True Colours Football Kits

The True Colours Hall of Fame

Posted by John Devlin

People are always asking me about the worst and best kits I’ve ever seen. I get a little bored talking about the worst kits and would much rather focus on the best! With that in mind, and partly inspired by an email from Andrew Rockall that listed his top 10 (thanks Andrew!), I’ve decided to run a series in the Kit Cupboard section of the site that features, in no particular order, my favourite kits of all time. The Hall of Fame will feature what I consider to be the very best designs worn worldwide throughout the past 40 years.

Many of them are also still available from the excellent VintageFootballShirts.com as well – these are not modern retro versions, but original replicas.

To read the first in the series click here. If there’s any shirts you feel deserve to be in the hall of fame then please contact me or leave a comment. Thanks!

Liverpool Home Kit 1985-87: True Colours Hall of Fame

Posted by John Devlin

So many people ask me what’s the worst kit I’ve ever seen and what’s the best. Focusing on the worst kits gets a little boring after a while in my opinion so I’m opening the True Colours Hall of Fame within The Kit Cupboard that will feature a selection, in no particular order, of some of my favourite kits of all time. Plus where possible I’ll be telling you where you can still buy them! To start the ball rolling here’s the classic Liverpool home kit from the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons.

Growing up as a Liverpool fan I was accustomed to seeing the reds decked out in Umbro. At the time they were part and parcel of the Liverpool DNA. When the announcement came the club were switching to adidas I was both thrilled (as I loved to see new kits), nervous and just a little sad to see the departure of Umbro from Anfield. My first glimpse of the kit though instantly quelled all my fears. It was utterly superb!

If my memory serves me correctly Match Weekly magazine previewed the new home, away and third kits in a double page spread allowing avid kit fans to pore over every detail: a typically mid-80s multi-trimmed V-neck, adidas three-stripe taping delicately outlined with yellow and stopping at the shoulders (of course this was before tournament sleeve patches), white Liver Bird and adidas logos and a wonderful shadow pattern comprising of stripes, Liver Birds and adidas trefoils. Another point of interest was that the shorts didn’t flip the placement of the club badge and manufacturers logo as was normally the case. It was wonderful stuff – adidas had achieved the impossible and come up with a design that matched, and in fact exceeded, the last Umbro pinstriped jersey.

Sadly the kit’s opening match was the tragic 1985 European Cup Final at Heysel at the end of the 1984-85 season where it was worn without Crown Paints logo and ‘adidas’ type below the trefoil logo. Fortunately though happier times were ahead for the kit as King Kenny’s men clinched the club’s first ever FA Cup and League double whilst wearing it the following year.

The kit went through several minor cosmetic adjustments in its lifespan including the switching the Crown Paints logo to run on a single line and the various pieces of commemorative embroidery to mark the triumphs this memorable side achieved wearing this memorable kit.

Worn by: Ian Rush, Jan Molby, Paul Walsh

Worn in: The 1-0 win over Chelsea that sealed the 1985-86 Division 1 title and the 3-1 victory over Everton in that season’s FA Cup final. Also worn the following season in a 10-0 thrashing of Fulham.

Buy this shirt now from Vintage Football Shirts

Liverpool Third Kit 2011-12

Posted by John Devlin

I was interviewed by BBC Radio Merseyside on Thursday regarding in the somewhat controversial new Liverpool third kit.

Want to hear what I think of it? Click here to listen again (the interview starts at about 5.37):

http://t.co/7GFZ7b6

Scunthorpe/Preston Hybrid Kit 1994-95

Posted by John Devlin

I wouldn’t have believed this monstrous combination ever existed if I hadn’t seen a picture of it with my own eyes! Back in October 1994 Scunthorpe turned up at Preston North End’s Deepdale for a Division 3 fixture. Now one can only assume that Scunthorpe (who that season had a white home kit that clashed perfectly with Preston’s lillywhite jerseys) forgot to bring their away shirts, as they took to the field sporting Preston’s away jersey from the previous season, paired with the red shorts and socks from The Iron’s regular change strip.

What made matters worse is that the Preston away shirts they were forced to borrow and their own red shorts and socks are both prime examples of early 90s patterned excess and, in their own right, both regularly voted among the worst football kits of all time. Combine them together though and you’re left with this foul concoction, arguably one of the worst kit ensembles ever seen!

The Preston shirt design was a familiar Matchwinner template that was also sported by Wigan amongst other clubs, where as the Scunthorpe strip seems to have been fashioned from a truly hideous stock fabric design (that was also worn by Peterborough and made infamous by Birmingham) which was then badged up with a manufacturers logo, that of Alan Ward Sports.

Worn by: Tony Ford, Alan Knill, Mark Smith
Worn in: Scunthorpe’s 94-95 match at Preston – Scunthorpe winning 1-0

Carling Nations Cup Kits

Posted by John Devlin

I’ve just posted an in-depth look at the Carling Nations Cup kits in the articles section.

Click here to read http://www.truecoloursfootballkits.com/articles/carling-nations-cup-kits

Best Premier League Kit 2010-11 Winner

Posted by John Devlin

Well, the votes have all been counted and double checked and I can announce that the winner of the True Colours Best Premier League Kit for 2010-11 is the:

Manchester City Third Kit

Congratulations to Umbro who produced the kit and who incidentally also won last year’s True Colours Best Premier League Kit with that season’s Manchester City home strip. This time round though the third swept the board, closely followed by Manchester City’s home kit. Seems Umbro and City are definitely doing something right up there!!

Whats interesting as well is that this winning kit is one of the rare football outfits that has a two-year lifespan – food for thought really that in this day and age, when football kits come and go in a single season, that a strip is just as popular in its second year than it was in its first. All credit really to this superb Umbro design that reinvented a long forgotten City away kit style from the 1970s and brought it bang up to date. Perhaps the fact that the sponsors’ logo takes a bit of a back seat in order not to impinge on the design had something to do with it?

Last year saw the strip worn with black shorts and socks, this season though the overall strip has been updated with the home kit’s white shorts (complete with tonal badge/logo) and a smart new design of socks (featuring red and black bands) now being favoured, although the previous season’s black shorts have been worn on occasion.

Vote True Colours

Posted by John Devlin

I was delighted to find out this morning that the True Colours site has been nominated for the Best Football Fashion Blog award hosted by esteemed Premier League website EPL Talk.

If you have a spare moment please visit: http://www.epltalk.com/2011-best-fashion-football-blog and I’d be really grateful if you voted for True Colours!

Thank you!

Best Premier League kit of 2010-11

Posted by John Devlin

As the season’s drawing to a close and we’ve had a whole 8 months of seeing the Premier League kits in action I thought now would be a good time to recap and see what we all thought were the best top flight kits of 2010-11.

I thought I’d take a leaf out of the ‘alternative vote’ book and ask you for your three favourite PL kits of the season. Your first choice gets 3 points, second 2 and third 1. If you want a recap of the kits please click here and then lets have your votes!

To get the ball rolling I’ll go for:

First: Blackpool Third
Second: West Ham Home
Third: Sunderland Away

Champions League Last 16 Away Kits

Posted by John Devlin

: Arsenal A 10-11

: AC Milan A 10-11

: Barcelona A 10-11

: Bayern Munich 3/EA 10-11

: FC Copenhagen EA 10-11

: Chelsea A 10-11

: Inter Milan A 10-11

: Lyon A 10-11

: Manchester United A 10-11

: Marseille A 10-11

: Real Madrid 3/EA 10-11

: Roma A 10-11

: Schalke 3/EA 10-11

: Shakhtar Donetsk A 10-11

: Tottenham Hotspur EA 10-11

: Valencia A 10-11

A while back I featured the home kits of the last 16 teams in the Champions League. Now with the second legs of the semi finals fast approaching I thought I’d feature the aways. Personally, I think many of these are better than the home!! Surprisingly I love the adidas Lyon and Marseille aways, the Lyon one especially is incredible. Dont’ think I’d ever wear it but its certainly a brave design. Although the trend has gone out of fashion in the UK in recent years several continental sides are still sporting special European away kits that double up as their domestic thirds namely: Real Madrid (regular away kit is black), Schalke (whose domestic change strip is navy blue, daft when you consider their home is royal blue!) and Bayern Munich (although their white away has also been worn in this season’s CL campaign).

FC Copenhagen have a complete set of unique European kits with a black change strip (their vibrant pink design a third choice).

I’ve included Spurs’ third kit here rather than their pale blue away mainly due to the fact that the navy strip has been worn in Europe this season while the pale blue hasn’t. Whether the navy is first choice European away (if that makes sense!) or not is unclear.

As far as Nike’s contributions go, the Barca away shirt, as ever, is interesting and special mention has to go to the audacious Inter Milan change jersey that features a large blue and black serpent graphic (the serpent/snake being an important symbol for the city of Milan) on the left hand side.

Kappa also make their mark this year with a fine orange change strip for Valencia.