Botev Plovdiv sounds so beautiful
More Bulgaria. You’d think I’d be sick of it by now, but I’m not. Well, I wasn’t until I found this week’s shirt. It may just be the cure for what ails me (and no, “more cowbell” will never work). It’s just so wrong that I don’t know that I can ever look at a Bulgarian soccer story with an unjaundiced eye again.
This week’s offender comes from Botev Plovdiv. Initially named after Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev, this club went through a number of name changes over the years, finally returning to the Botev name in 1989. Fun fact: the club has not won a national trophy since returning to its original name. Not that they were the most prolific club in gathering trophies before, but the 20 year break is the longest for the club since a 24 year drought ended in 1967. The club is now owned by Italian Francesco Salerno, while both the chairman and manager are Italian as well. But that’s all where the club is now. Let’s look at what they wore in 1995.
I’ll just be upfront and say it. Puma makes the worst kits of the major manufacturers. Sure, you might be able to find a High Five shirt that looks pretty ugly (like this one), but they are not outfitting some major teams out there. Puma are, and they consistently do a poor job of doing so.
Take this shirt, for example. I get that the 4 half-boomerang looking things within the chevron around the neck are the universally recognized visual shorthand for Puma. But do they need to be there? The shoehorns look quite spiffy on actual shoes, but on this shirt it just looks misguided. Also misguided: using the same symbol outline 482 times (at least) on the rest of the shirt.
That’s not the end of it, though. There is the chevron itself. No other Botev shirt I have seen had a chevron. Why put one on here if you’re only going to be putting Puma advertising on it? Then there’s the color of the shirt itself. Simply put, the yellow of the badge does not match the yellow of the shirt. It just looks poorly conceived.
In short, this shirt looks like a load of uncolored rainbows printed on goldenrod paper. There is something almost hypnotic about it, however. Unfortunately, it’s not hypnotizing me to forget that I’m looking at it, but instead I am being programmed not to write about Bulgaria again.
Suits me.
Would be doable without the chevron. That is so rarely a good look.
Whoever designed that High Five shirt obviously does not know their organic chemistry.
can anybody see the boat in the magic picture?
i think my high school team had those high five shirts in royal blue the year before i was there.
Just as I looked at that shirt, my wife turned ont he microwave. I fell down, spun in a circle and pissed myself.
@tfa — I don’t see a boat, I see a schooner