The blackout kit has become one of football’s safest ways to make a shirt look cool.

Black out the crest. Black out the sponsor. Darken the details. Give the launch a moody setting and you’ve got something that will probably look pretty good.

Perhaps that’s becoming the problem.

Padova are the latest to head into the shadows, teaming up with local Padua creatives BLSSD KIDDOS for a third kit designed around how the city changes once darkness falls.

Architecture, streets and walkways take on a different character at night. Familiar surroundings become less obvious, details disappear into the shadows and suddenly you’re looking at the same city from a different perspective.

That’s carried across into the shirt and its launch.

The pinstripes are seriously sharp against the black base, while Padova have the benefit of a crest that translates particularly well into the darker treatment. It’s subdued enough to belong within the blackout concept, but still just about emerges from the shadows.

Take a closer look at the shorts and there’s another nice detail. The stripes appear to gradually fade away into the black, almost disappearing in the same way the city’s features do after dark.

As a concept, it all makes sense.

Yet it also raises a bigger question about where we’re going with blackout football shirts.

Are there simply too many of them now?

Black has become an almost guaranteed route towards creating something sleek, wearable and easily transferable from the pitch into everyday clothing. That’s particularly useful for third kits, where clubs have the freedom to move away from their traditional colours.

Perhaps that’s exactly where blackout designs belong.

Would supporters be as enthusiastic if their club abandoned its traditional home colours for an all-black home shirt? Could a club be bold enough to make a blackout design its primary away kit for an entire season?

Third shirts provide a convenient space where almost anything goes, which might explain why we’re seeing black used so frequently there.

Padova have at least given their darkness a reason to exist. This isn’t simply black for the sake of looking good. The collaboration, photography and idea of seeing Padua differently after dark give the aesthetic some context.

Still, how many blackout kits can football have before black stops feeling bold at all?

Credit; @padovacalcio @macron @blssdkiddos

#padova #padua #blackoutkit #footballkits #thekitsman

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