, the discernible knit of the Authentic version may be a pattern too far, so this Stadium edition may benefit from being lacking, and while it’s not as technology heavy, the silhouette shouldn’t be particularly betraying to the average fan. That said, as a garment, it’s in a different league to, for example, the Stadium versions of Nike’s first generation Vapor shirts - and stitched/embroidered logos are many’s preference.
We can niggle and say that a shirt with a RRP of £69.95 should have its sponsor and neck perfectly centred - which my version doesn’t - but we rarely inspect such things with a magnifying glass. It’s a strong design and product which has suffered through association with a moment in time, but its future is not yet entirely written.
Style
It’s 2021 so loud-ish graphics are not uncommon - incorporating these into the structure of Barça’s stripes here is a qualified success.
Design
The graphics themselves aren’t for everyone but they have substance in the inspiration and the process and that should be commended.
Details
The Senyera transfer on the upper back is present and correct, the cuffs and crew neck in navy add a touch of class, and having Catalan on the side-of-trunk trim is *chef’s kiss gif*
Quality
More than ever, Nike seem to be offering the Stadium and the Authentic shirts as alternatives to each other rather than merely options for different budgets. Here, the Stadium version is of a standard easily good enough to justify eschewing the tech of the Authentic.
5.5/7
