Euro 2008 Kits
Posted by John Devlin
I’ve just been looking through the kits for Euro 2008 and its amazing how the designs in international football are still completely dominated by the big three of adidas, Nike and Puma.
Nike are supplying kits for: Croatia, Holland, Russia, Turkey and Portugal
Puma are supplying kits for: Austria, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic and Switzerland
Adidas are supplying kits for: Germany, France, Romania, Spain and Greece
…with Umbro bringing up the rear for Sweden.An illustrated summary of all the Euro 2008 kits will feature on the True Colours site very soon!
Sportswear Brand Histories - Puma
Posted by John Devlin
The third largest sportswear company worldwide (after Nike and adidas) is Puma who were born in Germany to the other half of the Dassler family (Adi of course founding adidas) Rudolf. In fact using a similar trick to his brother, Rudolf originally named the company Ruda before changing it to Puma in 1948. Like Reebok the company gained prominence in the sports footwear market before focusing on football kit.
Their first foray in England was in the early 90s with Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday with the teams sporting some very contemporary and forward thinking designs. Later in the decade Everton and Stoke followed suite and today the firm still produce some fine outfits for Coventry, Tottenham and Reading amongst others.
A glance at the line up of kits for Euro 2008 reveals that the international football strip market is dominated by Puma, adidas and Nike.
Sadly the Dassler brothers’ infamous falling out that led to the formation of Puma and adidas was never patched up and the brothers died unreconciled.
Sportswear Brand Histories - Bukta
Posted by John Devlin
Formed in 1879 by Edward R Buck and Sons, Bukta are the longest established football kit apparel manufacturers in England, if not the world. Their first kits were produced way back in 1884 for Nottingham Forest – although of course it was to be nearly 100 years later until sportswear companies’ logos were permitted on football apparel.
The firm produced kits for a consistently high number of clubs throughout the 1900s and in the 60s they supplied more teams than any other brand including that of the England national side.
Bukta’s popularity continued into the 70s with high profile deals with West Ham, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle Utd. Later in the decade the brand were given a valuable dose of publicity when George Best joined Scottish side Hibernian who sported shirts featuring a massive Bukta logo as part of a kit supplier/sponsorship package.
However the 80s saw the firm’s flame fade and despite three logos changes and deals with Crystal Palace (for whom they produced a phenomally large number of different kits in just a few short years), West Ham and Derby the company folded as the 90s took hold. The brand suffered further indignity as several of their designs were worn the season after with a new logo simply stitched over the Bukta marque (see the Watford and Derby kits from the early 90s). Obviously in those days team kits were not as plentiful as they are now.
The Bukta brand, now owned by the Cavden Group is making a welcome comeback in 2007 with a new kit deal with Motherwell – no doubt football kit fans throughout the UK will hope to see more of this famous old company on the shirts of their heroes in the coming years.
Portsmouth’s extra Canterbury logos
Posted by John Devlin
Any of you eagle eyed kit fans out there notice the creeping in of additional sportswear branding on shirts just recently? Umbro’s 07–08 templates of course include an extra diamond sleeve logo and the latest example involves the, quite frankly, massive Canterbury logos on each shoulder of the current Portsmouth kits that have emerged in the last month. I’m puzzled about this as I was sure the Premier League did not permit this additional branding in the same way that they do not allow secondary sponsors on the back of the shirts or shorts which is now common place in the Championship and lower leagues. If it is permitted why isn’t every other brand adding extra logos on their shirts? And why has it been allowed to happen mid-season? Its a mystery. My guess is that within the next season or two secondary sponsors will be allowed in England’s top flight and sportswear companies will be allowed to include more than one placement of their logo on their shirts.
Here are a couple of pics to show the difference. Since the additional logo shirts were introduced at the beginning of the year the club have switched between these and the standard shirts that were worn at the beginning of the season.
By the way, if any Pompey fans can explain any more about the additional Canterbury logos I’d be very interested to hear from them. You can contact me by clicking here.
France sign deal with Nike
Posted by John Devlin
Its been announced this week that after 40 years together the French national football team are saying ‘au revoir’ to adidas and will switch to Nike in 2011 for their kit supply. I suppose for football fans of my age adidas and France go together like a baguette and brie and it will seem very odd not seeing ‘Le Bleus’ in adidas. However, with modern football kit contracts loyalties are abandoned in favour of a solid financial deal and strong brand promotion and there is no doubt that Nike are masters of both - as well as being experts in good design. Some design relationships naturally run their course and perhaps the France/adidas link up was in need of a breath of fresh air. Ironically enough after ALWAYS wearing white as their away strip, Euro 2008 will see the French play in red - an adidas innovation that was perhaps too little too late.
It will be interesting to see how Nike interpret the French outfit. They certainly reinvented the rugby strip bringing in an elegant navy blue in favour of the country’s traditional shade.
With Umbro’s sale to Nike looking imminent it may not be too long before the English national football team sport the swoosh on their famous white jerseys.
