Here's the Key

The crest has been unveiled, the merchandise is on the street, and perhaps we can glean some larger meaning from it. This is our first opportunity to really see it in action.

Unfortunately, it appears that they're going to put a white keyline around it on dark backgrounds. Check out these shirts:

Two shades of gray, sky blue, no problem. But the navy tshirt has that ugly white border.

This is also true of the caps; the sky blue snapback is fine, but the navy slouch cap has been given a keyline.

A keyline is intended to make a logo stand out against a background, especially one of a similar color. But the NYCFC crest doesn't need a keyline; the orange circle already serves the same function. Adding a white circle around a logo already comprised of circles just makes it more complex and messy.

It may be a small thing, but I'm really hoping that this isn't going to be part of the club's standard treatment.

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UPDATE:   The second round of merchandise has hit the online shop, and it's good news:

New navy flex fit cap, but no white keyline. You can see what I mentioned above, that the outer orange circle serves as a keyline itself, separating the crest from the background.

It looks so much better this way, I hope NYCFC will carry this forward to all applications.

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