John Devlin has been obsessed about football kit design since he was a small boy, illustrating the latest designs and pasting them onto the back of cereal packets. John grew up as a Liverpool and Scotland fan, idolising the genius that was Kenny Dalglish and regularly sporting replica versions of the Umbro kits both teams wore at the time. He longed for a book to be published that displayed English teams home and away kits and how they have changed over the years but none was ever released.

When he returned to college to study for a graphic design degree at the age of 28 his love of football kits proved ideal subject matter for his final year’s course work. Drawing on the piles of reference material he had amassed over the years he illustrated all kits since 1980 for the then current Premiership (00-01) and analysed the entire culture of football shirts, replica kits, advertising, sponsorship, colour theory and corporate identity. He called the project TRUE COLOURS, a name that was to stick. Even his final degree mark had a football theme as he was awarded a 2:1.

Since leaving college John, by now a full time graphic designer, carried on with his hobby convinced there must be someone else out there who shared his love of football kits. Still no book on the subject was ever published and it became clear that it was down to him to write it.

John currently lives near Maidstone in Kent with his wife Julie and daughter Amelie. He is the Design Director of The Design Practice, a graphic design agency based in Ashford.

The True Colours Story

After sending out a small presentation to several publishers in the Spring of 2003 Soho-based company A&C Black showed interest in John’s idea for a book on football kit history. The only obstacle was that in order for John’s illustrations to be published permission had to be sought for the logos/intellectual property of every club, sponsor and kit manufacturer. It seemed an impossible task but John stuck at it, determined that his work be published. The first call he made was to Redbus, late 90s sponsors of Charlton Athletic who refused point blank. It was a demoralising start and it seemed that the job was to be tougher than expected. John didn’t realise though that Redbus and Charlton had fallen out quite dramatically, hence Redbus’ wish to no longer be associated with the club in any way. It was just bad luck he chose them as his first call!

Fortunately John persevered and the Redbus refusual was one of only two John was to receive during his two year quest to clear the necessary permissions for the book. During this time he ploughed through thousands of programmes, books, videos and sportswear catalogues perfecting his illustrations and ensuring that they were as accurate as they could possibly be. Then after an intense writing period adding flesh to the bones of the book it was ready for publication. - after the last minute panic of adding the forthcoming season’s kits - a real problem considering the final date for artwork coincided with the first week of the season with many kits yet to be officially released.

A launch party at the now sadly defunct bookshop ‘Sports Pages’ in Soho helped spark a steady stream of media interest in the books. On the first week of publication The Independent newspaper named it their number 1 sports book of the week and it was featured on Sky Sports News. John has since been interviewed many times for various BBC radio stations including one memorable Sunday evening with Danny Kelly on BBC London and is regularly called upon by the media to comment on football kit design. The most recent being a long interview with EPL Talk – an American radio station that focusses on the Premiership,

John started work on True Colours 2 building on the kit history that he had already completed of the 6 teams that were not included in the first volume. It was decided to also feature the kits of the home nations plus Republic of Ireland. It was another challenge as the research material for these strips proved much harder to uncover than those for the domestic league. An early idea was to also include Celtic and Rangers but it was felt that their inclusion might fragment the content of the book and the teams were omitted – although Amazon to this day still include them in their blurb for the books despite numerous emails from the publishers!

The clearance procedure for True Colours 2 also brought a major disappoinment for John when Sheffield Wednesday’s chief executive Kaven Walker refused permission for the clubs’s kits to be included. Despite numerous pleas (including a complimentary copy of True Colours 1) he would not budge, so sadly for Owls’ fans their team’s wonderful array of kits were not included.

The week before the publication of True Colours 2 saw the birth of John’s first child – a double celebration.

Interest in True Colours and football kit history has grown since True Colours 2 was published and John has been called on for his opinion on kits by clubs and sportswear companies alike. His work has appeared in Four Four Two, Shoot, When Saturday Comes, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Star, Leeds Leeds Leeds magazine, Loaded and The Daily Record. He was also asked to act as a judge for the Football League’s 2007 ‘Best Kit Award’. The eventual winner, Burnley’s 06–07 away kit, was solidly endorsed by John. Recently he was interviewed by Chelsea TV as part of a documentary on the club’s kits through the years.

Several new websites have also sprung up using John’s work as inspiration although none cover the teams in as much detail as John and of course none are (as yet!) available in a beautifully presented book form. Click here to view some of the best football kit sites around.

So what’s next for John’s reckless quest to document every football kit ever worn? The answer is plenty…but these plans will have to remain under wraps for now so watch this space!

Click here to contact John Devlin