It’s probably fair to say that we, football fans, associate the Basque team Real Sociedad with the colors blue and white. The Real Sociedad 2020/2021 home shirt perfectly respects the tradition of the team’s colors. In one of my previous posts, I wrote something about their unique and colorful 2021/2022 away shirt. In this post, we are going to take a look at the classic Real Sociedad 2020/2021 home shirt.
General design
As I mentioned in the introduction of this post, the Real Sociedad 2020/2021 home shirt sticks to the classic colors white and blue. The typical stripes in these two colors create a solid and clean design that perfectly fits the image of La Real. If we zoom in a bit, we can see that there’s another light blue stripe between the thicker dark blue and white stripes on this jersey. This extra stripe gives the shirt some more detail when it comes to the general design.
This shirt was manufactured by Macron. The Macron logo on this shirt is white and embroidered and falls into one of the dark blue stripes. This makes the white logo stand out. The Real Sociedad on the left side of the shirt uses its traditional colors and is embroidered as well.
The collar on this shirt uses the same smooth design combining two white lines with one blue line in the middle. The sleeve cuffs on the shirt use the exact same design. These two similarities give the shirt a clean and minimalistic look.
The sponsor on this shirt looks bold, because it’s a quite big patch that has been applied onto the shirt. The color of the IQONIQ sponsor is blue and white as well. The white color of this sponsor is different from the white color of the stripes on the shirt. In this sense, the sponsor kind of interrupts the striped pattern of this jersey. This isn’t necessarily bad, because it makes the shirt look less plain.
Patches
Real Sociedad played in the Europa League during the 2020/2021 season. La Real was part of Group F along with Napoli, AZ and HNK Rijeka. The Blue and Whites finished 2nd, which gave them the opportunity to try to get past Manchester United in the round of 16 which they didn’t. Manchester United ended up beating Real Sociedad with a four-goal difference.
This shirt has the Europa league badge on the right shoulder, and on the left shoulder we can find the Respect patch. The 2020/2021 season was the last season these badges were used for shirts. The Europa League badges look different nowadays, which makes this shirt more special in my opinion.
Name set
The Real Sociedad 2020/2021 uses the typical La Liga font of that season. The main characteristic of this name set are the bold numbers that stand out for sure. This might have to do with the fact that the numbers are quite big and the lines next to the left side of them. These lines create so-called depth effect, which is common for name sets. The name has the same effect in order to match the numbers. Both numbers have got the small Real Sociedad logo in it at the bottom. This is a very common characteristic for name sets as well.
This classic home shirt has the official name and number of Mikel Oyarzabal on it. He is becoming a true Real Sociedad legend because Oyarzabal has been part of the squad since the 2015/2016 season. Oyarzabal made his debut in October 2015 and has scored 78 goals in 275 matches for La Real. He usually plays as a winger and he is also part of the Spanish national team.
Final thoughts
Usually, when a manufacturer respects a team’s traditional color and template, they can’t go wrong. The Real Sociedad 2020/2021 home shirt is a good example of this. Macron used the classic blue and white colors in a striped-design, which we are used to when it comes to Real Sociedad shirts. Nevertheless, we can’t take traditional designs for granted anymore. Some manufacturers like Nike just try something new every now and then. This is definitely not something bad, but as a passionate fan of football shirts, I really appreciate a shirt like we saw in this post.
The Real Sociedad 2020/2021 is maybe not the most special shirt you have ever seen, but some details really make it look good. For example, the Basque flag under the collar on the back of the shirt definitely stands out in a positive way. The same goes for the Real Sociedad team crest. Macron did a good job by respecting the traditional design of Real Sociedad. The shirt is simple but has quite some nice details I definitely appreciate.
My opinion
The Real Sociedad 2020/2021 home shirt is a clean kit because it’s classic. The blue and white stripes are an important part of the club’s identity, and Macron took this into account. The old Europa League patches on this shirt look brilliant as well. The 2020/2021 season was the last time these patches were used. The name set on the back of the shirt looks very decent too. The absence of the ”Kutxabank” sponsor on the back shows that this shirt is used for Europa League fixtures. Real Sociedad plays with an extra sponsor on the back in the La Liga, but this is not allowed in the Europa League.
In addition, Real Sociedad shirts are quite hard to find in the online football kit market. This shirt is an absolute gem if you consider that almost every football shirt collector appreciates Real Sociedad jerseys. The club is known for its young talents and their fanatic fan base. Basque Country on itself is quite unique too, because of its own culture and the language. Considering the beauty of this shirt and the club, I’m going to give this kit an 8/10.