The recent
unveiling of our new kit reminded me of two polls I saw online last November. The voting took place over at the English language
World Soccer News Japanese football forum, with the goal simple enough; to find the best ever J. League shirt, and the the worst ever J. League shirt.
So who should walk off with both honours? None other than our very own S-Pulse! Yep, we won both the best and the worst shirt award. So let's have a look at the competition we beat off to claim these crowns.
All images are from the excellent
Rising Sun website which put the time and effort in to find them, upload them, and to run the polls.
The Best Ever J. League Shirt
There have been some classic shirts over the J. League's short history. The full poll for best ever kit, and competing shirts can be found
here. Here I present my pick of the candidates:
Nagoya Grampus Eight (2002) - Complete with go-faster stripes
Cerezo Osaka (1995) - Respect is due simply for having a bright pink kit
Urawa Red Diamonds (1993) - Shiny!
Kawasaki Frontale (2008) - This came in second, but lost out to the below
The Best Ever J. League Shirt Award Goes to...
S-Pulse (2002-03) - How I'd love to see a return to the days of world maps!
Lovely effort from S-Pulse, and it took 22.5% of the total vote. If only I'd been in the country a year earlier I could have had one of these for my own!
The Worst Ever J. League Shirt
Well, now let's have a look at the J. League shirt hall of shame. There are some real works of art in the full poll which you can
look at here. Again, here's my pick of the action!
Jubilo Iwata (1995) - Vile
Bellmare Hiratsuka (1994-96) - My eyes! My eyes!
Sanfrecce Hiroshima (1997) - Hiroshima go all Scottish to honour the arrival of
Eddie Thomson as manager
Verdy Kawasaki (1993-94) - This actually makes me feel a little bit sick
The Worst Ever J. League Shirt Award Goes to...
S-Pulse (1993) - Words actually fail me :-D
Gloriously terrible! With a whopping 40.7% of the total vote, our 1993 away shirt trounced all opposition. What the designers were thinking (or what they were on) when they dreamt up this little beauty, I'd dearly love to know. If anyone has one they want to sell, do get in touch - I want one!
There have been complaints from some of our fanbase that 2009's kit is too simple, too basic,
lacking individualism. Well, for a group of supporters who have grown up with the above shirts, I can, to a certain degree, see their point.
The trend towards simplism is fine, but here's hoping that five or six years down the line we see a return to the garish and outlandish shirts of the mid nineties.
In the meantime, hold your heads up high S-Pulse fans, and wear your 90's shirts with even greater pride than usual - they're award winning!
Barry writes:
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
Not so much
Thousands turned out
Mr Hayagawa and half the team
The other half
This year's shirt
Gorgeous!
Ono
Nishibe, Edamura and some English fella
Nagoya Grampus Eight (2002) - Complete with go-faster stripes
Cerezo Osaka (1995) - Respect is due simply for having a bright pink kit
Urawa Red Diamonds (1993) - Shiny!
Kawasaki Frontale (2008) - This came in second, but lost out to the below
S-Pulse (2002-03) - How I'd love to see a return to the days of world maps!
Jubilo Iwata (1995) - Vile
Bellmare Hiratsuka (1994-96) - My eyes! My eyes!
Sanfrecce Hiroshima (1997) - Hiroshima go all Scottish to honour the arrival of Eddie Thomson as manager
Verdy Kawasaki (1993-94) - This actually makes me feel a little bit sick
S-Pulse (1993) - Words actually fail me :-D
lacking individualism. Well, for a group of supporters who have grown up with the above shirts, I can, to a certain degree, see their point.
The design of all three kits (away, home, keeper's) from the posterior:
Every time I see a new kit, I always ask myself if I can picture our heroes lifting a trophy while clad in their snazzy new threads. The answer this year, as always, is yes, yes I can.
Well, why fix what ain't broke? :)
