Stuff you don’t know about Premier League kit this season. These facts are from the new Premier League Handbook 2012-13.

What was originally called ‘change strip’, then ‘away kit’ is now officially called ‘alternative kit’.

Arsenal’s ‘Alternative kit 2’ (ie third kit) is listed as yellow with a yellow goalkeeper’s jersey. That will never happen.

Everyone apart from Aston Villa, Stoke, Sunderland, West Brom and Norwich have a third kit – but Man City and Spurs haven’t decided what their third kit is going to be yet.

Sunderland’s home shorts and socks are black and their alternative shorts and socks are navy. Swansea’s home and alternative shorts are both white. These are not really alternatives.

The Fulham goalkeeper’s shirt colour is ‘Grenadine’. The Man City alternative goalkeeper’s colour is ‘Wisteria’, and Southampton’s is ‘Deep Wisteria’.

Stoke’s alternative goalkeeper shirt colour is ‘Orange warning’.

Sunderland’s two goalkeeper colours are ‘Warning’ and ‘Super cyan’.

Chelsea’s third goalkeeper’s kit is ‘Slime and black’. Their home goalkeeper’s shirt is not green, it’s ‘Forest’. The other goalkeeper jersey is ‘White & Deepest Purple’. That last one a tribute to Richie Blackmore, no doubt.

Everton’s goalkeeper colours are ‘Court Green’ and ‘University Gold’.

Arsenal and QPR both have pink goalkeeper shirts.

Rule M.10: The colour and design of the shirt and stockings worn by the goalkeeper when playing in league matches shall be such as to distinguish him from the other players and match officials.
Rule M.16: Neither the home strip shirt nor the away strip shirt shall be of a colour or design alike or similar to the outfits of match officials.
Rule M.23: The match officials shall wear colours that distinguish them from the strip worn by the two clubs.
So the goalkeepers must wear different coloured socks to the rest of their team and the other team, but the officials can wear the same colour shorts and socks as any player.

Rule M.13: Each club shall have a home strip and up to a maximum of two alternative strips which shall be worn by its players in league matches in accordance with the provisions of these rules.
This is so important, it’s rule M.14 as well:

There are 11 different kit manufacturers for the 20 Premier League teams this season. Some of them you probably haven’t heard of.
Adidas
Chelsea
Stoke
Sunderland
Swansea
West Brom

Nike
Arsenal
Everton
Man Utd

Umbro
Man City
Southampton

Puma
Newcastle
Reading

Macron
Aston Villa
West Ham

Kappa
Fulham

Warrior
Liverpool

Errea
Norwich

Lotto
QPR

Under Armour
Tottenham

Mifit
Wigan

So all the big clubs stick with the traditional big name manufacturers, while some of the smaller ones go for things like ‘Macron’ or ‘Under Armour’.

The most common commercial sector for shirt sponsors is gambling, followed by finance.
Shirt Sponsors

Gambling
West Ham – SBOBET.com
Wigan – 12BET
Aston Villa – Genting Casinos
Stoke – Bet 365
Swansea – 32 Red
Fulham – FxPro

Finance
Liverpool – Standard Chartered
Sunderland – Invest In Africa
Norwich – Aviva
Newcastle – Virgin Money
Man Utd – AON

Airlines
Arsenal – Emirates
QPR – Air Asia
Man City – Etihad

IT
Tottenham – Autonomy
Southampton – AAP3

Electronics
Chelsea – Samsung

Beer
Everton – Chang

Retail
Reading – Waitrose

Property
West Brom – Zoopla

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