These aren’t the Chelsea kit leaks you’re looking for, move along

A fresh set of Chelsea kit leaks have been making the rounds for the last couple days, featuring a throwback crosshatch diamond pattern that harkens back to the days of Pat Nevin and Kerry Dixon and the sponsorship of Commodore, thus lending them a bit of credibility, even though the previous (actual?) leaks from Nike featured no such thing. The pictures have in fact been picked up by the likes of The Sun and the Metro, further adding to the noise in the online echo chamber.

Trouble is of course that these are just concept mock-ups from way back in January, done by graphic designer @rupertalbe for a website called Football Nerds. Except they are now missing the designer’s credit in the pictures that are making “news”.

These were undoubtedly then made into knockoffs by some enterprising individuals and are being sold as actual kits through unofficial channels. Walk through any random market in a big city, and you’re bound to find knockoff football shirts featuring anything from official designs to made-up guesses like these.

It’s probably safe to say that mock-ups done by a graphic designer for a website will not be the actual kits that Nike produce for Chelsea. Depending on your disposition, they may be better or worse, but they won’t be these, with the crosshatch diamond pattern.

The previous leaks did feature a camo pattern on the third kit, but the home and away kits were a fairly standard blue and white bright silver, respectively. Raglan sleeves, yes. Diamond crosshatch, no.

With Chelsea’s adidas sponsorship ending only at the end of the season, we probably won’t be seeing the new official designs until later in the summer. On the plus side, there probably will be some good sales and prices to be had on the outgoing adidas merchandise (not just kits).