Review: Puma Tottenham Home Jersey 11/12
By Zach Jepson
The new Tottenham home jersey by Puma looks very plain upon first sight. The shirt is solid lilywhite throughout with only a few navy details. Three embroidered Puma cats-one on each sleeve, and one over the left chest and the embroidered team crest over the heart. There is also the new “Aurasma” sponsor dead center in middle of the kit. The jersey also has a white collar and the back and sides are made of a mesh that allows air to pass through easily. That’s all the basic aspects included on the shirt, now time for my opinion…
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The new Tottenham kit is great. It’s plain but it’s truly a thing of beauty. Sometimes less is more, you know? As a Spurs fan, it is a pleasure seeing Bale, Van deer Vaart, Dawson and the rest of the lilywhite’s wearing this on the pitch each week. The only problem is that this shirt won’t be making an appearance in the Champions League this year, but alas, you’ve got to have goals and I hope our Spurs will be back next year!
The shirt features a slight stretch and Puma has finally nailed their sizing down to how it should be. For years Puma was unpredictable with their sizing…the 07/08 kit was wide and short, 08/09 fit true to size, 09/10 fit really short and wide, 10/11 was long and wide. The sizing is now finally perfect. I would say it’s similar to Adidas sizing rather than Nike but it’s true to chest size a 42/44 is a large, etc. Personally, sizing is very important to me, if a shirt fits really short or wide, I likely won’t wear it, so why buy it? It’s a shame that Puma finally made a great shirt…when it’s their last year being the Tottenham manufacturer.
As far as things that detract from the jersey…there’s really nothing. The only nitpicking would be with the new “Aurasma” sponsor but that’s just because I think the logo is not as visually appealing as the Autonomy logo from last season. Also, Autonomy dropped the ball because they couldn’t decide on what they wanted to the jersey which is why the release date was pushed back until late September. It always seems Spurs have trouble with the sponsor and their jerseys are always released late because of that.
So with the amount of items released by a team by their kit manufacturer, how would I spend my limited dollars? I think that the kits are the most important thing but there are several points that either make or break a purchase from me. The sizing is important was I said earlier, but the team crest NEEDS to be embroidered. Lately, it seems that a Nike and Adidas are deciding to not embroider all the team crests anymore and personally, that’s just being cheap. They justify it by saying it makes the jersey lighter but I think it’s a lot cheaper to screen a logo rather than having it stitched on. For example the new Arsenal and Real Madrid shirts feature screened logos similar to the sponsors…it looks cheap and I think it makes it look like a knock off shirt from eBay. Luckily Puma hasn’t done that with any of their kits yet. I think that when companies are making kits, t-shirts, pants, training gear, jackets, fleeces and other items…for me kits come first, and training gear second. I rarely purchase other items because there are just too many. It’s nice having variety but when each item is $50-75; you have to pick and choose.
Overall, I’d say the new Tottenham kit is nearly flawless. If you’re a fan, it’s a definite buy, especially with not knowing how Under Armour will handle their range next year. You also can’t go wrong getting it customized with your favorite player from MMSports because they are one of only a handful of shops to offer authentic Lextra player names and numbers as well as authentic on field size badges. Any questions ask, but I think it’s a must buy.