On Romanian Football: Universitatea Craiova kits 2020–2021
Brand: Puma
Release: August 2020
Versions: Home, Away, Goalkeeper
Era: Liga 1 Romania 2020–2021, Romanian Cup 2020–2021
Price: 70€ (player edition)
Design: template (teamFINAL 21 template by Puma)
Made in: Vietnam
Materials: 100% polyester
Where to buy it: sold only on Universitatea Craiova official webshop
The return of the Puma:
A new entry from Puma, which came back to the Romanian First League after many years. Viitorul, Hagi’s football academy, was sponsored by Puma in 2013–14 previously.
CS Universitatea Craiova decided to end their 6-year partnership with Joma and sign with Puma. The 4 year contract between both parties was announced in August 2020.
teamFINAL 21 templates were chosen as the first kit model. Blue color template was selected for the away shirts while for the home shirts white template was picked.
The latest Puma gimmick nicknamed “ventilation holes”, that is seen on the shirts of Italy, Iceland, Man City or Slavia Prague, is missing from Craiova shirts. That is a feature only for premium teams.
Other teams that used teamFINAL 21 templates in 2020–2021 similar to Craiova were: OFI Crete (Greece), Newcastle away (England), Greuther Fürth’s third shirt (second division Germany), Sandhausen (second division Germany).
Highlights
White is the new blue
Universitatea Craiova is known as the gatekeeper of blue shirts among Romanian football clubs. When you say “Universitatea Craiova” during a football conversation mind jumps immediately to “blue lions”.
It was a time of early 90s and late 80s when the Romanian football system was dominated by red kits teams such as Dinamo Bucharest, Steaua Bucharest or Rapid Bucharest.
Craiova always came as the underdogs and managed to create a bump into those Bucharest-based teams road to glory. The contrast on the pitch was always a pleasure to watch: red vs blue.
But ever since 2019–2020 season management at Craiova decided to slowly move away from using blue as home color. Slowly it was being replaced with white. This trend continued also in 2020–2021 season with the new Puma kits.
Template all the way
For both home (white) and away (blue) the club did not even bother to change the color. Both shirts used same colors as with the template they came. This basic template costs between 25–30€. Club was selling it with 70€ with sponsor and team crest as the only add-ons.
Can’t have it
All in all shirts were a “breath of air” in the Romanian First League that was dominated by Joma. 6 out of 16 teams in 2020–2021 season were sponsored by Joma.
So as a football fan and collector like me you really wanted to have a puma shirt into your collection. It was a milestone that puma came back. But you didn’t want the template, because as shown above it was just too basic.
So normally you would order one online or visit the official shop of the club. As the official shop was selling player shirts but without the names on the back or other add-ons such as Romanian First League patch.
For a short while, the club shop, would not allow personalization on shirts with your name/player name or add Romanian League patch on it due to “technical errors”. Then when personalization became available the puma font was in a different shade of blue on the home white shirts. And the blue ones were not available in most of the sizes.
Firstly you had to make your way to the official shop and ask there for such things as personalization because it was never available online. Most of the times when you would get there they would refuse you as they said is not possible to personalize the shirt in any way or that the heat press machine is broken. There was an new excuse every month. In the end Romanian League patch was never available for personalization.
Most of the times they would tell you to buy the shirt now and come back in couple weeks to apply personalization or the patch. But then if you would have come back after a while it was still not possible, it was just a petty little lie to sell.
Without a proper customization, like adding at least Romanian First League patch, why would you like, as a fan, to purchase a template shirt every year with only the team crest on it?
In the long term, let’s say 5 years from now, you might find the shirt somewhere in your attic or an oldies box, what memories will bring to you without a player name on the back? You will probably sell the basic template right away.
So as a fan you had the following options:
— Pay 70€ for the basic shirt (home/away) with chest sponsor and team crest
— Pay 75€ for for the basic shirt (home) with chest sponsor and team crest butt wrong font color nameset applied on the back
— Do not buy it
— Pay 30€ for a second hand shirt from last season
Proper full personalization of the shirts comes handy when you want to make a football shirt as a gift.
Was it a success?
No.
There was some sort of hype around August and September. But the shirts were already on sale -30% off from November — to mid January. And again personalization was not available most of this time and is still isn’t. Some shirts from 2020–2021 are still up for grabs on their official webshop.
During Spring 2021 access to the stadiums in Romania was slowly opening. Here are some pictures of the team celebrating with the fans in the stadium and outside. How many Puma 2020–2021 shirts/products do you see?
Pricing might have been a factor of why the shirts were not success in a city where the average salary is around 700€. But as long as you support your team price should not be an obstacle.
Details on Universitatea Craiova away shirt
Personal thoughts
“Having the blues”
It is an idiom or expression usually used when you feel depressed or sad. That is how I feel when I touch and see the away shirt. It is dull. Knowing how many possibilities are out there in matters of creativity in combining blue color with other shades. Somebody decided at Craiova that full blue template will be enough.
Let me showcase what else you could do with blue on a football shirt, then compare it with Craiova:
Creativity
Since the re-establishment of the team in 2013 the kits always lacked flair. Creativity. For me all of them have been a disappointed in matter of design. Somehow I always identified Universitatea Craiova football club principles same as Olympique Marseille. And really hoped that inspiration will be drawn from there. Really hope to see something at Craiova that gets closer to what the French club releases every year.
When?
As a closing remark I truly believe that Universitatea Craiova failed once again to deliver a proper kit design for 6 years in a row. Besides that the inability to properly customize your shirt should be something to take in account for the future.
Being born and raised in Craiova I will always have an affinity for the local teams. Thus this is why I wrote this article. I really want to feel proud wearing Craiova shirts and furthermore gift them. But blue and white templates are not my cup of tea.
Fun fact: Although the Oltenia region coat of arms is red, most of the regional sports teams are using blue as main color. Traditional Romanian football teams colors / design motifs / crests are inspired from the badge of the county they are in. Universitatea Craiova is from Oltenia region.
Oltenia coat of arms:
I regularly post stories about Romania match worn shirts on Instagram.
If you want to get in touch with me you can find me there as onromanianfootball:
https://www.instagram.com/onromanianfootball/
On Romanian Football articles:
Design Identity
2017–2018 Kits
National Team kit 2021–2023
Other subjects:
Telling a Sports Story with Instagram
Interactive Football Installations: concepts and ideas
If you have a recommendation of a book that I have to read or if you have a project in mind about football or sports in general write me at:
hello [at] jeanpopescu.com
