Obscure Kits From British Football History #10

Sheffield Wednesday (home)
1965 - 1972

As a football fan of some advanced years there comes a point in your life when you find yourself pondering some of the quirkier aspects of the game's history. Things like 'When was the last time Ron Atkinson was a colour other than orange?' or 'Was Bryan Robson born injured?'

One such question that recently crossed my mind (and frankly didn't have far to travel) was "Why are Arsenal the only team to wear a shirt that has white sleeves contrasting another main colour?" It did, honestly.

The answer I arrived at was a simple one. Arsenal's white sleeve motif is not unique in the history of world football. North of the border, Hibernian have worn green shirts with white sleeves for many years while other teams such as Middlesbrough and Manchester City have had brief dalliances with the same white-sleeved approach in the not-so-distant past.

One team, however, abandoned the longest traditions of their football kit history for seven long years back in the mid-60's as they opted for white sleeves on a blue shirt. They were Sheffield Wednesday.

If ever a club remained unflinchingly attached to the uniform they wore, it was this one. For as long as anyone can remember, Sheffield Wednesday have always entered the field of play wearing blue and white striped shirts - even going back to the late-19th century when they were simply known as 'The Wednesday'.

So many players have been seen wearing those stripes over the years: Tommy Craig, Terry Curran, Carlton Palmer (OK, perhaps not Carlton Palmer...) The team's on-field identity remained strong and resolute throughout, yet between 1965 and 1972 it was all thrown away in favour of the strip you see here.

And make no mistake - this wasn't a 'here today, gone tomorrow' affair either. This was a genuine attempt at injecting some life into a famous old club at a time when they were on something of a high.

Having established a foothold in the old Division 1 in the late-1950's, The Owls pushed on and reached the FA Cup Final in 1966, although sadly this kit wasn't seen at Wembley thanks to Everton having first choice of shirt colours. No matter - Wednesday's kit was seen by a great many people before it disappeared without trace in 1972, never to be seen again.

From that point onwards it was back to the tried and trusted blue and white stripes, but distinctive though they are, who here would like to see the white sleeves return? I would, but then that's because I have a mind that ponders on quirky stuff like Ron Atkinson's skin colour and Bryan Robson's medical record.

Football Kits 2009/10: Who makes what

Back in August 2008, Some People Are On The Pitch wrote one of its most popular articles ever. It wasn't a lengthy thesis on the things we hate most about Cristiano Ronaldo, nor was it an online poll asking you for your happiest memories involving Milton Keynes Dons. Somewhat surprisingly, it was an article listing the kit manufacturers of each of the 92 Premier and Football League teams for 2008/09. I know... we we were surprised too.

We can only think that our article was regarded as the perfect reference guide for those of you interested in who makes what where football kits are concerned. That being the case, we thought we'd set up a new page for the 2009/10 season - especially given the fact that many new kits are already being launched for the next campaign.

So here goes with our list of confirmed kit manufacturers for the 2009/10 season. We'll be updating the page whenever we hear of any new strips being launched so don't forget to check back for all the latest news throughout the summer here in the UK.

Confirmed kit manufacturers for 2009/10
Adidas: Chelsea, Derby, Liverpool, Macclesfield, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Peterborough, Plymouth, Swindon. Admiral: Hereford, Walsall. Bukta: Chesterfield, Millwall. Canterbury: Portsmouth, Preston. Carbrini: Aldershot, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Exeter, Oldham, Rochdale. Carlotti: Rotherham, Scunthorpe. Errea: Brighton, Bristol Rovers, Burnley, Cheltenham, Darlington, Grimsby, Northampton. Joma: Charlton, Leicester, Watford, Wycombe. Le Coq Sportif: Carlisle, Everton, Stoke, Wolves. Lotto: Barnsley, Crewe, QPR. Macron: Leeds, Sheffield Utd, Stockport. Mitre: Huddersfield, Ipswich. Nike: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Hartlepool, Man United, MK Dons, Southend, Notts County. ProStar: Accrington Stanley, Shrewsbury. Puma: Brentford, Bristol City, Cardiff, Colchester, Coventry, Leyton Orient, Morecambe, Reading, Sheff. Wed, Tottenham. Reebok: Bolton. Surridge: Bradford, Bury. TAG: Burton Albion. Umbro: Birmingham, Blackburn, Hull, Lincoln, Man City, Nottm. Forest, Southampton, Sunderland, Swansea, West Brom, West Ham. Vandanel: Barnet, Dagenham and Redbridge, Doncaster, Gillingham, Port Vale, Tranmere, Wigan, Yeovil. Xara: Norwich.

Total Number of Kits (so far) Per Manufacturer 2009/10
(Last season's figures shown in brackets)

Umbro: 11 (11)
Puma: 10 (9)
Adidas: 9 (6)
Nike: 9 (9)
Vandanel: 8 (10)
Errea: 7 (7)
Carbrini: 6 (2)
Joma: 4 (2)
Le Coq Sportif: 4 (5)
Lotto: 3 (5)
Macron: 3 (1)
Admiral: 2 (0)
Bukta: 2 (2)
Canterbury: 2 (1)
Carlotti: 2 (4)
Mitre: 2 (2)
ProStar: 2 (3)
Surridge: 2 (2)
Reebok: 1 (1)
TAG: 1 (0)
Xara: 1 (1)

New England Kit - Your thoughts

So now all the dust has settled and every shred of fake imagery has been eradicated from our memories, what do we think of the new England kit? Quite radical, don't you think?

As you'll know of us by now, we here at SPAOTP like football kits in all their various colours and designs and this one is certainly worthy of special attention. Gone are all the red flashes, gone is the navy blue trim... hell, gone are the navy blue shorts too.

There's only one word to describe England's new outfit, and that's 'white'. That in itself is likely to divide those people that believe England should always wear the blue shorts, but let's face it, England have played in all white before on the odd occasion and it's never been much of an issue.

The other key factor about this new kit is the styling of the shirt. Many years ago, Umbro shirts used to have a tag sown into them that said "Tailored by Umbro in England" and in exploring the company's origins you get the feeling that Umbro wanted to reintroduce that 'tailoring' aspect once again.

The new version of the shirt is cut in at the sides and on the shoulders to accentuate the shape of the chest better, it has a flappy collar that doesn't really flap that much and air holes to increase ventilation. All in all it has a more traditional look which, from some angles, makes it look like a polo shirt or even a vintage shirt from the early 1900's.

But that's what makes it so distinctive and utterly different from what's preceded it in recent times. Despite the fact that you, our humble audience, have already chosen England's 1982 World Cup strip as your current favourite, it seems Umbro have happily abandoned all the extraneous colours and styles in favour of something more simple and dignified.

So what are your thoughts? Does it meet your own high exacting standards? Are you planning on buying one, or do you feel it's a massive disappointment? We'd like to hear what you think, so leave us a comment to give us your feedback or vote in our online poll below...

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Photo courtesy of blog.umbro.com.

Obscure Kits From British Football History #9

Chelsea (away)
1978 - 1981

You'll have gathered by now that SPAOTP are big fans of ITV4's brilliant retrospective of vintage football, The Big Match Revisited. The series showing hour-long re-runs of football action from the 1978/79 season is a joy to behold for anyone that yearns for a more innocent time before rampant commercialisation took over.

This week's show featured a First Division clash between Manchester City and Chelsea at Maine Road dated January 22nd 1979, and it's from here that we get the latest in our Obscure Kit series.

With Manchester City playing in all-Sky Blue, Chelsea (managed by Danny Blanchflower) couldn't possibly enter the field of play wearing their traditional Royal Blue shirts for fear of a colour clash. It was therefore time to wheel out the change strip, and even by the rich and varied history of all Chelsea'a change strips, this one was a bit peculiar.

When playing away from home, Chelsea have worn various colour combinations down the years - white and blue, red and white, even yellow and blue, but between 1978 and 1981, Chelsea opted for the rarely seen combo of yellow and green.

A quick check of my True Colours book by John Devlin tells me that ostensibly this was an all-yellow kit with green trim, but on certain isolated occasions (such as the aforementioned match against Man City) green shorts would be worn to create a distinctly 'Norwichesque' ensemble.

Chelsea's kit at the time was made by Umbro and featured their familiar styling du jour, namely the famous diamond logo running liberally along the sleeves, shorts and stocking tops. It was a device they used to great effect on their blue and white home kit back then, but when their yellow away kit was originally launched in 1977/78, it featured blue trim, not green.

Obviously someone in the Marketing department decided to change things around to give the team a more Brazilian feel for the following year, but it didn't do them much good - they were relegated at the end of the 78/79 season and promptly stayed in Division Two for five long seasons.

Oh well, at least they'd make up for that with interest a decade or two later. And as for that yellow and green kit, we've still got the photographic evidence to remind us of a time when Micky Droy et al looked ever so slightly Brazilian. Or like a member of Norwich City's reserve team - one or the other.

Obscure Kits From British Football History #8

Tottenham Hotspur (away)
1977 - 1980

As the title suggests, this occasional series plucks the most obscure football kit designs from the history of the sport and puts them under the microscope for all to see (and indeed laugh at).

One trend we've noticed since we started this series is that many of these long-forgotten obscurities were originally made by Admiral. This seemingly harmless company based in Leicester were responsible for some of the most peculiar and outlandish designs seen throughout the 1970's and 80's, and today's offering is no different.

For part 8 of our 'Obscure British Kits' series, we give you the Tottenham away strip from 1977 to 1980.

What's the first thing you notice about it? Come to think about it, what's the only thing you'll notice about it? That's right - it's that strange over-the-shoulder thing going on either side of the big flappy collar.

Be honest, have you ever seen a feature like that on a football kit before or since? We'll take it as read that your answer was 'No'.

What would be an otherwise perfectly harmless pale yellow and navy blue strip is somewhat overshadowed by that odd band hanging over the shoulders.

It's neither a stripe or a panel - it's just a thing. Did Admiral apply it to anyone else's kit, we wonder? If you know, please get in touch with us in the usual fashion.

Meantime, all we can do is stand back and admire it (if indeed 'admire' is the word we're looking for) and to rack our brains as to where we've seen something similar in the past.

Wait a minute - perhaps this is the answer...



(Our thanks go to John Devlin at True Colours Football Kits for giving us kind permission to use the above kit design image.)

Football Kits 2008/09: Who makes what

Before we press on with other matters, here's a final word on the subject of football kits.

Just before the current domestic football season started here in the UK, we carried out some research to see which kit manufacturers were the most popular among the 92 league clubs, and duly compared our findings to those of last year.

For 2008/09, we can confirm that Umbro are the most popular kit manufacturer with eleven teams in their portfolio, five of which are (somewhat impressively) in the Premier League. The next most popular is Vandanel - a name that may not be too familiar to you if you support a team playing below the Championship.

Vandanel are an Essex-based company who have been in the sportswear industry for about twenty years and are now the suppliers of kit for ten Football League teams including Gillingham, Notts County and Tranmere Rovers. As you can see from these three examples showing their current shirts for Port Vale, Northampton and Darlington, they're not at all bad either.



Puma and Nike are next with nine teams each, and here you'll find a slight difference in approach between the two companies. While Nike can claim to have secured the contracts of clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Fulham, Puma have only Tottenham by way of a 'star name'. Instead, their portfolio focuses largely on numerous teams from lower down the leagues like Coventry, Plymouth and Leyton Orient.

Further down the list are Errea, best known as the long-running suppliers of kit for Middlesbrough - they provide for seven teams - and Adidas who, out of the 92 clubs of the Football League produce kit for just six. That said, three of them are Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle.

All in all, there are 26 kit companies plying their trade this season - down three on last season - and one of the names to disappear off the list is Southampton FC. That's right: The Saints have made their own kit since 1999, but not any more - they've decided to go with Umbro for the foreseeable future.

Also falling by the wayside for 2008/09 is Bourne Red, the name for Bournemouth's own football kit company, plus one of the most famous names of all - Admiral. Only Leeds United had an Admiral strip last season, but with Macron securing the new contract, the one-time England kit suppliers are now absent from the football scene.

Other well-known names on the wane are Diadora (five clubs last year, three this), Hummel (Barnet last year, no club this year) and Surridge (down from four clubs to two) while Champion burst onto the scene with Wigan's new kit and Carbrini make their debut with Bournemouth and Luton's new attire.

Full list of kits (by manufacturer):
Adidas: Chelsea, Derby, Liverpool; Bukta: Chesterfield, Millwall; Canterbury: Portsmouth; Carbrini: Bournemouth, Luton; Carlotti: Blackpool, Oldham, Rotherham, Scunthorpe; Champion: Wigan; Diadora: Preston, Stockport, Watford; Errea: Brighton, Bristol Rovers, Burnley, Cheltenham, Crystal Palace, Grimsby, Middlesbrough; Gazelle Sports: Chester; Jako: Leicester; Joma: Cardiff, Charlton; Le Coq Sportif: Carlisle, Man City, Sheffield Utd, Stoke, Wolves; Lotto: Barnsley, Crewe, QPR, Sheffield Wed, Swindon; Macron: Leeds; Mitre: Huddersfield, Ipswich; Nike: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Fulham, Hartlepool, Hereford, Man United, Milton Keynes Dons, Rochdale, Southend; ProStar: Accrington Stanley, Shrewsbury; Puma: Brentford, Bristol City, Colchester, Coventry, Leyton Orient, Morecambe, Plymouth, Reading, Tottenham; Reebok: Bolton; SHO: Exeter; Sport Italia: Aldershot; Surridge: Bradford, Bury; Swift: Walsall; Umbro: Birmingham, Blackburn; Everton, Hull, Lincoln, Nottm Forest, Southampton, Sunderland, Swansea, West Brom, West Ham; Vandanel; Barnet, Dagenham & Redbridge, Darlington, Doncaster, Gillingham, Northampton, Notts County, Port Vale, Tranmere, Yeovil; Xara: Norwich.

Premier League Kit Parade (Part 4)

It's time for the thrilling climax to our look at the new Premier League shirts of 2008/09. Today, we survey the last five teams in alphabetical order, so let's begin with...

Sunderland
Another case of Umbro tidying up the over-proliferation of diamonds here as they give the Black Cats a much cleaner-looking and rather swish home shirt. A nice use of black around the v-neck and at the top of the arms makes this a rather decent design, mirrored in black and blue for the away shirt.

And here once again we see that black-and-blue-stripe combo that Middlesbrough have used for their own away shirt. Which is the better? It's difficult to say. Umbro have certainly done a decent job with their version for Sunderland and it's fair to say it's a nice contrast with the all-white affair that was used last season. Well done, Umbro.

Tottenham
Once again, there's a trilogy of new shirts to check out for The Lilywhites, thereby maximising those all important takings in the club shop. Yes, we are being cynical, but we're sure we must be speaking on behalf of some Spurs supporters out there...

So what do we have here? For a start, Tottenham's featureless but very stylish all-white home shirt from last year is replaced with one that has navy blue panels under the arms and a navy blue v-neck collar. It's not at all bad, we think, but somehow that plain white one was just a little bit special. Good, but not as good, if you see what we mean.

Then there's the new away shirt which this year is sky blue. It has to be acknowledged that Spurs have one of those constant talking points in place about which colours work best for the away shirt. For them, the debate is 'yellow or sky blue?' and though it will no doubt divide Tottenham fans in equal measures, we think yellow's better, but this blue edition looks really nice. It reminds us of those heady days when Clive Allen was banging in the goals at White Hart Lane, and that can be no bad thing.

And finally onto the third shirt which is a little bit odd. Where Spurs have recently resorted to a dark brown and gold outfit, this is black and gold. Does that suggest the brown colourscheme was a little bit too controversial to keep in place, we wonder? Whatever - this is again a nice shirt with a flappy collar just like the sky blue shirt, but what are those little white stripes on the left shoulder? We think it's a gesture of some sort relating to the Puma King range of boots and styling, but we're not sure. All we know is that it shouldn't be there, and that's an end to the matter.

All in all, three nice shirts from Puma, but don't expect them to be worn by the team next season as they won't be. The modern age of football kit design is a ruthless one, and it's best that we tell you the news now before you're hurt further down the line.

West Bromwich Albion
The Baggies are back! Not only that, but there's a new incarnation of those famous navy blue and white stripes from Umbro. This season, they've tried to invigorate that design with something original by incorporating an extra pinstripe either side of those navy blue bands. You might not be able to see it on our picture, but trust us it's there and it looks... er... not overly remarkable.

Add that to the lack of any significant sort of collar and what you end up with is a fairly featureless design that looks a little boring to us. Sorry Baggies fans, but there it is. We'd even go so far as to say their home shirt from last season was actually better, despite all those Umbro diamonds littered all over the shoulders.

And then there's the away shirt. How can we put this... it looks like something a referee would wear. It's yellow, with incredibly minimal styling and harsh though this sounds, it looks rubbish. Quite what Umbro were thinking when they produced this is beyond us - let alone what West Brom were thinking when they gave it the thumbs-up. This is arguably the worst shirt anyone will set eyes on this season, and that's all we can say about it. It's only our opinion, you understand, but we think it'll tally up with a lot of people. Sorry and all that.

West Ham United
While we're on the subject of Umbro, here's what they've come up with for West Ham this season. At home, they've put together a shirt that we think is OK but we're not sure why.

It looks not unlike Aston Villa's home shirt and seems smart enough in many respects, and yet it isn't a wholehearted nod towards something either traditional or particularly interesting. Basically we're saying it's neat and inoffensive but it won't win any design awards either.

Away from home, West Ham have bought into the Umbro template for this season - a plain shirt with two contrasting stripes across the upper part of the chest (see Everton away, England away, etc). This one's a pleasant summery blue with white and claret coloured bands and is really rather good.

A welcome return to the all-pale blue West Ham away outfit, but what we really want to see is the revival of those two horizontal claret stripes around the middle like Bobby Moore and Clyde Best used to wear circa 1970. No chance of that any time soon, we suppose...

Wigan Athletic
And so we reach the end of the road with Wigan and here we save a small surprise for last because The Latics have joined up with Champion as their new kit supplier. As far as we can remember, Champion haven't really had much to do with football kit production in the recent past, but they've got their foot in the door now and have even secured a contract with the Welsh FA.

All that aside, Wigan's new shirts look really good and are a credit to Champion as a new name on the scene. The home shirt has a crisp, clean look with bold blue and white stripes (take note Umbro/WBA) with some interesting little bits of business going on around the shoulder area too. Nothing too showy or distracting, mind - this is all good stuff and hits the spot nicely, in our opinion.

Then there's the away shirt which perhaps isn't so cut and dried by virtue of the fact that it's that controversial luminous yellow in colour. When Chelsea tried the same trick last season, Adidas' found themselves universally ridiculed for their efforts, but somehow this one looks less 'in your face' (if that's possible for a luminous yellow shirt).

Wigan's version simply uses some bold black piping around the shoulders and down the sides to create a look that's easy on the eye while being bold and, of course, highly visible on the pitch. Jolly good, we think - well done, Champion.

The end...?
So that's it - the end of our 20-team survey of all the new shirts for 2008/09, except for one shirt which has been launched in the last couple of weeks since Part 2 of our guide. It's Manchester City's new third shirt and it's already been worn in the club's opening Premier League fixture against Aston Villa.

It's predominantly Flame Orange with a navy blue sleeve and collar. The colourscheme is distinctive and works well, but ironically its effectiveness is almost undone by that totally unnecessary bit of yellow piping down the left shoulder. What's that there for, for crying out loud?!? We're sorry, Le Coq Sportif, but that bit of yellow you've included there cheapens the overall look and smacks of a designer who didn't know when to quit while they were ahead.

Still, let's not be too harsh. This has some elements of originality to it, like the asymmetrical sleeves and the use of colours, so it's not all bad. A reasonable try on behalf of LCS, but a note for future reference - don't get too fussy during the design stage. Keep it simple and the fans will be happy.

Here endeth the lecture.

Premier League Kit Parade (Part 3)

Yes folks, as sure as night follows day and Great Britain follows Swaziland in the Olympic medals table, it's now time for Part 3 of our look at the new shirts being worn in the Premier League this season. Before we start, a quick 'hello' to all of you joining us from Fifastadt.de who, like us, enjoy finding out about the latest garments being worn in the world of football. Nice to have you with us.

So to begin, a curiosity. This might be a unique happening for 2008/09, but Manchester United start the new campaign with only one new shirt to show off, and it's this white, red and blue away offering from Nike. In case you're wondering, their red home shirt was brought in last season on one of those old-fashioned 'two year deals', so they'll be wearing that one again this time around. How very quaint!

Anyway, this away shirt of United's looks like a decent design to us. We're not sure about the red and blue highlights as we're probably used to seeing Man U in white and black away from home, but nonetheless it seems to reek of Nike's usual high production values and should be a fan's favourite in a very short space of time. Oh, and don't be surprised if a new Man United third strip comes out during the course of the season, but for now, that’s all there is from Old Trafford.

And so to Middlesbrough who, after a one season break, have returned to one of their all-time favourite designs - a classic that should never under any circumstances be discarded: the classic red shirt with a white band across the middle. Last year's all-red affair was decidedly uninspiring, but the white stripe's back and it looks pretty good to us.

Then there's the new away shirt which also returns to former values in the form of a blue-and-black-striped creation. This looks rather nice and is a hell of a lot better than those rather iffy looking kits featuring gold and ecru that have been concocted by Errea in the past.

And that reminds us - why Errea? They've been supplying Middlesbrough's kit since 1994 and to be honest they rarely seem to come up with the goods. Isn't it time for a change now, Mr. Gibson? For the time being though, these are a couple of reasonable shirts to be going on with.

Next up it's Newcastle and like Man United, they're keeping their home shirts from last year. Instead, they've got new away and third shirts to show us and these aren't too bad either. Away from home, Newcastle have come up with yet another new colour to add to the many they've worn in the past, and it's purple. (Sorry if it doesn't show up too well in the picture.)

It's pretty standard fare from Adidas - a plain front with those three legendary stripes running down the sleeves - and it looks nice and slick… but that colour… will people want to buy and wear it in their droves? I've a feeling purple could polarise opinions amongst the fans, but for the likes of us that aren't, we don't mind it too much at all.

To continue the slightly controversial tone, Adidas have also produced a silver third strip for the Toons. (Note - that's silver, not grey.) Again, rather nice and a lot better looking than the other silver/grey shirt Adidas have produced for 2008/09 (see Part 2 - Liverpool), but dare we suggest that white band across the middle looks somewhat Middlesbrough-esque? Don't complain to us, Newcastle fans - it was just an observation…

Next up it's Portsmouth and they have a new home shirt that pares down the old design to feature just blue and gold. All the white trim has gone and what's left is a simple but effective shirt which should please more than it offends.

The away shirt, however, may divide your opinions. Some have called it a rugby shirt, others a cricket shirt, but either way it's… well… different. As you can see, the shirt is white with blue sleeves, a big chunky flyaway collar and a blue panel around the bottom.

For our money, this is exactly the sort of well-executed inventiveness we want to see more of in football shirt design, and as a result, we love it. Admittedly there's a practicality issue around that big collar flapping up in your face while you're running, but apart from that it looks modern, looks distinctive and for all that has our unequivocally wholehearted support. Top marks to Canterbury for showing the way forward.

Finally today, we turn our attention to one of the Premier League's new boys, Stoke City. Renowned for their red and white stripes, Stoke's new home shirt doesn't disappoint and this new version sees Le Coq Sportif widening the middle stripe to give us something a little bit different. It looks great with its simple but very pleasant styling and if it isn't snapped up by the truckload, we'll be very surprised.

The Potters' away shirt is yellow, a colour they haven’t used for quite some time. With blue trim around the collar and under the sleeves, it provides a strong contrast to the home kit and takes us back to a time in the mid-70's when seemingly everyone's away kit was yellow and blue (think Derby, Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, etc…)

While not the most exciting of offerings, it certainly ticks all the important boxes so we've no real reason to grumble. A good effort on both counts from Le Coq Sportif and one that Stoke fans should be rather happy with.

That just about wraps it up for Part 3 of our new shirt perusal for the upcoming Premier League season. In the fourth and final part coming soon, we'll be finding out what the good folk at Sunderland, Tottenham, West Brom, West Ham and Wigan will be wearing, so stay with us for that…

Premier League Kit Parade (Part 2)

And so we arrive at Part 2 of our saunter through the exciting landscape that is the Premier League shirts for 2008/09. Today we have five more teams to concentrate on, and this being an alphabetical list of sorts, we continue with...

Everton
Say what you like about The Toffees - when it comes to their home shirts, they don't like to change things around too much. Consistency is everything. There again (as Oscar Wilde once said), consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative, and we happen to agree with him there.

So what will David Moyes' men be wearing this season? Well, apart from their new blue shirt which looks staggeringly reminiscent of the last one, there's also a more enlightening away shirt that's white with a navy blue and grey band across the top of the chest.

Even this, however, can't really be treated as being anything bordering on unique or a one-off as this 'double stripe' motif of Umbro's can be seen everywhere from the England away shirt to the West Ham away shirt - more of which in Part 4 of our Premier League Kit Parade.

But let's not be too harsh. Both shirts look smart, neat and in the case of that away shirt, quite stylish. Not bad, but come on Everton... why not go for something more interesting next season, eh?

Fulham
The club from Craven Cottage scored big points with us (and indeed most of you) for their new Nike kits last season, and here we are again with another couple that should meet with your approval.

In the home shirt, Nike have reintroduced a little more black around the collar and cuffs which, given that last years equivalent was completely white, may or may not be a good thing depending on your opinion. Other than that, it's as you were.

On the away shirt, however, Fulham have (much like Barcelona this year) gone from stripes to halves in red and black, and we think this is excellent - so much so that Fulham should stick with it in the future. We really do like it that much.

Once again, Nike have produced a couple of designs that are very simple but retain a very stylish and attractive look. Well done them, we say.

Hull City
Ah, welcome aboard the good ship Prosperity, Hull. We're pleased to see you and we'll have difficulty missing you in your new home shirt which sees a return to those amber and black stripes you've worn so much throughout your history.

Yes, Hull are back in the big time and Umbro have given them a strip to be proud of. The thing you have to know about Hull City is that they regularly alternate between striped shirts and plain amber ones, and having had plain last year, Umbro have returned to the stripes for 2008/09. They've made a good job of it too, with a sleek, no-nonsense garment that should catch the eye without any trouble.

Away from home, The Tigers have got a more sombre dark grey shirt to wear. Hmmm... grey shirts... problematic, no? Perhaps. They can be somewhat less than inspiring (as we'll be seeing shortly), but this one's saved by its dark, brooding tone which should make it easy for the players to pick each other out on the pitch.

All in all then, a pretty good effort from Umbro, if our opinion's anything to go by. And at least they've avoided the obvious pitfall of basing a new shirt design on the team's nickname which, frankly, is unforgivable.

Liverpool
When Adidas replaced Reebok as The Reds' kit supplier in 2006, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Most of those Reebok strips from the previous ten years were, it has to be said, decidedly poor, so it was no surprise to find us rubbing our hands with glee when that run came to an end.

Sadly Adidas' first offering was, well, inadequate to say the least. That floppy collar and the wavy white piping did nothing for us, and so it's our great pleasure to welcome a much smarter replacement that proves that sometimes less is more. Very nice.

Unfortunately, the new away shirt undoes all that building anticipation by being light grey, and as if that's not bad enough, they've even incorporated a shadow checkerboard pattern that subscribes to the 1984 school of football shirt design.

There's no nice way to put this - it looks cheap, boring and unoriginal. At least Hull's grey away shirt has a slight air of panache about it, but this, this... needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Liverpool have brought out a third shirt for this season - a pretty good green one - but it'll only be seen in their European away games. Shame, that. It would have been a far better away shirt full stop.

Manchester City
And finally to Man City who've had the dubious honour of having Le Coq Sportif as their kit manufacturers since 1999. For this season, they've produced a home shirt that improves on the rather bland pinstriped affair of 2007/08, and though it lacks a little excitement, we think it's a step back in the right direction.

Out go those pinstripes which proved such a talking point last season, and in comes a plain light blue shirt with a white stripe running across one shoulder and a thin navy blue stripe running across the other. With a nice navy blue v-neck collar, it doesn't look at all bad in our book.

A little more troubling, however, is City's away shirt. It sees a return to the old red-and-black-stripe arrangement, and we think it looks OK... but we're not sure.

What's causing the confusion are those white pinstripes that flank the red and black bands. If it weren't for those, we think this'd be an almost perfect design. Sadly those thin white lines take the edge off it and that means the best we can call it is 'good' and/or 'interesting'.

So there it is, another five sets of shirts for you to judge and assess. We'd love to hear whether you agree or disagree with our rather presumptuous views, so why not drop us a comment and give us your thoughts on any or all of the shirts above.

Our thanks go to Football Shirt Culture and Historical Kits for their help with our research, and don't forget to join us again soon for Part 3 of our report on the new shirts for the 2008/09 Premier League season.

The Friday List of Little or No Consequence #73

Oblique styling
10 Football Teams That (Have Been Known To) Wear Shirts Featuring Diagonal Stripes

1. Crystal Palace (home)



2. Guatemala (home)



3. LA Galaxy (home / away (featured))



4. Leicester City (away)



5. Lorient (home)



6. Manchester City (away)



7. Netherlands (away)



8. Peru (home (featured) and away)



9. River Plate (home)



10. Vasco Da Gama (home)

Premier League Kit Parade (Part 1)

This time last year, SPAOTP brought you pictures of some of the new shirts being released for public purchase by each of the Premier League clubs, and we asked you to tell us what you thought of them.

This year, we've back again for more of the same and we've got even more new designs to show you, so let's crack on and see what the twenty clubs of the Premier League will be wearing this season. In Part 1, we begin with...

Arsenal
...and the first thing you notice about their new home and away shirts is that they're strangely familiar - particularly the away one.

Nike have this time come up with another of those 'controversial' Arsenal home shirts where the sleeves aren't predominantly white as we're all used to seeing - a bit like the first one they produced for The Gunners back in 1994 - but that navy blue stripe resonates with their 2000-2002 kit as well.

As for the yellow change shirt, that can only bring back memories of one thing - the exciting climax to Arsenal's 1988/89 season in which they beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield to clinch the title.

It's the classic combination - yellow with navy blue sleeves, and it's bound to prove a big hit with the Arsenal fans, purely for nostalgia value alone. A good pair of shirts from Nike, we think, and a slight improvement on last season.

Aston Villa
Once again, we have a couple of offerings from Nike, but this time we're left with a slight feeling of disappointment.

Oh don't get us wrong - both the home and away shirts are nice and smart and no doubt well made, but they lack any sense of excitement or specific interest. Perhaps Nike went for the traditional look - something non-flashy and respectable?

Either way, the home shirt isn't vastly different from the one Villa wore last season, while the Summer Blue away shirt contrasts nicely with the previous white one. The thing is, we like Aston Villa's white away shirts so even that isn't scoring big points with us.

All in all then, a couple of safe shirts design-wise from Nike but if this were a school report we'd now be scribbling down the immortal phrase 'could do better...'

Blackburn Rovers
The first of six Umbro offerings here, and already there's one thing to note - the new Blackburn away shirt is already available to buy via their club website, but the home shirt isn't. You'll therefore have to make do with a picture of David Dunn wearing it for the time being.

So let's begin with that home shirt. Once again, the pendulum that is the eternal debate about whether the kit should have red trim swings back in the direction of 'No'. In many ways, that makes this shirt smarter and more refined - OK, we're tempted to say it's potentially less interesting to look at, but we think it's nicely styled, actually.

And then there's the away shirt. Now this is more like it... We're big fans of this one as it's that classic 'feature stripe' design that comes back in vogue every so often. This one's well executed with a white and royal blue stripe going down the middle on a navy blue background, but a technical point here - shouldn't an away shirt be coloured in such a way that it contrasts significantly with the home shirt? Discuss...

Bolton Wanderers
Now here's where we enter the realms of the surreal and the slightly comedic...

As you can see, Bolton's new shirts for home and away have what you might call a 'unique design element' - a strange dark-coloured thing that goes around the neck, over the shoulders and under the arms.

Seen from a distance and from certain angles, it looks like any player wearing one has got a rucksack strapped on his back. Suffice to say we fear for any replica shirt-wearing Bolton fan that has to catch a Tube train home from an away match in London this season.

While we're all in favour of creative design and a fresh approach, we think this is a step too far on the part of Reebok. We're also tempted to say that this is the sort of kit that you'll either love or hate, but to be honest it's more likely to just make you laugh more than anything. We'd like to be persuaded otherwise, though, so if you're a fan of Reebok's latest, leave us a comment and tell us why...

Chelsea
Somewhat typically from one of the 'Big Four', we have not two but three new shirts for the coming season, all of which are once again brought to us by Adidas.

Seen side by side in this manner, you'd first have to say there's an element of the 'template kit' about this (not that Adidas are any strangers to the art of designing template kits) but there is at least some difference in all three shirts as can be seen by (a) their colours, and (b) their collars.

Yes, it's another example of that 'let's keep it simple' mentality which you can't really knock but at the same time it doesn't really set the pulse racing either. We think the first point on the agenda when Chelsea met up with Adidas this summer was 'Get rid of that fluorescent yellow aberration from last season', and that they've duly done. It's been replaced with an old-fashioned (for Chelsea) warm yellow and blue edition which is much more pleasing on the eye, although it'll probably end up selling fewer units than the black one.

Still, all three look good to us and they're probably already flying out of the Chelsea club shop as we speak. So what are your thoughts on the new Chelsea shirts, or indeed any of the shirts mentioned above? Which would you be happy to keep as a memento for your future grandchildren and which would you happily set fire to in a frantic fit of pyromania?

Leave us a comment and tell us - we'd love to know your opinions. Meantime, look out for Part 2 heading your way shortly as it features Everton, Fulham, Hull, Liverpool and Man City...

Childhood Football Kit Amnesty

It's that time of the year when lots of new football kits are being released in readiness for the new season, and SPAOTP will be bringing them all to you very, very soon - never fear.

In the meantime, we'd like to conduct a short interactive survey on a not dissimilar topic - that of football kits. More specifically, we'd like to unearth your personal shameful memories on those football kits you wanted to own when you were a kid - the ones belonging to teams other than that which you supported.

The more shameful your secrets are, the more we want to hear them! Did you always want that Man United home strip in 1984 despite being an ardent Liverpool supporter? Was it always your ambition to get your hands on that silver Newcastle away kit even though you were a Sunderland fan?

Step into the SPAOTP confessional and tell us all! We promise to keep your identity secret (if you pay us enough money) and you'll be making the rest of us feel less guilty about those hoped-for (or even paid-for) purchases we had when we were young and carefree.

Speaking personally (as a West Ham fan), I always secretly hoped to get the Norwich City home kit for my birthday or Christmas when I was about eleven years old. Adidas were just starting to bring out their new wave of pinstripe designs, and that yellow and green one worn by The Canaries had a certain 'je ne sais pas' about it to my mind.

Sadly, my local sports shop didn't have it in stock at the time, so I had to make do with my second choice instead - the Liverpool home kit made by Umbro around the same time.

(You can see I had a thing for pinstripes, can't you?)

My parents duly bought it for me with what little money they had at the time, and I felt suitably grateful. The fact that I was arguably showing turncoat tendencies against my beloved West Ham didn't enter my head back then - it was all about wearing a kit that looked resplendent in its 'cutting edge' design.

So there it is - I admit: I once owned and proudly wore a Liverpool home strip back in 1983 despite being an ardent fan of The Hammers. Forgive me, Mooro, for I have sinned.

Care to own up to any of your own fleeting childhood desires (in terms of football kits only, please)? Leave us a comment and get it off your chest - you'll feel a lot better for it…

Obscure Kits From British Football History #7

Aberdeen (home)
1976-1979

When you go into business as a football kit manufacturer, the chances are you'll produce some designs that prove very popular with the supporters and some that will turn out to be absolute stinkers. No maker of football kits can ever claim to have hit the bullseye with every design, but if they at least come up with something original, they'll at least have achieved something.

This is effectively what Admiral did in the mid- to late-1970's. Having secured the contract to supply kit to the England team under Don Revie, Admiral were keen to flex their design muscles and show the world what they were capable of.

What followed was a series of kits smothered in a rash of Admiral logos on the shoulders, sleeves, shorts and anywhere else they could fit them in, but before that came a brief period where the company logo took second place to some genuine unashamed invention.

With Adidas starting to roll out their distinctive 'three stripe' motif all over the world, Admiral tried something similar but with an interesting twist. For Aberdeen, they'd put initially five and later four white stripes all the way down one side of their red shirts and shorts. Not down the sleeves, not down both sides of the shorts, but down one side of the shirt and shorts.

As is perhaps the sign of a true design classic, it's never been repeated since but Admiral did lend the four stripe motif to one other club back then - Manchester United, for their away kit. Theirs featured a white shirt with four black stripes, but it was Aberdeen's all red strip with those white tramlines running from shoulder to thigh that had the biggest impact.

I'd have to say it's one of my favourite kits from that era as it shows how a simple device like a bunch of consecutive lines can be used to make a football kit look that little bit different from all the rest.

Whether or not you like any of Admiral's other efforts from the 70's such as the brown Coventry City kit or the plethora of logo-infested designs foist upon everyone from West Ham to Norwich, this one stands head and shoulders above them all.

Well done, Admiral. This was one of your finest.

(Our thanks go to John Devlin at True Colours Football Kits for giving us kind permission to use the above kit design image.)

Shirts for 2007/08: The Final Verdict

You may remember between May and October last year, we gave you the chance to get an early look at some of the new shirts being released for the 2007/2008 season. Not only that but we also gave you the chance to tell us what you thought of them by providing an online vote in each case.

Well now the season's ended, we can tell you which shirts were the most popular amongst you, our fine and, may we say, rather smartly-dressed audience.

You'll recall we featured one new shirt per Premier League team so as to provide a fair balance throughout, and you were given the option to vote for either 'Excellent', 'Good', 'OK', 'Poor' or 'Terrible'.

All that taken into account, it gives us great pleasure to announce that on 'Excellent' votes alone, your favourite shirt was this one worn by Aston Villa away from home:



Out of all your votes for this shirt, 66% of you said it was 'Excellent' and based on 'Excellent' and 'Good' votes combined, it picked up 85%.

For your reference, here's the top 3 shirts in the 'Excellent' category:

1. Aston Villa (away) 66%
2. Portsmouth (3rd) 61%
3. Man United (away) 59%

...and in the 'Excellent' and 'Good' combined votes category, things were a little closer:

=1. Aston Villa (away) and Portsmouth (3rd) 85%
2. Tottenham (home) 74%
=3. Derby (home) and Man United (away) 72%

At the other end of the scale, Chelsea's new flourescent yellow away shirt proved to be the most unpopular. Out of all your votes cast, 56% said it was 'Terrible'. It also cleaned up when adding the 'Terrible' votes to the 'Poor' ones. Again, it was the least liked with 67% of the vote share.

Here's the three least liked shirts in terms of 'Terrible' votes:

1. Chelsea (away) 56%
2. Manchester City (home) 28%
3. Reading (away) 25%

...and when adding 'Terrible' votes to 'Poor' ones...

1. Chelsea (away) 67%
2. Reading (away) 41%
3. Manchester City (home) 40%

So congratulations to Nike who obviously tapped into the wants and needs of the Villa fan market perfectly, if not the Man United equivalent too. Points deducted for Adidas who thought a luminous yellow shirt would be highly popular outside of Stamford Bridge, and as for Puma, we have one piece of advice: 'Battleship Grey' is only a good colour for battleships.

Thanks to you all for voting and look out for some 2008/2009 shirt votes coming very soon...

Obscure Kits From British Football History #6

Sunderland (home)
1981-1983

We've talked before about how some teams are synonymous with a particular look to the kit they wear. Many teams prefer a bold strip of just one colour (think Real Madrid and Liverpool), others like to wear hoops (a la Queens Park Rangers and Sporting Lisbon) while a distinct minority have adopted an interesting half-an-half appearance (such as Feyenoord and Blackburn Rovers).

For many though, it always was and always will be stripes for their club's kit. One such team that falls into that category is Sunderland, and as you'll all be aware, they consider their red and white stripes to be the perfect antidote to the black and white of their near neighbours Newcastle United.

Those big red and white bands running the full length of the Sunderland shirt have almost always been accompanied by black shorts, except for a spell between 1961 and 1973 when they were white. The stripes seemed a non-negotiable facet to the club's identity, but when Sunderland returned to the old First Division in 1980 after a three-season lay-off, a change to the kit was not far off.

Someone somewhere decided that as this was the start of a new era in the top flight for The Rokerites, the kit should reflect the new beginning that was underway. For the 1980-81 season, Sunderland were to wear a home strip featuring no bold red and white stripes, no black shorts - not even white shorts. This was something utterly different than anything they'd worn before.

The new kit was made by Le Coq Sportif who, back then, were a major manufacturer of football attire for people like Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and even the Argentinean national team. They took on the Sunderland brief and gave them a design which, like all individual and revolutionary designs, would go down in history as either an unsurpassable classic or a never-to-be-repeated aberration.

The new shirt was predominantly white but featured a series of double tramlines in red running from top to bottom. These weren't stripes in the old-fashioned sense, nor were they the pinstripes that were so prevalent in the game around this time. These were 'thin stripes' and they were about as popular as they were visible from not-too-far away.

Even the shorts were red - another dramatic break from tradition - but then that's probably the only colour they could have been as white or black might have looked a bit silly. Finish off the job with a pair of red socks and there you have it - a kit that lasted for two seasons and has never been matched before or since.

It didn't go down well and the design was scrapped in 1983, as were the manufacturers. When Nike arrived as a new name on the British sportswear scene, they did the decent thing and wasted no time in reinstating the thick red and white stripes again. The old kit didn't even have the kudos of being worn by anyone famous (apart from Ally McCoist, pictured) such was the very ordinary team they had back then.

We can therefore say this was just an interesting experiment that's best left in the scrapbook of British Football Kit Design for another twenty-five years until someone else stumbles upon it. Sometimes you just don't win anything for trying to be revolutionary. Tradition is what people like, and more often than not as a football kit designer, you're best of just staying with the tried and trusted. It's just a shame no-one at Le Coq Sportif knew that.

A sign of kits to come?

It has recently come to our attention that Adidas, that bastion of sports apparel for so many years, has... well... how can we put it... adopted a corporate policy of giving free hallucinogenics to all its employees.

If you don't believe us, take a look at this shirt currently being worn by French rugby union club Stade Francaise...



It is, we think you'll agree 'different'. And to build on such colourful foundations, Stade Francaise have also adopted this as their 'Third' shirt:



Now before you go and book up that eye test you've been putting off for the last three years, we'd like to point out that Stade Francaise do have a second shirt amongst their repertoire as well, but it's pink and is more conventionally styled than the two above, so we won't concern ourselves with that for now.

So the question remains, what do you think of the above? Whether you like them or not, we happen to think it's going to be the next big thing in football shirt design too. Let's face it, many teams have jumped at the chance to adopt all kinds of new designs in the past, and this could be the leap forward that some clubs have been looking for to get ahead of the rest of the crowd fashion-wise.

It's a bold step by Adidas and one which, we assume, they should be congratulated on for coming up with something so incredibly alternative. The only thing we're not sure about is the effect a rugby player bearing the physique and body weight of a disused coal bunker wearing brown and pink would have on an innocent spectator. We're sure they've already tested that under scientific conditions, though...

Obscure Kits From British Football History #5

Crystal Palace (home)1971/1972 season

When it comes to football kits, there are only so many different designs you can create which are simple, distinguished and can last the test of time. Whoever it was that decided black and white stripes were a winning combination must still be receiving royalties from Juventus, Newcastle United, Botafogo and many other clubs to this day.

Similarly, that pairing up of green and white hoops must have put a very large tick in the box for the people running Celtic and Sporting Lisbon when they were trying to work out what their team should wear.

As for Ajax, they must be have one of the most exclusive niches of all, thanks to that very individualistic broad red stripe running down the middle of their clean white shirts.

We can only guess it was this last example that prompted the chairman of Crystal Palace to go for something similar in the early 1970's when he opted to change the team's strip, but a big red stripe was too obvious. What they needed was something that nodded noticeably in that direction yet had a degree of distinction that would make the design all their own.

And so it was that in the 1971/72 season, Crystal Palace FC unleashed the following kit onto an unsuspecting world:



Yes, witness one and all the Double Stripe of Crystal Palace, replete in claret and blue.

Now at this point, the younger folk amongst you may be starting to make comparisons with the kit Crystal Palace wore on and off from 1976 onwards - you know, the one with the red and blue diagonal sash on a white background.

The thing to note here, though, is that while these days we're all used to seeing Palace wearing red and blue the whole time, back then their kit sported decidedly Burnleyesque hues.

So this was something of a radical departure from either claret and blue shirts or plain white ones as had been worn before it. This was a bold move and one which perhaps epitomised a brave new identity for the team and one which would would spark a change of fortunes for Crystal Palace.

It was. Call it coincidence if you will, but the introduction of the double-stripe initiated a gradual decline for the club which would see them drop from the First Division to the Third in the space of three seasons. As if to admit the new styling had had a derogatory effect on them, Crystal Palace altered their kit slightly for 1972/73, separating the claret and blue stripes with a thin white one.

It had no effect. Palace languished in the Second and Third Divisions until 1980 when Terry Venables' managerial expertise put them back where they were a decade earlier, but by then the claret and blue had gone, as had that distinctive two-stripe design.

It's interesting to note that this jinx of a design has never been reintroduced by the club since, although it was chosen by the fans as the basis for a special kit to be worn in celebration of Palace's centenary in 2005. In the two games it appeared in, both of them ended as 2-0 wins for Crystal Palace.

Maybe they were a bit harsh to abandon that design after all...