Certainly can’t accuse Nike of playing it safe with this one. But with great risk comes either great reward or great failure, and this one may not result in the former.
According to an exclusive from Footy Headlines, who are almost always on-point with their leaks and predictions, the Chelsea 2020-21 third kit will be a “light red, almost pinkish” number with “dark and saturated blue” fading fat stripes running from top to bottom.
New Image: Chelsea leaked 3rd kit for the 2020/21 season.
— Chris Wright (@chriswrightzz) February 24, 2020
@Footy_Headlines pic.twitter.com/Fg3sN4mAW1
It’s a bit discount Barcelona, no?
Again, this is (most likely) not fake news, so better start getting used to it.
⚠ BREAKING: Exclusive: Chelsea 20-21 Third Kit Leaked: https://t.co/12b5tvAz1K
— Footy Headlines (@Footy_Headlines) February 24, 2020
Once you get over the shock of the color choices, we can begin to note that while red and Chelsea go together about as well as oil and water, we have had multiple instances of playing in reddish-colored (away or third) shirts in years past. Obviously we’ve never had anything other than blue for home.
The last time was in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, while there are also multiple instances of it happening in the ‘50s, 60’s, and ‘70s as well. So while we’ve become not used to not seeing Chelsea at all in red over the past 30 years, it’s not wholly without precedence.
The design itself, with the fading stripes, seems to echo the famous away Umbro ‘Coors kits’ of the mid-90s, but with red-and-blue instead of yellow-and-teal or grey-and-tangerine (the ‘90s were a weird time, man).
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