Crystal Palace 20-21 Kits Stolen From Concept Designer?

The new Crystal Palace kits were unveiled earlier today, and it's fair to say that they have not been received too well.

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And there might be more controversy on the way as people have spotted concept designs from almost one year ago on Instagram, which look exactly like the ones released by the club today.

The designs were initially shared by @palacekit, whose bio reads "All designs are unofficial, just me having fun") and who has since produced a number of other Crystal Palace concept designs, on 25 October 2019.

Now, there are two possibilities for what happened here. Either the club stole @palacekit's work or they approached the creator and compensated them for the work. If this was an official approach from Palace to @palacekit, it's surprising that the post was not quietly taken down between October and now. If there wasn't any contact between the club and the creator, Crystal Palace have some explaining to do.

It has to be said that Crystal Palace's jerseys are not directly produced by Puma. The designs are created as a collaboration between the club and Puma Teamwear, a company that manages Puma's brand for lower level teams in the UK.

Chairman Steve Parish confirmed the inspiration for the new kits during today's unveiling:

Stay tuned to see how this story evolves.

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