Here in Los Angeles, the process of painting out a motor car in matte black paint, is known as ‘murdering out’.
You wouldn’t get away with it in London, but it looks pretty special. Beckham had a ‘murdered out’ Porsche for sale on eBay recently. Anyway, Nike have got the bug. Check THIS out….


100% not approved by FIFA for play, this little beauty is on sale, here. And I can’t type in my credit card details fast enough.

Now you can bid on this shirt on eBay!

Really?

Surely we learned our lesson with bizarre American apparel companies with no real soccer heritage (dare we mention it, Pony?) But now it seems we’re resigned to wearing shambolic, ‘technically futuristic’ but horrendous-on-the-eyes shirts. Could this, (hastily made) mock up of a Spurs Under Armour shirt be a reality in 2012?

I posted my unhappiness on Twitter, suggesting that Umbro, or even Adidas would be a better fit. “For 50 million they can run out in primark kit as far as I’m concerned,” wrote back @miltspur. And he has a point.
What do you think?

EDIT

A much better rendering of a potential Spurs/Under Armour shirt, by @ebbp

But what do you think of this abomination of a soccer strip? To me it looks like something you find on the rails of TK Maxx, among Polo Ralph Lauren polo shirts from 1998. Which was, incidentally, the last time the French team were any serious threat.

“The Alf Ramsey”. It’s the iconic jacket worn by the World Cup winning tactician, will forever be ingrained in the hearts of anyone who has ever worn the Three Lions on the terraces. Now, Umbro are bringing it back, in three new colours. Because Umbro are clever…they know how to stitch us into fabrics and looks that resonate into England’s (now distant) glorious past.

If you think about it, not many pre-1970s footballers had a ‘look’, or a trademark. You know, like Cantona’s collar or Steve McLaren’s brolly, or Jose Mourinho’s grey coat (“That coat’s from Matalan!”). Sir Alf was a legend a trendsetter from before trendsetters existed.

Here are the new versions available now.

The Wooster- a dapper little number.

The Blue Monday: Neon.

Back In Black: My favourite.

You can read all about it on the Umbro blog.

Each player had a limited edition run of match shirts, specifically made in black and gold boxes. So if you’ve played in 20 of these games, journalists and rappers get given 20 of your shirt. The player above only had two shirts made, so I had to shoplift the above. Only kidding.

Oh sorry, I took the subway there. Here are some photos. I thought the subway in LA was a rumour.

Anyway, back to the player-related freebies. Basketball players have huge feet. These are a pair of shoes worn by a massive basketball player. Size 18. I had a pair of these away too, thanks to the lovely folk at Adidas, who shared my obsessive love for all things player-edition.

Player sized shoes above (left), compared with the limited edition human-sized ones (right)

Below is the coolest thing. A custom made dressing gown, which Adidas told me was ‘dressing room only’, which makes it seriously rare. I didn’t walk off with one of these. It was sewn onto the dummy.

These yellow shoes are available to the public. They were worn this weekend by a player who dunked a ball from behind the line, which is equivalent of leaving the ground in Croydon and slam-dunking in Bromley.
See the video here.

Another huge pair of shoes. But back to the Adidas-Snoop Dogg joint effort, which consists of two shoe styles. One is a limited-edition version of the Adidas Adipure in regal purple patent leather with gold accents and three silver stripes — with one of the stripes bearing Snoop’s signature. Full details on the $100 shoe can be found at Adidas’ brilliant site. Plug: Done.

And by using a nifty macro lens, I’ve manage to capture the secret ‘game shirt’ logo on the star, that authenicates the shirt as being one of Wayne’s specially prepared match shirts.

And here are all the other details. Fascinating?

I wrote before on here about my love for the candy-striped shirt of the Chivas team. Now I found this Facebook page, owned by Mr Soy Chiva who owns what must be arguably the best Chivas collection in the world. Look, Sunderland; take note Sheffield United. This is barbershop stripe done ‘all proper.’

Earlier this week, 44-year-old kung-foo master Eric Cantona was confirmed as director of soccer at the New York Cosmos, who are attempting to recreate the magic at the club that was once home to Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, during the now-defunct North American Soccer League.

So with that in mind, I thought you’d enjoy looking at a quite majestic Beckenbauer Cosmos shirt from the 1980s. It’s from the quite brilliant ‘Weedo’s England Gear’ website, a chap that owns an eclectic, yet impressive haul of kits.

Enjoy.