Comments on: France Home Kit 1980-82

By: John Devlin

John Devlin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:46:57 +0000

I remember the Utd ones well John!! I don’t know, they just never really gelled with me.

By: john b

john b — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:06:00 +0000

beautiful kit,second only to the euro 84 kit.I was also a fan of the french rugby kit around this time(also produced by adidas),not keen on the all blue the french seem to favour these days,but think its more to do with UEFA.
Whats wrong with pin stripe shorts? the Man.Utd ones from 84/86 were great!!

By: John Devlin

John Devlin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:37:44 +0000

Good point Steve, there’s got to be a good reason for the resurrection of that kit in 98. The French national side went into decline after Euro 84 though didn’t they? Funnily enough, the same things kind of happened again in recent years! Yes, the 82 WC version ditched the large white inset and added pinstripe shorts – pinstripe shorts, one fashion trend I hope DOESN’T come back!

Hello Alex, its funny, when I saw the 98 kit in action it just looked too fiddly with too many elements to it. Sometimes a kit looks better without sleeve patches, additional squad numbers etc and sometimes it doesn’t.

By: Alex P

Alex P — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:54:46 +0000

I have to agree with you John about how its ‘one of the classic kits of all time’ but when it comes down to it i think that this was the best france kit:
http://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/International-Teams-European-France/c23_78_89/p135092/1998-France-Home-Shirt-L/product_info.html

having also seen the new France kit it shows great resemblse to the kit of 1998, (proving that it must of been a hit with the French)

By: Steve Browne

Steve Browne — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:19:02 +0000

Very interesting comments on French national shirts of the past 30 years.
I was led to believe the reason the red (and occasionally white) horizontal stripes were repeated was due to Euro ’84s iconic shirt being the first in which Les Bleus won an international tournament. In a respect is has become a self fulfilling prophecy – The ‘98 World Cup shirts replicated and updated the ‘84 design, whilst the adidas offering for Euro 2000, produced a single red horizontal band. On both occasions the France national side were champions. Superstition plays a significant role in football shirt design, this being but one example.

PS. Who can forget the ‘82 World Cup version of John’s illustration being paired with pinstriped shorts! From memory alternate blue and red……….

By: Rich Johnson

Rich Johnson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:52:08 +0000

Same here John…The 2nd to last kit that came out (the all blue with retro collar) I thought was deemed a stop gap till the Nike deal kicked in (similar to Adidas’ short lived Argentina shirt before the 02 WC when the Reebock deal ended) as it seemed to gain no publicity, didn’t seem to be available as a replica anywhere while all sports shops continued to sell the Euro 08 one and also had a kind of rushed feel to it…it didn’t seem to fit in with the post 98 design idea so felt like it was one they’d knocked up to finish off the contract with…next thing you know, the WC10 one comes out…

By: John Devlin

John Devlin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:27:09 +0000

Hello Denis and Rich – I kind of agree with you both. For me adidas and France go together and the tricolore three strips is definitely part of that appeal. But I was disappointed with the 98 kit as well Rich that copied the 84 but added a whole of additional and un-needed fiddly trim. I’m also amazed at how many France kits have come out since the Nike deal was announced!

By: Rich Johnson

Rich Johnson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:07:41 +0000

I’m quite glad of the change as I feel adidas have stagnated in their designs for the France kit recently…ever since they hit on the idea of replicating the 1984 kit for the 98 world cup, nearly every shirt since has had some variation on it. The lastest yet again follows that idea and it’s starting to look tired.

By: Denis Hurley

Denis Hurley — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:28:23 +0000

Kits like this (and the Euro 84 one) are why I’m sad that France are moving to Nike, the tricolour adidas stripes are so iconic

By: Rich Johnson

Rich Johnson — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:29:12 +0000

Edit…

Now I’m on a PC and not my crackberry, I can see the red pinstripes…