I’m having a hard time coming to terms with this week’s horror. It’s about three shirts in one and there are probably at least ten things that set off the WTF? alarm. Shimizu S-Pulse make a return appearance this week, and boy did they earn it.
Four years into their existence and three years after the start of the J-League, Shimizu S-Pulse decided to let Mizuno throw everything against the wall that held a blank white shirt and this is what happened.
I…I can’t even caption this
It seems obvious to me that at least three different shirts were used to make each individual SS-P shirt in ’95. The main body, of course, is the white with thin blue hoops. Unfortunately, Mizuno only had those in half-shirts left over from the ’80s, so they added on the blue and gold stripes mimicking an Aberdeen kit to the bottom. Finally, someone decided that this combination hued a little too closely to the middle of the road, so they added some sleeves from, I’m guessing by the three blue stripes on each shoulder, an adidas shirt.
And then there is the graphic. The text is easily identifiable as the font Shimizu has used since inception, but what is with the box/oval overlay? And why does it all have to be in yellow, orange, red and blue? The orange and blue that the club use are horrible enough. There was no need to hurt people’s brains further by adding in the yellow and red. A**holes.
At least it cost the team on the pitch. Fresh off a fourth placed finish in 1994, S-Pulse fell apart. In the first half of the season, SS-P finished 10th out of 12 teams. Once they got used to the shirts, however, the team did better placing 4th in the second half of the season. 1995 was a great year for attendance for SS-P, so the fans must have liked it. In fact, that year set a record that still stands for the club. And, get this, they did so maintaining crowds through a ridiculous 52 match season during an 8 month time frame. Crazy.
Not as crazy as whoever came up with this shirt idea, though. Just about as crazy as whoever decided this guy was a good mascot for the club instead.
Wings for ears? You’d better have the good drugs.
My face melted a la Raiders of the Lost Ark upon seeing that piece. I have seeing eye dog typing this for me right now.
Whoever designed that shirt was CLEARLY on some sort of acid trip. There really is no other explanation for it. None.
It looks like they took half a Scottish kit, half a QPR kit, sewed them together and added shoulder stripes from the Indianapolis Colts…frankenkit indeed…
My eyes!