Off-season Speculation: 2015 Kits

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It’s already been a busy off-season for USL PRO announcing expansion team after expansion team (which we’ll talk about more another time). Sadly for the Riverhounds it’s been as quiet as a morgue. By all accounts they can’t actually do anything until the bankruptcy stuff is settled. Last I heard that will be on November 3rd so hopefully one way or the other some information should start to trickle out soon. At any rate a recent pair of posts gives us the opportunity to do some good old speculating for next year since we don’t have anything else to talk about.

2015 Kits

There was a rumor over the summer that during this off-season the Riverhounds would go through a re-brand to bring themselves more inline with the rest of Pittsburgh sports. Basically officially make their colors black and gold among other things. Kutney has mentioned the black and gold thing a few times in interviews and ever since moving into Highmark Stadium those are the kit colors they’ve predominately worn. Also we’ve hit the end of the two year kit cycle that soccer teams tend to be on.

Over the weekend Kutney tweeted the following photo-

And a close up on the Hounds main account on Sunday-
https://twitter.com/PghRiverhounds/status/526533846666592256

Normally we’re kind of whatever about RDA stuff, but the new kit got our attention. Traditionally the RDA has worn the same style kits at the first team. Partly (I imagine) so they feel connected to the team. Partly because I bet the Riverhounds get a bulk discount if everything is the same style.

If this is an indication of the kit style for 2015 then they’re essentially taking the style they’ve used for their third kit a few times and making it the primary. Which hey stick with what works. I know some of our membership were big fans of the 2011 kit.

riverhounds_third_kit

That said with Sacramento, Oklahoma City, and undoubtedly Timbers 2 and Sounders 2 elevating USL Kit styles, personally I was hoping for something a little more exciting. In the end as long as we don’t see other teams in the league using the same template but with different colors like we did last year- I’ll take it. As with all speculation over minor things, we’ll find out eventually.

The other interesting part is Allegheny Health Network being the kit sponsor. The RDA kit sponsor isn’t always the same as the first team (it was Phillips last year), but this might be an indication of a large sponsorship deal secured by the Riverhounds. #1 Cochran’s deal expired at the end of last season, and while the bankruptcy paperwork said they expected to be able to retain it, it’s possible they got a better deal with AGH. Either way it’s nice to get a local company on the shirts, and I find it humorous that they continue to get every healthcare provider over than UPMC as sponsors.

For what it’s worth they had another photo shoot last week with the younger academy kids and they were still wearing the kits from last year.

#UNLEASH

ISAVesty

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