The Portuguese team FC Porto released a unique away shirt in the 2015/2016 season. You either love or hate it. It’s not the type of football shirt we get to see often, because it uses the color brown. The use of this color is not very common, and that’s probably why many (football) shirt fans don’t like this shirt. Read more about the FC Porto 2015/2016 away shirt in this post.
Design
General
I’m probably not going to surprise you if I say that the brown color of this Porto shirt really stands out. The use of both light brown and dark brown make this shirt look unique and uncommon. The two types of brown complement each other in the horizontal stripes all over the jersey. The dark brown part is a bit bigger on the place where the sponsor normally is supposed to be, and continues on both sleeves, as well as around the collar area. The upper part only contains one light brown stripe, meanwhile the lower part contains six of them. The light blue color used on the sleeve cuffs gives this shirt a refreshing vibe. The stripe at the height of the logos uses the same type of blue.
This brown away shirt of Os Dragões was manufactures by New Balance, which is not as typical as Nike or Adidas for example. The New Balance Logo is white and falls perfectly into the blue stripe. The FC Porto team crest uses the original club colors. Usually, away kits are more likely to use monochrome badges, but New Balance decided to stay to the club’s identity when it comes to the logo. Would a monochrome team crest have looked better on this shirt? I’m curious to hear your opinions!
Name set
This FC Porto 2015/2016 away shirt got the official name of Portuguese striker André Silva on the back. He played for FC Porto from 2015 to 2017, where he made his debut as well. He plays with number 9 nowadays, but he wore number 19 at the beginning of his career. The name set on this shirt has a Liga NOS design. All the Portuguese Liga NOS teams, like Benfica, Sporting CP and SC Braga use this same template. The number 19 has a pattern in it, consisting of a design with light gray parts in it. Furthermore, at the bottom of both the 1 and 9, we got the Liga NOS logo.
As you can see, we got one big sponsor on the back of the shirt. Super Bock is a Portuguese beer brand, located in Porto. It’s one of the most popular beer brands in Portugal, and they even sponsor the football club Sporting CP. Sporting Lisboa got the Super Bock sponsor at the exact same position as on this brown FC Porto away shirt. Also, we got another small detail, which is a reference to the club just under the collar.
Patch
This FC Porto contains the Liga NOS patch. The Liga NOS, also known as Primeira Liga is the highest professional football division in Portugal. NOS is a Portuguese internet and media company that sponsors the Primeira Liga, that’s why this football league is also known as Liga NOS. We can find the Liga NOS patch on the right sleeve of this shirt. The patch has a black color with white lettering and details, which give the shirt an extra finishing touch. The patch uses plastic material, just like the modern Premier League and La Liga patches. This means that the patch is very thin as well.
My opinion
The FC Porto 2015/2016 away shirt is either a hit or a miss. On one hand, any football shirt collectors find this shirt dreadful because of its brown color. A football kit shouldn’t be brown in their opinion. This might have to do with the fact that brown is not a common color in the world of football. That’s why it’s maybe a bit weird to see such a brown kit with light blue details. On the other hand, I can really appreciate this quirky kit as a football shirt collector.
This shirt is definitely unique because of its unusual color combination. The more unique a shirt, the likelier I am to appreciate it. This shirt is definitely a hit for me. The light blue details on it give the shirt a refreshing look, which compensates for the all brown design, for sure. The André Silva printing on the back in Liga NOS style looks clean enough, too. The details in both of the numbers give the shirt an extra dimension. The Liga NOS patch on the right sleeve makes the shirt even more complete. This shirt was voted one of the worst shirts of the 2015/2016 season, but for me, it was one of the best shirts of that season. My rating: 8,3/10.
Final considerations
I have got to say that the design of this away shirt is somehow very weird. Football fans aren’t used to brown shirts, let alone FC Porto fans, who wear blue shirts in general. This shirt might have been criticized because it doesn’t respect the traditional FC Porto colors (blue and white). On the contrary, Away and third kits are usually known for their weird designs and colors. The FC Porto 2015/2016 away shirt is a very nice experiment in my opinion. New Balance just tried something new, but they kept in mind the traditional colors of the club at the same time (light blue details). We shouldn’t always stick with traditional designs; just try something new! I’m sure not many people will forget about this Porto shirt; it has become infamous.
Find your FC Porto shirt
You might want to add an FC Porto shirt to your collection because you are a fan, or because you like their shirts in general. I highly recommend checking out Classic Football Shirt’s amazing collection if that’s the case!
Leave a Reply