Newcastle United v Hull City
Posted by John Devlin
Poor choice of kit from Hull at the weekend - anyone notice that the club had to borrow old pairs of Newcastle’s away shorts and socks to avoid a colour clash in their clash at St James Park? It was on the cards though - Hull’s away kit is all grey, there was bound to be at least one issue playing against a club who wear black and white!
Sign of the times
Posted by John Devlin
With the financial situation worsening what is its implication for football? I’ve written a new article which was posted on Sunday concerning the West Brom/West Ham match. Now it seems AIG are in trouble spelling problems for Manchester Utd. You can read the article here: http://www.truecoloursfootballkits.com/articles/sign-of-the-times
True Colours in Leeds United Programme
Posted by John Devlin
I’m proud to announce that a little piece of ‘True Colours’ will feature in every Leeds United home programme in the 08-09 season as the club will be including one of their kit illustrations (taken from Volume 2) in every edition. The kits will be in a section called ‘We Wore It Well’. The first one was in the Oldham programme and included the 84-85 away kit.
Radio Appearance - ‘Good Evening Wales’
Posted by John Devlin
I realise this is late notice but you might be interested that I am a phone-in guest on BBC Radio Wales this evening on the ‘Good Evening Wales’ show. I’m due to be on at about 5.50 and will be talking about the new Wales kits that have been unveiled this week.
80s Retro Influence
Posted by John Devlin
Despite many people’s negative responses to the forthcoming 08-09 kits, I think some great designs have emerged. Two of my favourites; Arsenal and Liverpool’s new away kits, are both heavily influenced by strips worn by the teams in the late 80s. The end of that decade was not necessarily a golden era for football. Interest in the game had waned somewhat throughout the period and the tragedys of Hillsborough and Heysel had cast a shadow over the sport in general. Fans did not return to the terraces in their droves until after Italia 90 where a Gazza-inspired England side rejuvenated the game. There was still high drama in the sport during this era however, none more so than Arsenal’s incredible win over Liverpool to win the 88–89 title.
The Arsenal 08-09 away kit is a real gem and is based on the classic strip worn that fateful evening at Anfield when the Gunners clinched a last gasp Division 1 title thanks to Mickey Thomas’ late goal. Nike have done a great job in reviving the design, changing it just enough to make it contemporary and unmistakably theirs. Its accompanied by a brilliant ad poster as well. I love seeing teams in traditional away colours and although for many the definitive Arsenal away colour scheme is yellow and royal blue, for me this yellow/navy/ red palette is 100% Arsenal thanks to George Graham’s late 80s side.
Anyone who has read TRUE COLOURS will probably pick up on the fact that I am no fan of grey away kits. Having said that I do really like the new adidas Liverpool away which revives the club’s ‘grey’ period of 87-91 which, coincidentally occured during adidas’ first tenure at Anfield. It is the first time since then that the club have worn a grey kit and it really seems to work with the red livening up the strip well. The shirt, which follows a basic template introduced in Euro 2008 features a subtle chequerboard pattern – a theme introduced across all Liverpool kits this season.
Bring back a two-year kit lifespan
Posted by John Devlin
Although I always enjoy browsing people’s comments and opinions about new shirt designs on other football kit sites it can sometimes be a bit of a disheartening experience. All design is subjective of course but it is amazing how opinions can be so radically different. For example, the new Lotto QPR strips have provoked several extreme reactions from people who think they’re the best things since sliced bread to those who just simply can’t stand them. But I’ve noticed increasingly many of the reactions to new kits just come across as bored and uninterested with no real passion or interest behind the designs. Many kit fans seem to be coming to the conclusion that the designs for 08-09 are bland or uninteresting, or as described on one site ’sh*!te’.
Part of the reason for this may come from this yearly turnaround of kits that has become the norm in recent years. The feeling seems to be that many of the designs are just not different and exciting enough to provoke responses. Take for example the Umbro Everton kits (first, let me make it clear, I am a BIG fan of Umbro designs and always have been since the late 70s) but ever since they took over the mantle from Puma the club’s home shirts have hardly differed. People criticise this lack of development (and may also knock the template approach, but thats a subject for another article) and I think the designers need longer to create a really special design and the fans need longer to appreciate and identify with the current outfit.
A one-year lifespan is just too short – in my view this is failing to bring real character to these outfits as designers and suppliers are perhaps lacking inspiration. Is it a coincidence that more and more teams are releasing strips to commemorate certain events or milestones rather than producing inventive forward-thinking designs?
In the ‘old days’ after two or three years wearing the same shirt fans were just be gagging for a new design and there was real anticipation and excitement when you saw your team wearing a brand new shiny kit for the first time. Distinctive kits that were given time to ‘mature’ clearly defined eras in a club’s life – nowadays the fast turnaround of increasingly similar designs often fail to even define a season.
Now, after just one year its just ‘oh yeah, a new strip’ – another regular occurence. The magic seems to have gone a little. People just don’t seem to be getting really excited about new kits any more, its no longer an event its just another design – and quite often not much of a move on from the previous.
True Colours Volume 1 - out of print
Posted by John Devlin
I recently found out the great news that the first volume of True Colours has now completely sold out and is officially ‘out of print’. Although I’m delighted that the book has been so popular it is a shame that it is now no longer easily available (although I believe some copies can still be purchased via Amazon’s Marketplace).So if you would like to see a new, improved and updated version of True Colours in the bookshops then please email the publishers A&C Black (sports@acblack.com) and let them know!
Site updates - coming soon
Posted by John Devlin
Just to let you know that there will be a quite a few updates to the site arriving in the near future. I recently came across a stack of old Shoot! magazines which have provided a rich source of kit research material and mean that as well as now being able to document for the first time some VERY obscure third and fourth kits that were worn during the late 70s/early 80s I will also be adding some classic replica shirt ads that appeared in the magazine during this era. A couple of similar examples are included with the great ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’ article kindly donated by Gary Silke of The Fox fanzine (click here to read).
Plus I will be completing my series of Euro 2008 kits and producing some special features that look in depth at some of my favourite strips of the last 30 years.
Finally, a big thank you to all of you who have sent complimentary messages to me via the site. I will reply to every single one - they are much appreciated!
The best time of the year?
Posted by John Devlin
As a football fan and a football kit, fan April kicks off a wonderful time of the year. Not only is the season drawing to a climax with hopefully, from a neutral’s point of view, a few twists and turns in the battle for titles, cups, promotions and relegations but its also the time when next season’s kits and being premiered or at least leaked.
Football wise, the end of this season looks to be even thrilling with Chelsea’s magnificent win over Man Utd yesterday blowing the Premier League, if not wide open, but at least partly ajar. All Utd need to do now is keep their nerve. We’ve got two cracking Champions League semis coming, followed hopefully by an all-English final. Rangers may make it to the UEFA Cup final and in the lower English leagues its extremely tight. The Championship sees several major clubs who really do belong in the top flight battling for precious promotion places along with some equally big names at the other end battling relegation.
Plus this summer of course we have Euro 2008 to look forward to!
But for me its the new kits that really make it an exciting time. Although it seems to be slightly out of fashion these days, the last match of the season was always an opportunity to show off the strip for the forthcoming season. The Cup final was always a fine example of this throwing up several anomalies such as the Everton strip premiered in the 1995 final which was the only time the design was sponsored by outgoing sponsors for 94-95, NEC. Danka took over the shirt deal for the 95-96 season itself.
Nowadays, its the internet that provides the outlet for the new strips. Leaked pictures of new strips often appear many months before their official unveiling. Unfortunately some are fakes, either concocted on Photoshop by fans with too much time on their hands, or in some cases put out as red herrings by kit manufacturers to confuse the bootleggers. Either way, football kit devotees such as myself spend everyday at this time of year scanning the web looking for the new designs and being either excited or disappointed by the fare on offer.
This season looks to be no different; already we’ve seen fine new outfits for Chelsea and Liverpool along with news of the continued resurgence of Umbro.
What trends will the new season bring? I’d imagine there will still be plenty of black/navy blue change strips knocking about - a quick and easy fix to the age old away kit design dilemma. I think there may be more switching of traditional shorts colours to create single colour kits - probably in an attempt to work with FIFA’s increasingly strict rules over colour clashes.
We may also see an increase in advertising/logos on English club shirts. Witness Portsmouth/ Canterbury’s introduction of additional branding mid-season on their jerseys. Simple designs and standard templates seem to be coming back in to fashion with some of the more outlandish designs being mothballed with team wearing similar kits to each other, differing only in hue. Plain and simple strips are what football fans prefer - football kit fans however like to see bright and dynamic designs with innovative styling. However, it must be remembered that although kits do provide a valuable source of income for clubs via replica sales, they are there primarily a job uniform. Their sole purpose is really just to differentiate between teams on the pitch (and to some extent on the terraces!) and this doctrine appears to be the method statement for kit designs in 08-09.
By the way, for those of you desperate for the new kits pre-season may I recommend you to two fine sites that are always first on the ball with such news:
www.colours-of-football.com
www.footballshirtculture.com
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!
