Southampton FC have released stylish new home and away kits for the coming season. The strips are the first to be produced from their new partnership with adidas but might ruffle some fan feathers down on the South coast.  

Saints are a team with big ambitions and an even bigger budget due to being bought by the Swiss liebherr family four years ago. After two succesive promotions and a what can only be seen as a succesful return to the Premiership (they stayed up), the new kit deal with adidas reflects the vision their chairman Nicola Cortese has for the club. But omitting the famous red and white stripes completely is quite a statement and one that may not go down too well.



The kit itself is sleek, stylish and of the quality we've come to expect from an adidas kit. The home shirt, which is made from climacool fabric, is mostly red with three stripes on the shoulders and white diagonal arm bands that give a slight nod to the kits of yesteryear. The shorts are again red with three stripes down the side and the socks red and white stripes.



The Saints badge and adidas logo are both gold and stitched on rather than printed which give the shirt a premium feel. The Away kit is similar in design but mostly black and loses the white arm bands, opting for an deep white V-neck instead. Although nice looking it does remind us a bit of a New Zealand All Blacks rugby shirt.




Last year Southampton's Kit, which was produced by Umbro, opted for a mostly red home shirt with white pin stripes and the fans have been crying out for return to tradition ever since. Ignoring the fans may not make Cortese popular but he's done things his way since he arrived at the club and so far it's worked.



Sacking Alan Pardew was a controversial decision that turned out to be a stroke of genius and replacing Nigel Adkins with Mauricio Pochettino looks set to be the right decision too, although the jury's still out on that one.

Maybe they are teeing up a big return for the Stripes next summer, then again maybe the club see this as a new era for the Saints and with it comes a new look. Whilst they might not look traditional they'll certainly look stylish whatever happens next season.



What do you think of the kit that Saints will be marching in with next season? Let us know.