Southampton appoint colour psychologist to help launch new kit

There’s only so much you can say when your strip is a re-imagining of a striped design, so Southampton embraced the help of Dr Barry Gale to explain the psychology behind their new kit.

The tongue-in-cheek documentary, featuring the fictional Gale (a play on Gareth Bale’s name, as well as an anagram of ‘grab early’), sees the character attempt to introduce stripes to all aspects of the team’s play. Several first team players also make cameos in the piece, as well as director of football Les Reed.

In a press release to mark the appointment of what the club are calling the Premier League’s first ever ‘Player Integration Officer’, Dr Gale – played by American comedian Tom Davis – channeled the spirit of W1A by commenting:

In the last ten years I’ve established myself as one of the top one thousand colour and pattern psychologists in the world. Despite being a huge fan of the beautiful game, to date my expertise has mostly been used for interior design – I was actually junior colour consultant on DIY SOS for three years. My role at Southampton is a crucial one. Where clubs have been going wrong all these years is not fully understanding the complexities players – and fans – face in moving to a new kit. As part of the Show Your Stripes campaign, I have developed the Player Integrated Stripe Strategy, which I believe can deliver 0.1% on-pitch improvement 100% of the time. It’s marginal gains on a massive scale.”

The documentary is part of the club’s new kit campaign, called #ShowYourStripes. They’re asking fans to show red and white aspects of their lives through photos, as well as pictures of them in their team colours.

Once again the club have shown they’re not afraid to do things a little differently. Special praise is reserved for whoever managed to convince management to let them run with the acronym P.I.S.S too.

Watch the full video below: