Agreed. They are crap. All of the planning that went into branding and identity and the jerseys seem like an afterthought. James
Between the generic LAFC name and the generic black home shirts and white alternates, I think I've identified the inspiration for LAFC's branding strategy:
From MLS website re:Montreal: As early as 2019, the club will kick-start its second quarter-century with a new primary jersey, to be followed with two other new jerseys for the two next seasons. Sooo...what a weird way to say “we’ll be back to being like everyone else again next year.”
This is off topic a bit, but this guy designed all new sets of uniforms for all the MLS teams for 2018. Some are good, some just meh, but still a ton of quality work. https://williamgeddes1.myportfolio.com/major-league-soccer
I don't get the Black & Gold for Chicago, but the city flag kit is tight. Love the KC third & green Rapids kit. Almost a dream combination for Dallas, Minnesota, RBNY, New England, Toronto, & NYC.
Must be; a lot of the 3rd shirts are throw backs to previous teams/incarnations (metrostars for redbull etc)
I didn't see too many explicit references to previous NASL teams that aren't in MLS now - even for direct decendants like San Jose, the red was used recently enough in MLS that it might just be referencing that. I feel like it would've been more yellow if it was a Sting reference - as presented, it just reminds me of the actual Chicago Fire Department: It's something I wouldn't mind seeing the Fire do with a secondary or tertiary kit, although I recall there being some Fire fans that don't want to use those colors (despite their obvious connection to the city/team) because of the colors' relation to Columbus (to which I say- pfffttt - the connection is there and there can be some good looks built from it that don't ape Cbus).
The only one is don't like is RSL. The black and yellow Fire kit is nice it would be cool if the name on the back is at the bottom like the FD jackets
Sports Illustrated's look/review of all the 2018 MLS Uniforms. https://www.si.com/soccer/photo/2018/02/26/mls-kit-critique-2018-uniforms-jerseys
I normally love this summary just for the look and feel of it, but this year, I feel the criticism is spot on, too. The part about 'recolored/uncolored club crests are dumb' is spot on - while it might work in some contexts, one of the cool things about having a secondary in non-traditional team colors (which isn't happening much/at all this year anyway) is seeing the club crest 'pop' against them. Having the crest recolored to match what little color there is in a lot of this year's secondaries makes them even blander. While I'm glad some teams eschewed mono-white for gray and black, as a whole too many did, and they also went mono, often with recolored logos, making this year's batch of kits one of the most boring I can recall.
In last year's kit tracking thread it was often tricky to decide what color to call some of the jerseys. That would not be a problem this year for almost all the teams. I'm also going to give up on defending MLS kits. They are now, in fact, almost completely monochrome and white shirts have taken over.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-lafc-branding-20180224-story.html Getting down to the fiber of LAFC's branding fabric
I'm disappointed that RSL kept the red shorts, and all the monochrome white and monochrome black is a little annoying. LAFC debut in a year where half the league adopt a black jersey. WTF. And everyone points out all the intricate details on all the jerseys, yet overlook LAFC jersey detailing,saying it's somehow bland.
I'm sure it's about branding for YouTube. They use a golden play button to signify something, I'm sure they didn't want it to be confusing.
It's really hard to see in this picture, but there is a really cool texture design on it. Very Art Deco, very LA. There is some kind of texture design on the white as well, but I don't get what it's supposed to be.
It is the same pattern as the one on the 1988-1990 jerseys for the U.S., and similar to the pattern used by Germany, Netherlands, and USSR:
you can see a bit of the pattern on the crest shot. It's engineered fabric instead of the prints like the old styles Papin shows.
Check out all the new 2018 MLS jerseys, with opinions from the players who'll wear them: https://t.co/1PZZAhsTp3 #Dress4MLS pic.twitter.com/BDB56TTlWW— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 3, 2018
The Uni-Watch gang did another review of this year's batch of updates, and their opinion seems in line with that of anyone else with a set of functioning eyes (too much white, too much black/gray for clubs that didn't go white, too much monochrome overall): https://uni-watch.com/2018/03/03/another-2018-mls-kit-preview/ Here's hoping next year provides something a little more exciting.
2018 MLS Kit Branding Reimagined http://blog.whereisfootball.com/post/171460179127/2018-mls-kit-branding-reimagined-the-2018-major Sampling here -
The Waffle House colors really break up the monotony of the Atlanta kit and make it a little more bearable than it was. If I knew how to do photoshop, I'd go back to MLS 1.0 and try to see what the old back-of-the-shirt and sleeve sponsors would've looked like as front shirt sponsors, so I'm all for these kits, even if some of them aren't as well-executed as others.