You can be a CSK fan wrapped in yellow and root for MS Dhoni as your thala. Or you can be die-hard RCB, married to the red and blue, riding on Virat Kohli’s intensity every game. But across loyalties and colours, there’s one thing most fans can agree on, IPL jerseys just don’t have the same punch anymore.
A kit in any sport is more than just a uniform. It becomes part of your identity and unites the individual into a collective. Australia’s yellow and green spelled trouble for the opposition. The Brazilian yellow in football carried the unmistakable touch of Joga Bonito. And closer to home, the 2000 Indian team’s pale blue kit with the Sahara logo and tricolor stripes remains etched in memory. India’s 2000 jersey will remain iconic forever (Courtesy: Getty)
These jerseys were works of art and everyone wanted one for their personal collection. But today’s IPL kits lack that emotional appeal.
When the IPL started in 2008, the jerseys were central to the team’s identity. Chennai’s yellow signaled dominance. Calcutta’s black and gold has become iconic. Rajasthan’s blue built instant memory. Over time, however, this connection faded.
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Fans find connection with early IPL jerseys (Credit: AFP)
The reasons are not hard to find. A mess of sponsors, inconsistent design choices and a lack of identity have turned the jerseys into something closer to advertising space. Add to that the issue of value and it has also quietly fueled the rise of counterfeit jerseys, an issue we will return to later.
To understand where things go wrong, we turn to someone who has been at the center of India’s design ecosystem.
That voice is Aaquib Wani.
Wani has been one of the key figures in recent Indian cricket sets, working with IPL franchises such as Rajasthan Royals and being drafted for the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics. Few people understand the intersection of design, branding and commercial imperatives in Indian sports better than him.
And his insights don’t come from outside, but from being in the room.
He recalled the moment when Dream11 became the sponsor of the Indian team. The red logo clashed with the blue Adidas stripes on the test kit, prompting 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 he immediately asked me, listen, what should we do with the red Dream 11? I was like, make it blue. It should be one single color on that jersey and see how it fits in. I don’t know if he heard me or if it was an internal discussion between them that they made that change,” Wani said.
It’s a small example but it captures the bigger issue, design decisions matter and when done right they disappear into the fabric of the jersey. The Dream 11’s red logo on the Indian Test kit has received a lot of flak (Courtesy: AFP)
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE IPL KITS
What makes a kit iconic? For Wani, it comes down to three things, identity, consistency and emotional connection.
These are exactly the areas where IPL jerseys fall short.
The issue is not 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 mosaics rather than a cohesive visual identity.
“I feel sponsors are not the problem in themselves. Look, remember other sports. Formula 1 cars and kits can 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.” This rejected Aaquib design was well received by fans online Aaquib Wani
What it does is strip the jersey of its identity. Instead of something fans connect with, it’s starting to resemble a moving billboard.
“So here every team works differently, every sponsor has different requirements and the result is inconsistency, which I feel,” Wani said.
Globally, the best teams approach it differently.
Take the Arsenal jersey as an example. The sponsor’s logo blends into the jersey as if it should always be there. It doesn’t dominate the design or sit awkwardly on the patch. Instead, it becomes part of a cohesive product that fans love to wear. Adidas Arsenal Kit.
This balance is missing in the IPL.
Wani points to specific examples where this lack of coherence is evident.
“When I think back to Lucknow Super Giants in 2024, they had the My11Circle logo on the white box on the jersey. And along with that, they put those weird blue reflectives that looked like garbage.”
“I thought that’s not how the jersey is supposed to look, it’s just become a bunch of advertising,” he said.
As a result, the jersey loses its appeal, not only visually, but also emotionally.
NEXT NUMBER: RED AND BLUE
If branding is one issue, color identity is another.
Apart from KKR, CSK, SRH and RR, most teams rely heavily on red, blue or a combination of the two, choices that are commercially safe but creatively limiting.
“I feel the biggest reason is risk. Teams tend to stay in safe color zones, mostly red and blue, because those are considered commercially safe and easy to work with,” Wani said.
But safe rarely means memorable.
This is why teams like Chennai and Rajasthan stand out. They stayed consistent with their colors and built an 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,” Wani said.
ARE IPL TEAMS CHEATING THE FANS?
This lack of identity and perceived value has directly contributed to the rise of counterfeit jerseys.
Previously, even though the official kits were expensive, there was a clear difference in quality and aspiration.
“People who want to support their team will go with an original piece rather than buy a Rs 200 discount. It’s also about quality, they also want to buy a premium piece. It’s Adidas at the end of the day, it’s an original piece,” Wani said. Counterfeit jerseys are currently ruling the market (Credit: Getty)
In the IPL, that difference has been erased.
“The thing with IPL is that it’s not value for money. Why? Because the kind of fabric you see, the kind of quality you see, is the cheapest material to print on.”
“Also the knockoff that comes is basically the same material. So I’m happy, even as a fan, I’ll be like, OK, if I get the same piece for Rs 200, I’d rather go with that,” he added.
SOLUTION TO THE JERSEY PROBLEM
If the problems are clear, the solutions are not completely out of reach.
Wani cites the example of the 1999 Cricket World Cup, where a centralized design system upgraded every jersey.
“If you ask me, when was the last time a design system was put in place, it was the 1999 Cricket World Cup when Asics made all the jerseys together. All the jerseys looked great because they all came from one place and had one centralized design system.”
He also emphasized the need for better control over the placement of sponsors and giving designers more authority in the process.
“When we’re talking about sponsors again, we can sort of get around that, the directive would really fix that.”
“I just want to involve the people who are responsible for making certain jobs look better. You call a specialist to solve a particular problem, not marketing people who don’t know anything about design…” Aaquib designed the kit, which was a throwback to India’s 2000 kit (Credit: Aaquib Wani)
Wani admits that money will always be a factor, but with the right systems in place, design doesn’t have to suffer.
There has been some progress with fan kits, but for IPL jerseys to become truly iconic, teams need to think long-term.
“Think Brazil yellow or All Blacks black or even CSK yellow. You’ll recognize them instantly…”
“For IPL jerseys to reach this level, teams need to stop redesigning each season and instead build a long-term visual identity.”
India is a cricket-mad nation where fans are ready to spend on jerseys as souvenirs. Kohli 18, Dhoni 7, Rohit 45 will continue to dominate the stands.
Now is the time for IPL franchises to match that passion, be bold, be consistent and not just treat the jersey as a commodity but as an identity. Because a jersey is ultimately more than a fabric. It’s something fans carry with them, something they wear, remember and make their own.
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Published on:
04 Apr 2026 05:01 IST
