We’re firmly in the yes camp.
Football shirts have spent years bouncing between proper collars, crew necks, V-necks and increasingly minimal constructions, but there’s something about a good collar that can completely change the character of a kit.
Aalborg might have provided another piece of evidence for the argument.
Their new third shirt alongside Societas takes inspiration from a particularly important piece of club history: the yellow-brick clubhouse at Hornevej that became home following AaB’s relocation there in the 1970s and is now beginning its own journey of reconstruction and expansion.
Rather than simply referencing the building somewhere on the shirt, they’ve effectively rebuilt it across the fabric.
An embossed brick pattern covers almost every inch, turning the distinctive yellow brickwork into the defining feature of the design. Even the scale of the bricks feels important. Go too large and this could easily have become a novelty shirt. Too small and the reference might have disappeared completely.
Instead, it’s surprisingly refined.
Then there’s that collar.
Crisp white against the yellow, it provides the sharp break the design needs and gives the whole shirt a more dressed-up appearance. Without it, would the exact same pattern feel considerably more like a training top?
That’s the thing with collars. They don’t necessarily make a design more complicated, but they can completely alter how we perceive it.
There’s also something inherently nostalgic about them. Look through decades of football shirt history and some of the game’s most memorable designs came complete with collars of various shapes and sizes. Modern performance wear gradually pushed football towards lighter and simpler necklines, but we’re seeing plenty of clubs and manufacturers continue to bring them back.
So are football kits simply better with a collar?
There will inevitably be people who think they’re outdated, uncomfortable or unnecessary.
We’re taking the other side.
If you’ve got a design with the character to carry one, give us the collar.
For Aalborg, it provides the finishing touch to a shirt already packed with meaning. As the Hornevej clubhouse itself is reimagined and rebuilt, a little piece of the old one gets preserved in the club’s latest collection.
Brick by brick.
Credit; @aabsportdk @macronfootball @macron @societas.club
#aalborg #clubhouse #history #footballkits #thekitsman
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