Chelsea unveil 2020-21 away kit by Nike, now with added ‘millennial swagger’

Hot on the heels of the new home kit comes to the new away kit for the 2020-21 season (and apparently the rest of 2019-20 as well as it will be worn for the first time later today when we take on Crystal Palace).

If you’ve been paying attention, this kit, like all the rest, has long been spoiled by various leaks already — are kits the worst-guarded trade secrets ever? — and the official unveiling simply confirms the colors (light blue), the patterns (more herringbone!), and the design accents (Nike’s main template of side-piping).

The light blue is an odd choice for an away shirt, but we do have some precedence in the form of the 2005-06 away kit, though that one was far from as saturated as this number. It also didn’t have such a horrendous sponsor logo.

In marketing speak, this kit apparently has “millennial swagger”, which — once you’ve stopped upchucking; I’ll wait — apparently means that “classic” tailoring has been “filtered through a modern, street lens” that “celebrates the style and creativity of the switched-on younger generation of SW6”.

So that’s pretty gross even if the shirt is ... okay, I guess ... and now I’d kindly like to ask you to get off my lawn and take this ... thing ... with you.