Shirts or sponsor boards? Why IPL jerseys do not look good at all

You can be a CSK fan, wrapped in yellow, cheering for MS Dhoni as your thala. Or you could be an RCB diehard, married to red and blue, riding on Virat Kohli's intensity every single game. But across loyalties and colours, there is one thing most fans will agree on, the IPL jerseys just don't pack the same punch anymore.

A kit in any sport is more than just a uniform. It becomes part of your identity, blending individuals into a collective. Australia's yellow and green meant trouble for opponents. Brazil's yellow in football carried the unmistakable Joga Bonito flair. And closer home, the Indian team's light blue kit in the 2000s, with the Sahara logo and tricolour streaks, remains etched in memory.

These jerseys were works of art, and everyone wanted one in their personal collection. But with IPL kits today, that emotional pull feels missing.

When the IPL began in 2008, jerseys were central to a team's identity. Chennai's yellow signalled dominance. Kolkata's black and gold became iconic. Rajasthan's blue built instant recall. Over time, however, that connection has faded.

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The reasons are not hard to spot. Sponsor clutter, inconsistent design choices, and a lack of identity have turned jerseys into something closer to advertising space. Add to that the question of value, and it has also quietly fuelled the rise of counterfeit jerseys, a problem we will come back to later.

To understand where things are going wrong, we turn to someone who has been at the centre of India's design ecosystem.

That voice is Aaquib Wani.

Wani has been one of the key figures behind India's recent cricket kits, worked with IPL franchises like Rajasthan Royals, and designed for the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics. Few understand the intersection of design, branding and commercial demands in Indian sport better than him.

And his insights don't come from the outside, they come from being in the room.

He recalled a moment when Dream11 became the sponsor of the Indian team. The red logo clashed with the blue Adidas stripes on the Test jersey, drawing criticism from fans.

"I was on a flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi, and guess who I meet? Jay Shah. And I introduced myself to him."

"And instantly he asked me, listen, what should we do about that Dream 11 red? I was like, make it blue. It should be one single colour on that jersey, and watch how it blends into it. I don't know if he heard me, or it was an internal discussion between them that they made that change," said Wani.

It is a small example, but it captures the larger issue, design decisions matter, and when done right, they disappear into the fabric of the jersey.

WHAT'S THE ISSUE WITH IPL KITS

What makes a kit iconic? For Wani, it comes down to three things, identity, consistency and emotional connection.

Those are precisely the areas where IPL jerseys are falling short.

The issue isn't the presence of sponsors, but how they are treated. In the IPL, design and branding rarely work together. Jerseys are often designed first, with sponsors added later, resulting in a patchwork rather than a cohesive visual identity.

"I feel sponsors are not the problem by themselves. See, remember other sports. Formula One cars and kits may probably have more logos than any IPL jersey, but they still look beautiful because the branding is integrated into the design, not just placed on top of it."

What that does is strip the jersey of its identity. Instead of something fans connect with, it starts to resemble a moving billboard.

"So here, every team works differently, every sponsor has different demands, and the result is inconsistency, which is what I feel," said Wani.

Globally, the best teams approach this differently.

Take the Arsenal shirt as an example. The sponsor logo blends into the jersey as if it was always meant to be there. It doesn't dominate the design or sit awkwardly on a patch. Instead, it becomes part of a cohesive product, something fans are happy to wear.

In the IPL, that balance is missing.

Wani points to specific examples where this lack of cohesion becomes obvious.

"When I think of Lucknow Super Giants in 2024, they had a My11Circle logo on a white box on a jersey. And along with that they had put those weird, blue reflectives, which looked trashy."

"I was like this is not what a jersey is supposed to look like, it's just become an advertising hoarding," he said.

As a result, the jersey loses its appeal, not just visually, but emotionally.

ANOTHER ISSUE: RED AND BLUE

If branding is one problem, colour identity is another.

Apart from KKR, CSK, SRH and RR, most teams rely heavily on red, blue or a combination of both, choices that feel commercially safe but creatively limiting.

"I feel like the biggest reason here is risk. Teams sort of tend to stay in the safe colour zones, mostly red and blue, because those are seen as commercially safe and easy to work with," said Wani.

But safe rarely means memorable.

That is why teams like Chennai and Rajasthan stand out. They stayed consistent with their colours and built identity over time, instead of chasing trends.

"When too many teams are chasing the same palette, everything starts to look interchangeable, and when that happens, fans don't feel attached to the jersey itself, only to the team," said Wani.

ARE IPL TEAMS CHEATING FANS?

That lack of identity and perceived value has directly contributed to the rise of counterfeit jerseys.

Earlier, even when official kits were expensive, there was a clear difference in quality and aspiration.

"People who want to support their team, they would rather go with an original piece than buy a knockoff for Rs. 200. It's also the quality, it's also wanting to buy a premium piece. It is Adidas at the end of the day, it's an original piece," said Wani.

In the IPL, that distinction has blurred.

"Thing with IPL is, it's not value for money. Why? Because the kind of fabric that you see, the kind of quality that you see, it's the cheapest material that they get to print it on."

"The knockoff also that comes is pretty much the same material. So I'm just like, even as a fan, I'll be like, OK, if I'm getting the same piece for Rs. 200 I would rather go with that," he added.

SOLVING THE JERSEY PROBLEM

If the problems are clear, the solutions are not entirely out of reach.

Wani points to the 1999 Cricket World Cup as an example, where a centralised design system elevated every jersey.

"If you were to ask me when was the last time there was a design system in place, it was 1999 Cricket World Cup, when Asics had done all jerseys together. All jerseys looked cool because they all came out from one place and had one centralised design system to it."

He also stressed the need for better control over sponsor placement and giving designers more authority in the process.

"Talking about sponsors again, we can sort of work around it, a guideline would really fix it."

"My point is just involve people who are responsible for making certain jobs look better. You call in a specialist to fix a specific problem, not marketing folks who know nothing about design..."

Wani admits money will always be a factor, but with the right systems in place, design does not have to suffer.

There has been some progress with fan kits, but for IPL jerseys to truly become iconic, teams need to think long-term.

"Think of Brazil yellow, or the All Blacks black, or even CSK yellow. You recognise them instantly..."

"For IPL jerseys to reach that level, teams need to stop redesigning every season and build a long-term visual identity instead."

India is a cricket-crazy nation where fans are ready to spend on jerseys as memorabilia. Kohli 18, Dhoni 7, Rohit 45 will continue to dominate the stands.

Now it is time for IPL franchises to match that passion, to be bold, to be consistent, and to treat the jersey not just as merchandise, but as identity. Because in the end, a jersey is more than fabric. It is something fans carry with them, something they wear, remember, and make their own.

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