Xtra Time Web Desk: : SC East Bengal on Monday launched their home, away and third kit for the 2020-21 Hero Indian Super League (ISL) season. The club management partnered with the exceptionally talented Meghna Nayak, a young designer from Bengal who is a pioneer of sustainable design and someone who has passionately advocated for keeping things local.
An environment-conscious designer, Nayak is an original thinker who has taken Bengal’s creativity to the world and been exhibited in Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and all over India with her brand LataSita.
Nayak’s concepts for SC East Bengal, inspired by the Flame, the ‘Ilish’ or Hilsa fish, and the Royal Bengal Tiger of the Sunderbans instantly appealed to the club.
“The jerseys look amazing. The bright red and gold home kit has traditionally been synonymous with the club and with the flaming torch adding to the firepower. Our away and third kits also have a lot of tradition ingrained in them which makes it even more special,” SC East Bengal head coach Robbie Fowler said.
“It is every footballer’s dream to don SC East Bengal colours and I am delighted to be able to do that. The jerseys look nice and well designed. They fit well too and are comfortable,” said striker Jeje Lalpekhlua
The Home kit is a stylised version of the very flame in the club logo. The rendition in red and yellow continues to signal the dynamism and firepower of the team but adapting it to new design sensibilities. “It had to be simple, iconic, and distinctly recognizable from afar.” said Nayak.
According to Nayak, “The Away kit in blue and white is a cheeky nod to the Ilish or Hilsa fish that is inextricably associated with families that famously feast on Hilsa after an East Bengal win. The design can be interpreted as fish scales, armour or water to depict the waters that flow between and forever connect East and West Bengal, and provide life and livelihood to its people. Most importantly, these very rivers, our lifeline, are over-polluted and cleaning the rivers and water bodies that sustain us is the need of the hour,” Nayak said.
The third kit had to be something different, and the inspiration was the Bengal Tiger. “What better symbol to invoke than the fierceness of the beast indistinguishably associated with Bengal,” said Nayak.