New England away kit

I had the real privilege to be invited up to Umbro’s design studio in Manchester yesterday as part of a small group for a special presentation of the new England away kit by the designers themselves.

It was a wonderful evening as you can imagine and I will be posting a full write up of the event when the new kit is unveiled on the 3rd March.

I chatted at length to designers Aitor Throup and David Blanch (who is Umbro’s head kit designer) about the current England kits and the way Umbro are approaching kit design now. They were very open and answered all questions honestly which was fascinating. We also had the chance to rummage through the Umbro shirts archive!

33 Replies to “New England away kit

  1. What an oportunity John. I assume it is a replica of the 1966 away shirt but styled like Man City’s current home kit, with non contrasting collar and cuffs.

  2. Sounds like it was a great evening John.

    It’s a pity Umbro are not producing the new Scotland kit. A tailored version of our 60’s crew neck could have been a modern day classic.

    I really hope Adidas produce the goods as I’m fearing the worst!

  3. That sounded like a lot of fun, John.

    I’m SO jealous! 😀

    I was only thinking of the new England away kit the other day. I’m not sure what to think really…

    England have had a red away kit ever since, I think, 1997. Part of me would like something different, maybe blue or black.

    Then again, maybe it’s good that England have a “set away colour”. I mean, the constant red away kits for the past 13 years (as well as, of course, the World Cup win in 1966) has now almost engrained in people’s heads England in red as being as “traditional/normal” as England in white.

    Like many others, I suspect the new England away kit to be red in a similar design to the new current home kit. Maybe if the design is similar to the home kit, it will seem like something different, and not “just another red England away kit”.

    Like I say, I’m not sure what to think really. I’m looking forward to the 3rd of March anyway! 🙂

    I’m interested to hear what others think – is England always having a red away kit these days, a good or bad thing?

  4. What chance an England 3rd kit for the World Cup? We’ve had them previously, though if we play Paraguay both teams could wear away kits to aviod a clash.

    In my opinion we should always wear White at home and have Red as an away kit.

  5. Re: 5. Andrew Rockall.

    I can’t see England bringing out a third kit for the World Cup.

    The media and some fans jump on the ludicrous bandwagon of “it’s a rip off” and all that nonsense these days. I can’t see the FA welcoming that. However ridiculous those claims are by the media – some people believe it.

    The only way I think England will have a third kit at the World Cup is if the soon to be released new away kit is say blue or black, and they can move the current red away kit to the third kit – as some Premier League teams do now.

    That way they aren’t going to get the bad publicity of releasing a third kit, and fans who bought the red away kit released two years ago can wear it for longer without it being “out of date”.

    I know it’s ridiculous really, but that’s just the way things are with England kits these days it seems.

    Although, I hope I’m wrong.

  6. England have had opportunities for third kits in their last two qualifying campaigns when drawn with Croatia, but as far as I can remember, Croatia wore blue in all four games

  7. What a fantastic evening John!

    As for the kit, In my humble opinion, England should always have a red away kit. It’s been such a part of our heritage and symbolises so much (and much more than just ’66) as well as being a psychologically strong colour.

    adam, England have had a red away kit for a very long time before 1997. 1996 was a blip and one best left to the bins of history. “Right, we’ve got to come up with a new away kit for England, who are hosting this huge tournament, their first for 30 years…I guess we should make it strong and bold, like the “3 lions on the shirt”…Then again, this is the mid 90s so we could always do something rad whcih will in no way make the players look like anonymous berks. Got it! Britpop is cool right now…people who like britpop also like mags like loaded etc…they also like football…now what do most of said audience wear? Jeans! Yes! Let’s make it match those! Then we’ll make loads of cash!…er I mean the fans will feel closer to the players or something”
    Oh the humanity!!!

  8. Seeing as though Umbro switched from the traditional white-navy-white to all white for the latest England home kit – I wonder, assuming they go with red – if they’ll go with the traditional red-white-red – or if they’ll go with all red to sort of “match up” with the home kit.

    I’m intrigued to see what this kit is like…

    Anybody up for kidnapping John and getting him to spill the beans?! 😛

  9. white/navy/white for home
    red/white/red for away
    no need for arguments,thats how it should always be in my mind.That euro 96 indigo/grey kit was a disgrace…rant over.

  10. john b, normally I’d agree with you entirely on the colour combos for the kit, but I can’t help feeling navy shorts would have ruined the current home kit. That said, one of my favourite England kits of recent times was the Euro 2000 one which was plain white, very dark navy shorts and white socks.

  11. Hello Willie – I had the very same thought about the Scotland kit! I feel a wee bit nervous of how adidas will approach it. I’ll just mention as well that I saw what I guess was a prototype for the Argentina 78 World Cup shirt. It had ‘double diamond’ not ‘solid’ taping and a navy neck on the collar. I’ll post a pic at the weekend.

    Re England third kits…I did find out something very interesting about the subject which I will include in a post at the weekend.

  12. Re #10 Adam, I had the same thought about the possibility of England going with red shorts on the away.

    As the design seems set to be plain, presumably so will the shorts, so having two almost-identical pairs of plain white shorts wouldn’t make sense

  13. Just out of interest, whilst we are on the subject…

    How many times have England had a third kit, and when was the last time they had one?

    🙂

  14. Off the top of my head, the yellow one worn three times in the mid-1970s was the first one.

    Then there were four different sky blue versions in the 80s/early 90s, the first two never worn, the third worn once and the fourth, with the three lions pattern, worn about three times

  15. All this talk of England kits, past and present, has made me realise that I need to order myself a copy of True Colours Volume 2.

    Volume 1 was a suprise Christmas present from my auntie a couple of years ago, and you could say is to blame for my football kits obsession these days!

    Oh John, I thought you might like to hear this story.

    A couple of months back a friend of mine came to my house, he’s a football fan. As usual we starting chatting about football, and I mentioned something like “what was your first football kit as a kid?”

    He wasn’t overly interested in football kits.

    I popped upstairs and bought back down with me True Colours Volume 1.

    I handed it to him and said he should have a little look. He didn’t seem interested at all when I handed him your book.

    After two or three minutes of looking through it, my friend suddenly said – “This is like the greatest book of all time!”

    Since then he has started talking a lot more about football kits.

    I just wanted to pass along the compliment.

    It’s a great book, you did a great job with it. I can’t wait now for Volume 2 to arrive at my door.

    I don’t know how you do it but the kit illustrations, both in the book and on the website, are stunning. I often find myself popping on to the website and just clicking on a kit I like. They look amazing.

    Keep up the fantastic work with the books and the website!

    🙂

  16. Well it’s been revealed…Kasabian wore it for a gig in Paris. Did Umbro let on they were planning this John or were you all kept in the dark?

  17. saw the shirt worn by the kasabian chap,whats with the white cuffs and red collar? collar and cuffs should match surely(and that isnt some double entendre!) very nice shirt though.

  18. i have to say the badge looks terrific,glad to see they removed ENGLAND from above the shield,we all know the three lions are England,

  19. Must say Umbro (Nike) have gone overboard with this ‘tailoring’ concept…now the shirt appears to have ‘jointed’ elbows on the long sleeved shirt (how muc). Everton had non contrasting collar and cuffs in the sixties – blue collar/white cuffs so nothing new in that ‘concept’ either!

  20. According to one newspaper website the crowd in Paris were less than impressed when that guy from Kasabian had that shirt on. Just as well that gig wasn’t in my country, otherwise there would have been a riot!

    I think the shirt would have been better off without any contrasting trim, in other words no white cuffs. Also the inclusion of red stripes on the shorts is interesting, because instead of making the kit look like the England away kit of the 60’s (which had plain white shorts), it makes it more like the WELSH home kit of the same era.

    That third shirt thing on the other article is interesting but every time England play Croatia they wear white (or red, as was the case in Euro 2004) and Croatia wear blue (even at home). Paraguay’s new kit is plain red on the back and just two white stripes on the front, so both teams could possibly get away with playing each other in their home kits.

  21. To coincide with the release of the new England away kit, Umbro have also released a new away England goalkeeper kit.

    Here’s a picture… http://www.flickr.com/photos/umbrofootball/4345426095/in/set-72157623260049878/

    I was a little surprised to see this as I thought the light blue with navy shorts and socks kit was the new England goalkeeper away.

    As worn by Robert Green in the Slovakia match at Wembley in September, as Slovakia wear green, which is of course the same colour as the England goalkeeper home kit.

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/90421158/Getty-Images-Sport

    The light blue with navy shorts and socks is my favourite of the now three England goalkeeper kits, so I hope this doesn’t signal the end for it.

  22. I think you meant Slovenia, whose away kit is green.

    Their new away keeper kit looks a bit strange, white cuffs and logos just doesn’t look right on yellow to be honest.

    Anyhow anyone heard about the load of England away shirts were in a lorry that got hijacked? It happened at the industrial estate where I work, but what the lorry with those shirts in was doing in Flintshire I don’t know! We wear a different red shirt around here! 😉

  23. Ha! Like it Jon – I remember a similar thing happening with one of the last Diadora Scotland shirts. Each shirt was individually numbered apparently so you could tell if you had a knock-off shirt.

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