Tottenham’s 2020-21 fourth kit apparently isn’t sponsored by AIA

Hey, remember almost a year ago when Tottenham’s 2020-21 kit designs were starting to be leaked like they usually are around this time? Well, back in mid-February you might recall that Footy Headlines leaked information about a FOURTH Tottenham Hotspur kit that was supposed to be released sometime in the middle of the Premier League season. We wrote about it. It was funky.

It also, apparently, is real and is coming soon. Footy Headlines is back with more details about this kit, and the weirdest part of all is that AIA, Tottenham’s corporate sponsor, apparently isn’t on the front of it.

These fourth kits are modeled on the same template as the yellow thirds with the subtle gradient barred design. Only this gradient design is anything but subtle, looking more like a contrast pattern on computer monitors, and offset by some bright neon yellow-green highlights.

But the weirdest thing is that AIA is not on the front of the kit. Instead, it’s “airmax”. This apparently refers to the Nike Air Max 95 shoes, on which this kit is ostensibly modeled.

Here’s the shoe, in case you were wondering. And because it’s a trainer and not a soccer cleat, Tottenham’s players will 100% not be wearing at the same time as this kit. Nike, everyone.

So I have two overall reactions.

First, I kind of dig this kit.

Second, while I’m pretty inured to the idea of corporate overlords fully subsidizing and influencing the overall look and design of a football club based on the amount of money they want to hand over — fair play! — a global sportswear company designing an entire kit around one of their shoes that isn’t even in the same sport as the kit they’re designing strikes me as being close to the nadir of late-stage capitalism. I have no idea when and in what competition Tottenham would wear these kits, and I also wonder what AIA would say about them actually wearing them. But, I say, sipping tea and in my best Jim Henson impersonation, that’s none of my business.

I mean, hey, they look kinda sharp, and if you’re the kind of person who still hates the idea of a giant Asian insurance conglomerate on the front of Spurs’ kits, maybe you might like the idea of a giant American sportswear conglomerate on the front of Spurs’ kits. And it’s not just Spurs — Chelsea also is getting a Nike-sponsored/branded fourth kit as well.

Ah well. Who’s buying one?