The Columbus Crew’s latest away kit has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. Intended to pay homage to the Columbus City Flag, the jersey has been likened to yellow snow (don't eat it!), a printer test page and a neon snow cone. Here’s the breakdown of the kit as detailed by the Crew and kit providers Adidas:
Photo: @KitbagUK | Twitter
While there's certainly some nice connections between the kit and Columbus history, the overall execution is pretty unsightly. The color scheme is fairly reminiscent of a box of Cheerios. Here’s the breakdown as provided by Twitter users:
@ColumbusCrewSC I was pissed at first but calmed down now that I realized this is really cool for the 3rd grade class that designed these.
— Mark Titus (@clubtrillion) February 10, 2016
These kits can only be described in one word. @ColumbusCrewSC pic.twitter.com/V3F6N9tpcQ
— Matt Lewis (@mhlewis8) February 10, 2016
The myriad of social media backlash gave way to a moment of inspiration for the Columbus Crew Communication Department: "Why not film our own version of Jimmy Kimmel’s 'Mean Tweets'"? Fair enough. The Crew might as well revel and embrace their baby monstrosity at this point. There's no going back.
Accordingly, Crew players read and responded to some of the more malicious and hilarious tweets that had come their way.
#MeanTweets: #ForColumbus kit edition. #CrewSChttps://t.co/zk8yMSocu2
— Columbus Crew SC (@ColumbusCrewSC) February 13, 2016
While the resulting video still doesn’t make up for the amount of ridicule the city of Columbus has received, and probably won't result in more jersey sales, it does show that Crew players should be able to overcome this early season setback. What, Adidas, losing the 2015 MLS Cup final wasn't painful enough for Columbus?
Photo: @Gap | Twitter
