Tribute to Tatsu pretty in pink and yellow makes a comeback- Coventry City Kits concept

Season tickets are selling like hot cakes and all Coventry City fans want now are a few choice signings and a brand new kit to feast their eyes and splash out their hard-earned cash on.

The Sky Blues have come up with some cracking kits in recent years along with the hugely popular Hummel manufacturer. The home strip is always a winner, with the 2022/23 tramline design and nod to the iconic 1970s Admiral kit a particular hit in recent years. The club also routinely produce some eye-catching away designs and an alternative third kit, which has seen the return of the colour purple as well and the more traditional green and black over the last couple of campaigns.

Some are instant hits while others are slow burners, but fans young and more mature just love getting their hands on their replica shirts and getting them on their backs for the season ahead. This year’s official designs were drawn up, signed off and sent to the suppliers months ago, and now we’re all waiting for the big reveal in the next couple of months, and certainly before pre-season gets underway on July 1.

Here we take a look at Sky Blues’ fan and designer Ben Darlow’s concept kit offerings to whet your appetite.

“I’m a bit of a football kit collector, and ever since I was a kid I’ve fantasised about designing the kit the Sky Blues would play in,” he said.

“Whilst that will probably never happen, that hasn’t stopped me putting a few ideas together for kits I’d love to see the club wear. We’ve seen Hummel explore a number of kits in recent years which pay quite direct tribute to famous shirts from Coventry City’s history, so I’ve tried to tread the line between paying homage and trying something new and different.”

“I’m a big fan of the 92-94 Ribero home kit with its randomly splashed shades of blue, so I wanted to try and pay homage to the abstract nature of that kit, without directly following the same style. I’ve used Hummel’s chevrons as a framework for various different shades of sky blue in gradients across each shape, randomly scattered across the fabric.”

“The concentric rings in the background pattern here are a traditional Japanese motif called Seigaiha, so this is in part a tribute to our Japanese superstar, Tatsu Sakamoto. For this design I’ve used a couple of different shades of pinkish-orange, which may or may not be the colour of a certain flashy debit card you may have seen around…”

“One of two different treatments for a ‘blackout’ kit; this is the fully-black version. The vertical stripes are formed using the audio waveform for We’ll Live And Die In These Towns. I’ve placed some pink and blue lights on it to help show off the details, but in reality everything would be black!”