One of my best friends is a journalist for a big media company here in the states. She doesn’t cover football (not real football anyway) but has a lot of peers who do, and sometimes she’ll share a bit of what she hears if she a) can, and b) thinks its something i’d be interested in hearing, and I was told the kit manufacturers not only submit (digital) prototypes to the clubs sometimes several seasons ahead of time but, they submit multiple options for the club to decide which kits they like, what colors, what designs etc for each of the home, away, third, and even training kits. Apparently, this season’s away kit was indeed for performance reasons, and even more interesting is that it was a decision championed by øur captain.