Puma’s re-work of West Brom’s classic Cyrille Regis era shirts are some of our favourite new kits of the summer.
The summer months have always been an exciting time for us at Sartorial Soccer.
Football’s returned after the shortest of breaks, and this summer’s kits have had a thread of nostalgia running through their DNA, nowhere more so than at the Hawthorns where Puma have gone Back to the Future for the Baggies’ new kits.
Puma have had their felt-tips out and the result is a beautifully bespoke set of shirts for West Bromwich Albion that have seen them score a shed load of Brownie points with their supporters and football kit connoisseurs alike.
If you know your history, then you’ll know what a hero Cyrille Regis was to a generation of fans and players. He was especially adored at West Brom and his death earlier this year was felt with great sadness by the Hawthorns’ faithful.
When Regis starred for the Baggies in the late 1970s and early 80s, he played in the wide stripes of their classic home and away shirts.
This season, Darren Moore’s men will celebrate their identity with crowd pleasing designs incorporating those wide stripes after Puma accepted and brilliantly executed a brief to produce modern versions of the Championship club’s great kits of yesteryear.
The star of the show is the new away shirt which restores the green and yellow stripes of iconic West Brom away shirts of the past, with an embroidered “WBA” monogram completing a classic retro re-work.
Puma have allowed themselves a look to the future with the contrasting black and highlighter pen blue of the third shirts, but it is the home and away kits that will prove most popular at the Hawthorns.
Too many kit designs these days give merely an afterthought to the placement of sponsorship, so the seamless incorporation of Albion’s backers onto their new shirts deserves praise. As seen on Plymouth Argyle’s kits, Puma have persuaded sponsors Ideal Boilers to adapt the colour of their logo for each of the Baggies’ kits.
The results are there for all to see and time will tell if the overall look can inspire West Brom’s quest for a quick return to the Premier League.
These kits provide West Brom fans with a smart update of a classic set of kits instantly recognisable as their own but with modern cut and materials for comfort.
The shame in all of this is that we will most likely only get to enjoy these brilliantly bespoke Baggies designs for just one season!
Sartorial Soccer 