I started to support Carlisle United on Boxing Day 2005, and from that moment, I was hooked onto League football instead of Premiership football. After supporting them for a few months, towards the end of last season, I decided it was time to buy a Carlisle United shirt. I had the choice of the home shirt and the away shirt. I decided that as it would be unlikely I would go to many away games, as I live quite high in the North, away from most other football stadiums, I would buy the home shirt as I would probably only go to home games. So here is my review on the Carlisle United Home Shirt!
DESIGN The Carlisle shirt has a very good design indeed. In fact it is a surprisingly well-designed shirt that was used when they were in the lowly League 2. I am sure that many other lower league teams do not have shirts designed as well.
The shirt has done what many shirts don't do. Concentrate on the basics first, then try and add a few fancy bits to make it even better.
The collar part of the shirt is very unique. It is shaped in a very strange way. It runs around the neck, and then when it reaches the front of your neck, it is no longer circular, it then goes in a bit, then back out to go back to been circular. It sort of makes a V shaped collar on the front. Try and look at the pictures closely if you want a better idea of what the collar looks like.
Then there are the sleeves. The sleeves are divided into five different sections, and each section starts and ends the further you look around the sleeve. There is a small red section, then a thin blue section, and then a large white section. And then the pattern is repeated on the other side of the sleeves, with a thin blue section and a small red part. There is also a unique part on the left sleeve. Carlisle United's mascot is a fox, called Olga. (In case you were wondering, it is called Olga, because it is an anagram of Goal)! On the bottom of the left sleeve, on the large white section, there is a small print of a fox. This gives the shirt a real nice unique look, and gives the shirt character.
On the under arm section, there is another section, and this also runs quite far down the side of the shirt and it ends in a pointed end, and this is all vented. For more information on this bit of the shirt, go down to the Vents section of the review.
The far sides of the shirt is also made of a different material from the main front and back of the shirt, it is sort of a vented material, although when looking from distance, you would not be able to tell it is a different material from the main parts.
The main sponsor of Carlisle, Eddie Stobart, has it's logo in the middle of the shirt. I think that the material that the logo is made from is fantastic. It isn't stuck onto the shirt like with some shirts, it is on the shirt, as if it is just part of the main material, even though it isn't. It's quite strange really, but in a good way!
The second sponsor, Le Coq Sportif, has it's logo in the top right corner of the shirt, and Carlisle United's crest is in the top left corner of the shirt. Carlisle's crest really is traditional and cool looking. It has two dragon shaped creatures holding a crest, with Carlisle's motto underneath it, "Be just, and fear not." It is a great crest for you team to have!
Overall, the design on the shirt is fantastic. I might even go as far as saying that it is better designed than some Premiership Club Teams' shirts!
COLOURS The main colour of the shirt is blue, which is Carlisle's main colour, (obviously). All the front and back of the shirt is blue, most of the sides of the shirt is blue, and some thin sections on the sleeves are also blue. The second most prominent colour is white. A lot of the sleeves is white, the collar is white, and the underarm and a bit of the side of the shirt is white. The last main colour is red. A section on each sleeve is red, so is the fox logo on the left sleeve, the le coq sportif logo and a lot of the Carlisle crest.
Overall, I think that the colour scheme works very well on the Carlisle shirt, and it is a great looking shirt to play in!
COMFORT The shirt is quite comfortable to play in. It is fairly light, so it will not slow any fast strikers down. But there are one or two problems with the comfort part of the shirt. The vents around the collar area can rub against you neck, and it can sometimes get quite itchy. So I find it best to wear another T-shirt under the Carlisle one so that it does not itch your neck.
VENTS There are a lot of vents all over this shirt, and they all do their job of keeping you cool very well. There is a thin vent that runs over the top of the sleeve, the front of the collar is a vent, and the underarm section is a vented area. There is also a much thinner vented area on the sides of the shirt that let a little bit of air into the shirt.
Overall, except for the collar vents itching a bit, the vents really are a good thing on the shirt, and make it a great shirt to wear on a hot day.
ANY BAD PARTS? Like I said before, the front bit of the collar that itches sometimes is a bad part of the shirt. There really aren't any other bad parts to it, except that some of the vented areas are prone to 'clicks' if you catch it on anything sharp, or keep pets that enjoy sticking their claws into your clothing.
BEST PART OF THE SHIRT I think the best part of the shirt would have to be the looks of the shirt. It really is a great looking shirt, probably better than a lot of shirts out at the moment. Not only is it great looking, but it also has a great design to go with it, so it would have to be the looks that are the best thing about it.
PRICE The shirt can be bought in the Carlisle United Club Shops for around £40.00. I'm not sure where else you can buy it except maybe on online stores. A long sleeve version is also available to buy, and this is around £45.00.
OVERALL Overall, the Carlisle United Home Shirt is a great shirt. It combines great looks, with great design and great technology. Not many lower league clubs have this type of shirt, so it shows exactly how good Carlisle United are aiming to be, and if they carry on the way they are now, then they are going to be getting into the higher leagues in England, and while doing it, they are going to be looking great while wearing this shirt!!<Thanks for reading>
