Colored gear with specific classes.

[Oscillate_Wildly]

I agree here completely. The dyes should be purely for looks, not for stats. Armor TYPE should be for stats and MATERIA for stat boosts.

A colorless Hempen Doublet Vest gives no gathering stats but a HDV (Grey) does AND is slotted. Give the gathering stat to all Hempen Doublet Vests and let me attach materia for any additional stat. If it originally has Gathering +6 and I want to add more Gathering ok, or add Output, or Perception, etc.

And the Hempen Doublet Vest should come in colorless, black, brown, blue, green, white, red, purple, and yellow. In later patches let us mix red and white for pink, yellow and red for orange.

I completely agree, at the very least if they're going to add all the colours put them in hues. Colour combos should become more handsome and full the higher you get (Wool ,felt, velveteen) and more muted in lowered ones (Hempen, cotton) while still retaining some sort of hempen feel, likewise for wool.

This shoehorning as Jynx puts it is still baffling and no one has offered up an explicit reason for its existence that isn't steeped so deeply in BS.

[Rubicon]

I edited my post a bit but the sentiment is the same, just a bit more clear on the stat boosts.

And I also agree with hues which solves the issues with the "gear should look like what it is made for" crowd. If a player sees a Hempen Doublet Vest (Blue) and a Velveteen Doublet Vest (Blue), the player should see that a lighter blue or faded blue is not the same as a vibrant blue and can spot the difference in the material type. Hues give players the choice of color at any level gear but also the feeling of progression as you go from lighter to more vibrant colors as the gear gets stronger.