Wavin' Flag

Colorado dropped their new shirt today, the One Flag kit.  A classic burgundy look with sky blue highlights and a checkerboard pattern that waves its way across the jersey.  The pattern is a tribute to supporters flags waved at the Dick, like the burgundy and blue ones given out for the Thanksgiving Day playoff match.  It also reminds me of K'naan's song Wavin' Flag.  If you watched the 2010 World Cup you heard it during any Coke ad.

This is a solid looking shirt that's probably at least more interesting than our last few home kits.  That said, its just a slightly different take on our classic home kit.  That's fine.  The Rapids want to be a club that has a standard look at home and then does different things with its road kits.  Much like Blackburn Rovers, who are always blue and white halves and the only question is what accent color are they going to use and are they going to go back to the earlier lighter blue or stick with the more modern darker blue in any given year.

Along with the jersey drop the Rapids also announced that this kit celebrates the connection between the club and the fans, and they backed that up by partnering with the Colorado Soccer Foundation to sponsor soccer-specific after school programming in the Adams 14 school district (which includes the schools near Dick's Sporting Goods Park).  Over the next two summers the Rapids will also be sponsoring pick-up games at the Dick and Soccer City Aurora.

The New Day kit will continue for another year as our road kit.

The big negative about these kits are something the Rapids don't control, and that's the price.  $195 for an authentic player name/number kit, $160 for a plain authentic, $100 for a replica.  And the replicas are noticeably different from the real thing, missing trip, patches, and the star above the badge.  Adidas sets these prices for the league and they're ridiculous.  I could order 2-3 kits from team sin Europe with shipping for that price.  More if I went the mystery box route.  I won't be buying a new kit this year for many reasons, but the top one is price.  Instead I'll expend my collection of kits buy adding other teams.

I know for preseason its been fairly quiet around here, but there hasn't been much to talk about.  Recapping game scores of closed-door scrimmages doesn't really add much.  But that changes now that we're entering game week.  I'll have a comment on how the organization has done this offseason in response to the fan protest at the end of last year, the normal season preview and predictions, and a game preview next Friday.