Catwalk Time: Ranking Reading’s 21st Century Home Kits (Part Two)
The second part of Alex’s two-stage rundown of the Royals’ best and worst home kits in the 21st century.
You’ve read the first installment of my two-parter ranking Reading home kits in the 21st century. Before you have a look at places 12-1, some quick reminders...
Please bear in mind that I’m not the second coming of Christian Dior, so this is all just an opinion piece done in the vein of humour by a man whose dress style could never knowingly have been called fashionable, and essentially boils down to a scratch-and-sniff policy through the piles of what is available to decide what to wear. Please feel to tell me how wrong I am in the comments section!
The range I’ve chosen includes any home kit that has been worn since the turn of the century, so the 1999-2001 effort will be included, but unfortunately some delightful ones before that will miss out. However, 2024/25’s effort can be found here.
Counting from the middle of the pack to the best, strike a pose and vogue for the second part...
12th: 2020/21
Designer: Macron
Sponsor: Casumo
This kit is actually better than I remembered – I think maybe I have an internal association with the start of The Bad Times™ which has scarred me a little. Nice shade of blue, all logos in the correct colours and locations and the stripes all doing what they should be doing. And it’s a really nice collar too.
The real curveball here is the solid blue sleeves – it actually sort of works because Macron have added a design into them, so they aren’t actually completely solid blue. Striped sleeves are always better but this is an honourable mention for the alternative.
However, the collar loses points. I think the neck goes a little too deep – if it stopped where the button was, it would have been much better. As well as this, the thick blue lines and red border of said lines just don’t quite work. However, overall, it’s a very decent effort.
11th: 2015/16
Designer: Puma
Sponsor: Carabao
We’re into the top 10 now! Just a very nice effort here really, with all the plus points that I usually mention with the colours, stripes and general design. The sleeves are a bit different, but I like what they’ve done here to be creative, and it frames the top of the shirt well while also complementing the collar. Nice work.
However, through no fault of its own, it has the Carabao logo on it and again, this does more harm than good for the overall design.
10th: 2022/23
Designer: Macron
Sponsor: Select Car Leasing
In fairness to Macron, they generally don’t do a bad kit, apart from one notable exception. This is a great example doing all the things right, and the use of the different coloured writing in different places is cleverly and correctly done.
However, it’s the sleeves that are the problem here. I’m going to tread carefully here because it was done to represent a great environment cause, but... it just doesn’t really work for the overall look of the design, does it? Unfortunate, really.
9th: 2023/24
Designer: Macron
Sponsor: Select Car Leasing
I have to admit that I didn’t like this shirt when it came out. The collar felt wrong, the stripes were too big and it just jarred in comparison to the previous year’s effort.
However, the more I’ve seen it, the more it’s grown on me. Perhaps it’s because I also fell more in love with the team during the course of the season.
It’s a nice touch to see the landmarks of Reading featured on the shirt. The big stripes work well with the picture designs embedded in there, the sponsor doesn’t get too cluttered and gets its colours all done correctly and the sleeves are spot on. The neckline for the collar is great, and the collar itself isn’t too big or messy. Nice job.
8th: 1999/2000-2000/01
Designer: Mizuno
Sponsor: Westcoast
The oldest shirt in the top 12, it’s just nice to see the Mizuno sponsor again and, of course, Westcoast. I’m not sure why they went for red letters, though. The badge in the middle is a bit mad, but they get away with it by keeping the whole design centred.
The collar is a little wide and sleeves a little baggy, but it just sort of works. It’s very ‘of its time’, so despite being a hypocrite and breaking a few of my own rules here for what constitutes a good design, it’s a good shirt.
7th: 2004/05
Designer: Puma
Sponsor: Westcoast
An excellent shirt. It kind of gets away with having black lettering for the sponsors because of the thick blue frame and all-blue sleeves.
There’s still no denying that stripes on the sleeves would have been the ticket to success here, but that’s really the only critique that I can give for this effort. An excellent debut from Puma, and it started a largely happy relationship with them for more than 10 years.
6th: 2018/19
Designer: Puma
Sponsor: Carabao
2004/05 is followed up by Puma’s final effort with us, 14 years later. That’s a long time for a shirt manufacturer to stick with a club really, isn’t it? And it is an excellent send-off from Puma which really does get almost everything right.
But... you know what I’m going to say, don’t you? The sponsor. It’s such a shame, the inordinately big logo really just detracts from the design.
Seriously – look at the size of it compared to all other sponsors, and it just looks like it’s gatecrashed a party. A shame really, because this is a really good example of an excellent collar.
5th: 2010/11
Designer: Puma
Sponsor: Waitrose
Very nice. Very nice indeed. Puma have gone in a different direction with the stripes and I like it very much. A rare success when it comes to trying to vary that design. It’s because of this that the Puma logo and Waitrose sponsor being black is totally made OK.
However, it’s really let down by the collar, which didn’t need to be a V-neck. They should have kept a rounded collar. The sleeves, well, you know how they should look now.
4th: 2024/25
Designer: Macron
Sponsor: Select Car Leasing
Well now! This was a very pleasant surprise, seeing a new kit unveiled out of nowhere for the final game of the 2023/24 season against Blackpool.
And what a design it is too. A really cracking shirt, and so was the goalkeeper kit for 2024/25. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of the all-blue sleeves but admittedly, in the long-sleeve version, I can imagine it would look pretty nice.
My first impressions here are that it leans very heavily on 2020/21’s design, with the sleeves and the red borders around the collar and sleeves. Macron have had to make the blue stripe where the sponsor is a bit bigger to accommodate the sponsor, but all is forgiven there as it isn’t too noticeable.
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the shape of the collar. It has grown on me the more I see it, and it seems not to be too deep on most of the players, instead being quite squared off at the bottom.
It was an amazing kit, and yet somehow not even the best of the collection that season – that red away kit really was one for the ages, our best-ever away kit effort, in my humble, Zoolander opinion.
3rd: 2003/04
Designer: Kit@
Sponsor: Westcoast
We’re into the big leagues now: here are the top three!
A beautiful effort here. I have only two faults to point out: Westcoast’s logo is too high up the shirt and the collar is kind of lost among all the blue. While it doesn’t need to be prominent, it needs to be… something.
However, it’s a solid farewell from the three-year relationship we had with Kit@ and one they can be most proud of. Both of their efforts were very good. I can only assume we moved away from them due to Puma being more financially lucrative.
2nd: 2006/07-2007/08
Designer: Puma
Sponsor: Kyocera
To be honest, aside from three or four efforts, there wasn’t much to choose from between a lot of these shirts. Generally, luckily, Reading don’t have too many bad kits.
However, there was a very, very clear top two here and choosing the winner from them was very tricky. I had to let the head rule the heart on this one, so despite this being the Premier League debut season shirt, it just misses out.
I love everything about this shirt, barring one small detail: the collar. The deep white collar is a bit weird. I’m not sure what Puma were thinking of here. However, we got to enjoy this absolute beauty of a shirt for two seasons, and I still regularly wear it to this day. It’s a beauty.
1st: 2021/22
Designer: Macron
Sponsor: Select Car Leasing
Ultimately, this was the clear winner. What. A Shirt. I honestly don’t know if we will ever see a nicer one in modern times again. It gets absolutely everything right, and even the golden touches to celebrate the 150-year club anniversary just work so, so well.
The only downside is that Macron made a mess of the distribution of this shirt, and it ran out of supply pretty quickly. A real shame because this is just a Royal triumph in shirt design.
And there it is – that’s 24 shirts ranked since the start of the 21st century.
How do you think they compare to your own personal best/worst? Are there any that you had forgotten about? Does anyone disagree with my winner? Have any shirts been given a foul treatment and a deserve better recognition? And what do you think about the new kit?
Let me know in the comments! Signing off – Louis Who?-tton.