Oopsies.
@PhilHecken looks like whoever runs Chelsea's US shop put their third kits up a bit early. http://t.co/cUNGcdCnOS pic.twitter.com/F4dZmtyNAM
— Tyler (@Hewy_) August 20, 2015
It wasn't long before the kits were taken down. Visiting the USA megastore's website now will only give a blank page under "third kit". Whoever pressed the button to make the shirts go live earlier today is probably sweating under his bosses' evil stares right now.
That said, unsurprisingly, the official third kit looks exactly like the leaked third kit, down to those horrendous shorts. Just what is going on there?! Trying way too hard. Are we looking to hypnotize our opposition? Raising awareness for the dangers of getting run over by tires/tyres?
The top is decent enough, I suppose, and the striping does add a bit of interest to what would otherwise be just a plan black shirt. But there's weirdness here, too, with all the stripes and gradients creating what looks like a double pattern of arcs, one going up, the other going down, similar to what we see on the shorts. That part is a bit messy.
Fortunately, we probably won't be wearing the third kits too often, though without a yellow away kit, one of those occasions could be this very weekend, away to West Brom. We've done it before, and it could explain why they're about to go on official sale, too.