‘Laser Blue’ - What did you think then & now?

HelloCity said:
When Kappa came in for the start of the 97/98 season they brought in one of the most iconic City home shirts in history. The football at the time might not have been the best but that home shirt stood out as something new & different and was instantly recognisable to football fans across the country.

One of the biggest changes from previous shirts was a new darker shade of blue which was given the name ‘laser blue’. This was brought in because the classic City blue under Umbro had become so pale - almost representing how ill & pale the club had gotten over the years.

The laser blue continued for a few years after, including during our switch to Le Coq during our 99/00 promotion season back to the PL & would ultimately be worn during for the last time in our final game at Maine Road in 2003.

There didn’t seem to be many dissenting voices at the time but in the modern day I could see a change like this leading to fans being up in arms - so what did you actually think of it back then & what do you think of it now?

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The fact it had Brother as sponsor elevates it further. Brilliant shirt.
 
The goalkeeper tops were a thing of beauty .

Even though we were shit we looked good doing it. I still have the home shirt and the track top and rain jacket which still look amazing.

The le coq one was nice at the time but the white away one still looks nice.
 
i remember when it happened. It was Franny Lee trying everything to turn the corner. I think he even had gypsies in to piss on the corner flags to lift the curse. He changed the badge and shirt colour because he felt that we weren't aggressive looking enough.

I hated that stupid badge with its meaningless 3 stars and I hated those big Kappa stripes down the arms. I remember Kappa being cool in the very early 80s but there was nothing cool about it by then.
 
Boo or Boo-urns said:
The away kappa kit (long sleeve) was a thing of beauty too.
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Lovely shirt but we didnt seem to wear it too often.
 
I loved the kappa home and away at the time and still do today. I was never keen on the badge.

I wasn't really keen on the yellow one and wasn't bothered about the play off final shirt although I've grown to like it for nostalgia reasons over the years.

I do prefer our sky blue but wouldn't mind a return as a one-off. Somebody did a mock up version of the home on here with puma logos instead of kappa and using sky blue. It looked amazing to me.
 
Napoli have the best blue shirt I know of, not sure what kind of "blue" it is, maybe sky blue by the Mediterranean sunshine.
 
The Kappa shirt has a lot of memories, a girl I used to live with 20+ years ago used to wear it as a nightie/lounge top and a pair of skimpy knickers.

Oddly, I just saw her today for the first time in 7 years.

What a mad coincidence.
 
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At the time we didn't have a lot to celebrate (stuck in the second tier for another season), getting Kappa to do our kits was seen by some as being a bit of a coup, especially as it had become quite clear that umbro had lost all interest and just couldn't arsed anymore. I thought the design looked really good, one of the best we'd ever had, BUT, I hated the badge (I still don't like it), and whilst I'd wanted a deeper shade than the washed out off white that Umbro had been inflicting on us, this was a bit too deep and too green to feel like it was our colour. When Le Coq Sportif took over they toned the greeness down a bit which was an improvement. These days I associate that colour too much with that period of City's history to ever want to return to it.
 
Love it. But not sure if that's because of my age and my first few kits that I remember were laser blue. Still don the 01/02 one every now and again, after I found a bloke who sells genuine, retro City gear.

Material leaves a bit to be desired, though...
 
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