Manchester City have been blessed with some slick kit designs by Puma, who must now be scurrying to finalize their attires for the 2024/25 season. As Manchester City aim to end their season with multiple titles, their shirt makers are also under the pressure of meeting the expectations of fans.
Recently, a leaked version of what is likely to be Manchester City’s home kit for the upcoming campaign started making the rounds on social media. Safe to say that Puma have made quite a few notable changes to the Manchester City attire from their current one.
The shirt obviously has its traditional light blue colour, with the Puma and Club crests being in a white and blue mix.
While the current Cityzens’ home kit has an interesting stripe pattern in the middle, where the light blue shade also has slightly darker blue stripes all over the middle – the 24/25 version is a single block of light blue.
However, there have been significant changes made to the sleeves and collar design of the home kit. These areas are both in a darker blue colour with the number ‘0161’ repeatedly inscribed into it. This number actually signifies the area code of Manchester, which is also given to the Manchester landline phone numbers.
The collar design is slightly tweaked, from the 23/24 version’s V-neck style being swapped for a more round-neck display. Even though Puma have tried to infuse some of Manchester’s history and culture into the kit, their wacky design and experimentation appear to have fallen flat with the supporters.
The majority of the Manchester City supporters seem to be disgusted by the design of this attire. In fact, in a poll where over 1,000 votes were counted, over 58% of the supporters voted that the kit is downright ‘sh**e’ and one that has not won them over at all.
In fact, some fans are even comparing the kit to the boxers or tees available on a clearance sale at an Asda or Tesco. For those unknowing, both of these are supermarket giants operating in the UK and known for selling such materials for discounted or cheap prices. Hence, the kit is being compared to something made from cheap material/labour and something that didn’t really get designed by an expert or something like that.
Most fans seem to be annoyed with the design of the collar and how badly the 0161 numbers are inscribed in the sleeve design. Some noted that it might’ve been better had the numbers been blended into a dark blue colour instead. A lot of fans are downright criticizing this kit design to be their worst home kit they’ve ever seen and want Puma to be replaced as their shirt manufacturer as soon as possible.
That is, of course, rather unlikely considering that the American brand is tied in to be their shirt sponsor until 2029. They’re also paying the club a rather handsome fee of £65 million per year for this, which is probably why the Manchester City management isn’t really complaining about these ‘experiments’ either. This Manchester City home kit is likely to be released in either May or June.
The current home attire costs around £75 on their official online store, but the 2024/25 is unlikely to be anything below £100-£130 upon its release. But seeing how the majority of the fans absolutely loathe it, Puma has a huge task on their hands on marketing it properly to ensure that the 24/25 home kit does not fall absolutely flat in sales numbers in the summer.
