kits out! (part 1 of 3)

July 3, 2014July 3, 20141 Comment

WORLD CUP 2014 FOOTBALL KITS

As you may be acutely aware I rather like football shirts. Way more than I even like fire hydrants, which is saying something, I know, but it’s true. Every season I eagerly await news of any new kit release, clicking on links to reports of what Partick Thistle’s away shirt might look like, nodding appreciatively when teams like Nantes announce a new deal with Umbro, or shaking my head at the width of stripes on a new Milan jersey. The World Cup therefore is as much about the kits as it is about the players – I know more about the kits, for one thing (whereas I barely recognised half the England team, though that guy up front with the big mop of hair looked familiar, Dwayne Rodney I think he was called). So here is a helpfully-unillustrated run-down of the kits of each team at this year’s World Cup. Non-kit-enthusiasts, look away now (my next post will be a nice urban sketch I promise).

Before I start, here are some kit stats:

BRAND WITH MOST TEAMS (GROUP STAGE): Nike (10). Followed by Adidas (9), Puma (8) and Burrda, Joma, Lotto, Marathon, and Uhlsport (1 each) – no Umbro this year!
BRAND WITH MOST TEAMS (ROUND OF 16): Nike / Adidas (5 each), followed by Puma (4), Burrda and Lotto (1 each)
BRAND WITH MOST TEAMS (QUARTER-FINALS): Nike / Adidas (3 each), followed by Burrda and Lotto (1 each). Bad luck Puma!
MOST PREDOMINANT HOME SHIRT COLOUR: White (9)*, then Red (8)*, Blue (5)*, Yellow (4), Green (3), Orange (2). *Croatia are red/white, so I didn’t include but are arguably predominantly red; Argentina have blue stripes but are definitely more white this year.
MOST PREDOMINANT CHANGE SHIRT COLOUR (WHETHER WORN OR NOT): White (14), followed by Blue (8) and Red (6)
COUNTRY WITH MOST KITS: Spain (3), and they wore all of them. Brazil have a third too but will not wear the black one.
COUNTRIES WITH ALL-ONE-COLOUR HOME KITS (official, not the matchday FIFA-enforced variants): 17 (out of 32). 9 are all-white.

And now for my thoughts on the countries. I’m going to give this to you in three parts. It will be alphabetical. And all of the kit illustrations are mine, created in old-school MS Paint…

PART ONE:

ALGERIA : (Puma) Les Fennecs (Desert Foxes) have been one of the popular teams in this tournament, and I like their kits. Simple design but with a nice shade of green trim, which from the TV viewers point of view makes them blend in with the pitch. Puma kits tend to be more form-fitting these days so muscular physiques show up more. Some very muscular players in this World Cup too. In Algeria’s green away kit they look rather Hulk-esque.
ARGENTINA : (Adidas) Controversial. For the first time ever, Argentina have decided to go with white shorts instead of black as their official home shorts – as have Germany, as you’ll see. Sure they’ve been made to wear white shorts before (1990 World Cup I think) but it was not the official combination. Still…it doesn’t actually look bad. The home shirt (with it’s black trim!) looks nice, the blue stripes being graded lighter at the bottom to apparently make them look like a flag in the wind (what?). But lack of black shorts? Controversial. I’m surprised Maradona hasn’t gone on TV saying it’s a Malvinas-based conspiracy by FIFA and the Sunday Mirror. I suppose we can blame Adidas. They’ve done this a few times this World Cup, as you’ll see. I love that graded blue away kit though, one of the top five in this cup.
AUSTRALIA: (Nike) Decent 1st kit, with a yellow top reminiscent of one Brazil had recently, with dark green Shorts, and – excitingly – white socks! This is a big deal. Fans had campaigned for years to have white socks again, after more than two decades. And you think I’m crazy about these things. Well done Nike. The 2nd kit is nice, dark blue with gold trim, always a winning combination for me. The collar is very retro, 70s-esque. Think Prisoner Cell Block H.
BELGIUM: (Burrda) Les Diables Rouges have had some nice kits in the past, and Burrda have have some questionable kits. Burrda… it sounds like something Taggart would say in his tough Scottish growl. “Aye, there’s been another Burrda”. They’re a Swiss company apparently. These kits are alright. The massive crown motif is different. At least they are unique, no other Burrdas at this World Cup, or any. Black change kit a little zany, plus a yellow third kit based on the home shirt, all have that round Belgian flag collar which is nice. Allez les Belges!
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: (Adidas) First World Cup for Bosnia-Herzegovina, who were previously in a Legea kit, but they obviously decided last minute that Legea were too non-league for them and switched to Adidas, who to be fair quickly gave them a template you’d probably find in the non-league. Boring. But World Cup kits aren’t always interesting. Not like I devote hours and hours of my time to them or anything…
BRAZIL: (Nike) It’s Brazil, what do you want? Well blue shorts for one. Twice in this tournament they have turned out in non-trad white shorts with the classic yellow shirts. That is WRONG! This is BRAZIL! Most recognizable combination in history. So, home kit is not bad, collar’s a bit “meh”, not much else to the design, nothing unique to say “this is our World Cup! We are spectacular!” The blue 2nd kit has nice detailing, though I prefer a white collar. For some reason they have a black 3rd kit (or is it dark grey?) which they won’t wear, which is a shame because the shorts have peculiar multi-coloured horizontal stripes. Which is not something you see every day. Now…the question is, if Brazil get to the final and lose in yellow, will they retire it? When they lost to Uruguay at the Maracan in 1950 they wore white, their usual colour. It was such a tragedy they swore not to wear white shirts again, and then had a competition to choose a new combination. The winner was yellow shirts, green collar, blue shorts and white socks. So I ask you, will they change kits again if they lose? Not likely!
CAMEROON: (Puma) The Indomitable Lions have one of the most vibrant kits at this cup, with a very busy pattern that has their nickname repeated throughout. It’s just a shame the team were not as busy on the pitch. I’m surprised Puma didn’t make nice long pockets on the shorts for the players to safely stash their bonus cash. The yellow second kit has the same pattern, while the white 3rd kit was, let’s face it, a bit hopeful. Cameroon have a fun kit history though, always good for some innovation. Remember the full bodysuit one with the lion-claw slashes on the side? And who can forget the sleeveless top from over a decade ago, that looked like a basketball top, which FIFA said they couldn’t wear at the World Cup. They had to sew on black sleeves. Shame, it was a classic.
CHILE: (Puma) : Chile have been one of everybody’s favourite second teams (along with Mexico, Algeria, and about half a dozen or so others), and their Puma kit is very decent. That collar looks like it’s going to be round and then in the middle it’s like, oh hello, pointing downwards. The collar on the away kit probably got worried it was too low cut and so added a little bit extra beneath it. Sorry, they’re not that interesting, I’m grasping here. But they are decent, and the home is one for the hipsters to wear on their Saturday morning kickaround before going to the barbers for a tattoo and eating a latte on their organic wind-powered bike.
COLOMBIA: (Adidas) : Ok Colombia, we have to talk. Listen, everyone’s happy you’re such a great team now, even without Falcao, but your kit combo just jars a little. It’s the white. It’s those sloping lines. I used to like the old yellow Umbro kits with the blue shorts, Carlos Valderrama, Faustino Asprilla, and who can forget the goalie Rene Higuita with his metalist’s hair, long runs up the pitch and his scorpion kicks. However, I have a feeling this kit will grow on me considerably, and with a good World Cup it could be one to remember. In thirty years time adidas or whoever will be making their shirts then (under armour or someone) will be bringing out kits to look like this one. A future retro classic.
COSTA RICA: (Lotto): Nice to see Lotto having a kit at the World Cup. Actually it would be if it were one of those kits from back when Holland had them, 1994, around then. These days Lotto kits are a bit of a mess. Costa Rica has that wavy bizarro-Peru thing going on and the collar seems to stop then start again several times. Yet, like the team, I kinda like it. It kinda works. No 1990-era lucky black-and-white stripes from them this time, though they seem to have adopted their white kit as being ‘lucky’ this time. FIFA will be pleased.
CROATIA: (Nike): Before every international tournament kit release season I say to myself, I’m going to close my eyes and imagine what Croatia will do, will it be red and white squares for home with a blue away kit that has those red and white squares along the trim? Oh yes, that again. Home kit is nice, but I prefer more white than the red on the sleeves, but what do I know. Apparently their first kit in 1990 had the red sleeves. Not too much you can do with an already memorable design so they keep it simple. I for one, in this age of attempted homogenizing international kits, am glad this kit exists. With blue socks (as they wore in the opening match) it works even better.
ECUADOR: (Marathon) A sunny kit, made by Marathon who are an Ecuadorean company which is very nice. The change kit is just a reverse. Another for the hipsters, though they didn’t make it out of the group stage this time around. Nice little sun element around the badge. Not much else to say really, it’s flag-coloured.

Phew! Join me for Part Two, which will come when I’ve drawn more kits…

soccer, lifestyle and everything

June 28, 2014Leave a comment

Soccer and Lifestyle, 2nd Street Davis. Click on the image for a larger view. You’ll want a larger view, to get a look at all those lovely football kits – or soccer jerseys, uniforms, shirts or whatever your preferred vocabulary choice is. This is one of my favourite shops in Davis (actually it is my favourite shop), and was the first shop I ever came into when I first visited Davis. I remember chatting that day to the owner, Rami, about Spurs and also Charlton Athletic for some reason. I was just so impressed there was a shop here devoted to my favourite things – football shirts – that I told my wife “we have to move here!” and since I’ve been here ever since that is fairly big. Anyhow, I’ve sketched the window before (in 2010) but never sketched the store itself, so with it being the height of the 2014 Brazil World Cup I figured that now was the right time. I went down there one lunchtime, wearing my recently purchased dark blue France shirt (it is in my opinion the best kit at the tournament) and sketched while watching the first half of France vs Switzerland, a demolition of a match for France out tore the usually pretty strong Swiss up. The owner, Rami, is a friendly guy who knows his stuff (actually they all are, those who work there, always welcoming for some footy chat). I love standing among all the colours of the World Cup shirts; I bought my son the new green Mexico shirt, which he loves because of the little lightning flashes on it. With all the crazy colourful boots (cleats) and all the footballs (soccer-balls) from various World Cups, as a kit-nerd and a footy-fanatic, this is very much my kind of store.

And what a World Cup it has been! The most entertaining yet probably. Certainly the most random-statistic-filled yet. All of which means the knockout stages will be dull tired affairs, but then I said the whole tournament would be so, and I was wrong. England were poor, predictably so, but my adopted team USA has been heroic and will face Belgium in the Round of 16. Then you have the Suarez biting story, which is such a bizarre pantomime villain tale it is almost as if it was all pre-fabricated to give this amazing World Cup a proper bad-guy, to add drama to the plot as we enter the middle act. Who knows. Anyway, of the flags hung up on the wall, the following sixteen are left…

So it’s “Get on the Plane, Spain”, “Get your Coats, Croats”, “You’re a Gonner, Ghana” (works better with an American accent that one), “Cote D’Au-Revoir” (come on, that’s pretty good), “Here’s the Door, Ecuador”, “Herze Today, Govina Tomorrow Bosnia” (I think I heard that one on the Guardian podcast so don’t blame me for that one, my original pun were “Everybody Herz” or “Who’s the Bos” but I wasn’t sure about either), “Iran Away”, “Export-ugal” (yes I know), and “Russian Home to Beat the Traffic”. Phew. (I actually couldn’t think of a good one for England) That is a very small sampling of what it is like living in the Scully household during the World Cup, or any cup for that, and I can’t apologize for that. There are so many punning opportunities I can’t help it. If you like hearing the very worst scrape-the-barrel World Cup punning perhaps you would be interested in following me on twitter, @petescully. Converseley if you absolutely cannot stand it and it makes your head want to explode, maybe unfollow me until after July 13 when my tweets will be all about sketches of little houses I promise you.

And football shirts…I have been meaning to do a run-down of the kits at the world cup, and wanted to give illustrations while talking about (complaining about) each one. But that was too time-consuming, so you have to wait a bit longer. In short, I hate them all except France, Mexico and the USA (only kidding, there are some others I quite like). I think I will do that in a separate post. Tomorrow is Brazil vs Chile, and you’d better get your kit on, it’s going to be a great game. It’ll be followed by Colombia v Uruguay, and Colombia are the better team, but I reckon Uruguay will clinch it by the skin of their teeth*.

(*I actually don’t, I think Colombia will hammer them but the time period for using that admittedly feeble joke is running out and I don’t like wasting opportunities like that)

burgers and brew

June 22, 2014Leave a comment

Phew, today was a day in the World Cup, huh. Belgium-Russia, meh. Algeria-Korea, whoah! And then the drama of USA-Portugal, well this has been a tournament to remember. I can’t even remember what life was like before this World Cup began. Thankfully my sketchbook offers a glimpse into the pre-Brazil days of almost two weeks ago. On a hot, hot day in early June, I stood on 3rd St one lunchtime and sketched as quickly as I could. It was pushing a hundred degrees so I needed to finish up before I melted. This is Burgers and Brew on the corner of C St, a restaurant with a name that is designed to excite people in an ‘ooh-Burgers-Beer-I-love-those-things-gotta eat there-then’ type way (though in fact almost every restaurant in America specializes in burgers and brews these days it seems). I’ve only been here a couple of times, the last being about three or four years ago, and while I don’t do burgers (at least not the red-meaty kind) I had some nice Belgian Kwak beer once. Not on this day however, this lunch hour was for sketching.This is in the landscape-format Stillman and Birn ‘Alpha’ book, sketched with brown uni-ball signo um-151 pen, with a watercolour wash added later.

bizarro world

June 18, 2014June 17, 2014Leave a comment

Bizarro World, Davis. A comic shop that used to reside on 5th St, before moving into its present location on E St when Bogey’s Books closed down. I prefer this location, and I’ve been there many times over the past four years, as opposed to the one time I went to the 5th St location in the preceding five years. Then again, I read a lot more comics now. I mean a LOT. Not all of them physical, mind, but I do buy a fair few paper comics from here (and also from Big Brother Comics in midtown Sacramento and Mission Comics in San Francisco, whenever I am there). See now I have an iPad and a subscription to Marvel Unlimited, so I can read all the Marvel backlog (I have read hundreds since signing up in January). I like this place’s location though because it is right next to the pub. After a long day, it makes a lot of sense to buy a comic or graphic novel and pop inside De Vere’s for a cold brew. Or University of Beer a block away. So on a very hot hundred-esque Saturday afternoon I stood outside and sketched my local comic shop, the sweat dripping off of me. While sketching, a bearded man on a bike stopped in the street and asked me a series of questions (“are you a painter, did you draw that, what building are you drawing, do you have an email”). I had to say, sorry I can’t really chat, I am up against the time a little here, because it really was hot and I wanted to get finished and get inside. But then about fifteen minutes later another guy on a bike, this time with a moustache, stopped and asked exactly the same questions. It was, as they say, bizarre (if not quite bizarro, which as we all know means something else entirely) I’m starting to wonder whether they were in fact the same person in different disguises. I’ve had odd people come up and say odd things on E St before while sketching so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. Perhaps I read too many comics? Nah, if that were true I’d believe it was Loki, out to trick me. I finished up all the penwork, the only colour added on site being the red pen, before cooling off with a beer in De Vere’s and finishing the paint at home. I did get a comic too, the Thanos annual, by Jim Starlin. Pretty good it is too.

Incidentally this framed drawing is currently for sale at Art-Is-Davis (222 D St, Davis) until July 6th…

hillel house, davis

June 17, 2014Leave a comment

Here’s one from about a month ago – time flies when you’re really busy, huh – and I never did add the colour, but I liked it’s pen-only form. This is the Sam Len Hillel house on A Street, Davis, a new building (I sketched the temporary Hillel House just up the road a couple of years ago while they were building this). It was a warm day, you get a lot of those here in Davis.

bohème

June 16, 2014Leave a comment

And back to the posting of sketches. I’ve been a little preoccupied with the Scene In Davis show, and also that other thing called the 2014 Brazil World Cup. Wow, what a World Cup it’s been so far! A million miles from the 0-0 borefest I had expected (though today there was finally a 0-0 draw). It’s been gripping stuff, and today especially I must so “Go USA!” Which is American for “Come On USA!”, it’s not a slogan for the tourist board. I do intend on posting a full description of the World Cup shirts, but perhaps tomorrow, after everybody has played once. Anyway, this sketch is of Bohème, on Third Street, Davis. I drew it all on site but added the colour when I got home. They sell hip used clothing, which is nice. Probably no old football shirts, though. If I were to wear a hip old international world cup shirt, I would probably go for an old USSR one (with the cyrillic CCCP emblazened across the chest), or maybe a green German away kit from the 1974, Italy’s kit from Italia 90 was cool too, or perhaps – and this is a controversial choice – the USA away kit from 1994, the light blue one with the stars, though I don’t think that really qualifies as ‘hip’. I’m not much of a hipster, unfortunately.

scenes in art is davis

June 16, 20141 Comment

Many thanks to those of you who were kind enough to stop by and say hello last Friday at the Scene In Davis group show! It went very well, and a lot of people came. I even sold a drawing there, as well as two more at the Pence Gallery next door! It was a warm evening, and was particularly hot inside Art Is Davis, but I met a lot of very nice people. I was starting to lose my voice a little toward the end! The show will be up until July 6th so if you are interested in owning a nice piece of Davis (hint-hint Davis grads!) then pop by 222 D St. Cheers!

the world cup is here!

June 12, 20142 Comments

WORLD CUP! The once-every-four-years fest of stadiums not being completed on time, FIFA corruption, corporate greed and hyper-zealous sponsors, dull substandard international football from tired irritable professional footballers, unfettered jingoism, and the world actually believing any of this still matters is finally here, and WE LOVE IT! I can’t help it. For all of my cynicism – and for those of you who don’t know, I am occasionally cynical – my inner ten-year-old leaps out and goes bananas in the build-up to the festival of football. It’s obviously nothing to do with the actual football, I barely remember the last decent bit of football I saw at a World Cup. As an afficionado of football kits and their traditions and trends I am constantly having angry palpitations over the stupid kit regulations and choices at the FIFA World Cup, in fact in global scheme of things very little annoys me more than the idea of Spain wearing red shorts (it’s just WRONG). I do intend, this weekend, to provide you with a long, detailed rant/overview of all of the kits for this year’s World Cup (and if you aren’t interested in my many annoyances about football kits, I might also advise you to unfollow me on Twitter until mid-July). But dspite all of this, I LOVE IT!
Our Panini album is filling up fast, and I have most of my old ones going back to Mexico 86. The drawing at the top as one I did in 2010 during the South Africa tournament. And above, flags of every country taking part, made out of paper mosaics by me and my son, this was a fun project. We’ll be putting them up around our house, maybe taking them down as teams get knocked out.

The World Cup starts today, with Brazil vs Croatia. Most of the games will be on while I’m at work but I actually will get to see this one. And for the record, my prediction for the winning team this year is indeed… Brazil.

scene in davis!

June 11, 20141 Comment

This Friday will be fun. I am pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting several of my Davis sketches as part of a group show called “Scene in Davis”, on display at the Art-Is-Davis co-op at 222 D Street, downtown Davis. The other featured artists are Dave Webb, Joe Finkleman and Ben Tuason, and we were all selected by the resident artists because our work is devoted to the subject of Davis. The resident artists at Art Is Davis are Dori Marshall, Seana Burke, Marieke de Waard, Jan Castle-Walker and Joanne Andresen; many thanks to Dori for inviting me to participate. There will be a reception starting at 6pm this Friday 13th June, and I plan to show some of my sketchbooks and talk my usual nonsense about uni-ball pens and fire hydrants. If you are in town and would like to say hello and see my Davis sketches, I’d love to meet you!
The show will run until July 6th, and the pieces will be for sale; maybe a nice gift for someone graduating from UC Davis, perhaps? I’m excited to see what the other works on show will be! Always enjoy seeing Davis so well represented by artists. You can visit the Art-Is-Davis website at

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But of course that isn’t all, as I also have some pieces on display at the Pence Gallery next door as part of the Garden Tour exhibit, in the upstairs conference room. You may recall the post I made about the Garden Tour recently (

dans le jardin

), and all three of my sketches are up for sale. Here are two of them on the wall:

Now there was also going to be participation in a third show, the annual ‘Tiny’ Show at the Pence Gallery, which I saw today and has some wonderful pieces (such as an amazing night-time painting of the Varsity). My contribution, drawn and painted onto a 5×7″ piece of canvas board, was of Vesuvio in San Francisco’s North Beach, redrawn from the sketch I did while stood outside there last March. Here it is:

However…it already sold! I went by today, and the Pence told me a lady from San Francisco, to whom the Vesuvio had special meaning, bought it and wanted to take it with her there and then. So while it won’t be in the Tiny Show, I’m ecstatic that it sold so quickly! I really love that corner of planet Earth myself so I am really happy it touched someone else as well. It was hard work drawing on that canvas board (it ain’t like drawing on paper) but very rewarding.

Anyway, if you happen to be on D Street this Friday evening, come and see some art!

hair today, gone tomorrow

June 9, 20144 Comments

This is my barber shop, the Razor’s Edge on 3rd Street, downtown Davis. I have been getting the same haircut here since I moved to this town almost nine years ago, but I had never ever sketched the place. Well you know how it is, you sketch somewhere, then suddenly it closes down (it’s happened a lot to me), and to be honest I couldn’t afford to have my barber close. I have tried other barbers in town and you’d be surprised how different my hair looks each time, whereas here I know what I’m getting. You know how it is. So not wanting to ‘curse’ it, I never sketched it. Anyway, recently I heard that the building would be demolished to make way for, well a more modern building that can charge more rent, I suppose. So I decided I just had to sketch it, for posterity. Now the last time I did this was The Beat, a record shop in Sacramento, I sketched it last summer before it was to move to ‘another location’. It was definitely not closing for good. Well, sadly it never reopened. I’m glad I sketched it, but the curse had struck again. So before finally putting the Razor’s Edge into my sketchbook, I went in and asked if the barber, Sukh, had found another location yet, just to make sure. He certainly had, and he’d signed a new lease and will definitely be moving into a new spot about a block away in July. “Hooray!” I exclaimed, and here is my sketch.
(And yes even I, with my low standards for cheap gags, cringed before using that title for this post, but it just had to be done. It’s not every day your barbershop closes.)