Chelsea reveal 2020-21 Nike third kit, and it’s just as bad as before

There’s not much to say about these that hasn’t been said before. They look just as the leaks had shown them to look — that is to say, rather bad.

They’re not super red, like some of the earlier pictures made them look, but I’m not sure the more pinkish “ember glow” is any better. Fortunately, there is a bit of blue in there, though of course that just makes it look like a discount faded Crystal Palace kit.

“It’s a Chelsea thing”, says this year’s marketing motto, though that’s a bit of a hard sell in this case. Plus something about sneakers? Shrug.

While red and Chelsea go together about as well as oil and water, we have had reddish-colored (away or third) shirts in years past. 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, echoes 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). We probably would’ve preferred those colorways, but on the plus side, third kits don’t get worn too often and this one will be discarded soon enough just like all the rest.

Photo by Dave Kendall - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images