Borussia Dortmund‘s interesting experiment concerning their home kit for the 2023-24 season has not worked as many would’ve hoped at the time of the inception of the idea.
The Bundesliga outfit launched a competition titled ‘Kit Contest’ in January 2022, allowing fans the chance to contribute with the designs for the shirt their beloved stars would don in the 2023-24 season.
After submissions that totaled 15,000 suggestions, nine were picked by the specially selected jury for the final round. All these designs included the club’s famous black and yellow colours, with each submission checked with Puma.
Fan-favourite Marco Reus, Gina Glänzer of the women’s team, and club legend Dede were among the judging panel.
Speaking about the competition and the process, Reus said: “It was cool that many of the designs represented the city. When we were choosing from all the shirts, there were definitely quite a lot that I thought looked absolutely amazing. It was cool that many of the designs represented the city. The city featured on the edges, there were city outlines, or just the city of Dortmund. I think many of the fans can identify with that.”
Now the supposed winning home kit from that competition has surfaced on social media ahead of the 2023-24 season.
The description for the design (Timo R. from Marl) on Dortmund’s site read: “100% identification: It should be a REAL home shirt. What makes a BVB home game special? The fans, the Yellow Wall and the stadium. 0% changeability: Stripes and patterns are nice, but if you change colours and the logo, leave out the stars… you know what I mean.”
And early reactions are not very positive, to say the least. Despite the kit idea coming from the fans themselves, as always it’s impossible to make everyone happy, especially on social media.
That's why, despite popular opinion, you can't trust just about any fan to design a kit https://t.co/wwYRqwf4n4
For now, though, the home kit for the next season is not on many fans’ minds, with Dortmund involved in a tight title race with Bayern Munich, who are now managed by the club’s former head coach Thomas Tuchel. At the time of writing, BVB trail Munich by two points with six Bundesliga games yet to be played.
Edin Terzić’s side had the opportunity over the weekend to level with Bayern after their 1-1 draw at Hoffenheim. But Dortmund threw away their lead twice against 10-men VfB Stuttgart to draw 3-3.
They face Eintracht Frankfurt next in the league on Saturday and will likely come up against Daichi Kamada. Dortmund have been heavily linked with the signing of the Japanese winger, who’s set to leave Frankfurt at the end of the season.
Many believed Kamada would wear Dortmund’s black and yellow jersey (the winning one, in all likelihood), as it was understood they are leading the race for the 26-year-old. But in recent days, even on the transfer front, the situation has been far from ideal for the club, who have been turned down by Kamada, as per BILD.
It’ll be interesting to see which marquee player Dortmund bring in the summer transfer window to Signal Iduna Park to carry their jersey next season.
