Modern Life is Rubbish, this isn’t just rose-tinted nostalgia specs, it really is…

Firstly we had to fund the expedition. Somehow you had to scrape together the princely sum of two pounds, which amounted to ten weeks’ pocket money. Washing a car or two might get you 10p if you were lucky. And if an uncle visited you might get 50p pressed into your sweaty little palm if he was trying to look better than your Dad. When enough of you had the necessary, off you would go. It was a mile and a half from Huncote to the middle of Narborough, and the hardware shop. We weren’t interested in the racks of brooms or buckets or saws. We were
focussed on a cardboard box in one corner of the shop. Written on it in marker was the legend: ‘Shirts £2 - Shorts £1.’ It was a magical box stuffed with more highly fashionable cloth than a Milan catwalk.

It was the ‘Admiral Seconds’ box.

Someone obviously had a connection to the Admiral factory in Wigston and this early version of TK Maxx was created - highly desirable labels at affordable prices. Just as wannabe WAGS now fall upon labels like Gucci and Missoni we would
dive into the box and rummage around for brightly coloured treasure…Tottenham, Leeds, Manchester United, Southampton, Norwich, Coventry, West Ham, England and Wales (though never Leicester) all bearing the jaunty yellow Admiral label.
There was no school uniform at Huncote Primary School so virtually every boy
in J4 sported an Admiral. As Mr Hughes’ eye passed over his class he would have seen Luton Town, Coventry, Man United, Sheffield United, Leeds yellow away and the England goalkeeper’s shirt (though I doubt he would have recognised them as such, being more interested in folk singing than footy). The shirts you wore had absolutely no bearing on the team you supported. I was a devoted, match-going royal blue Leicester fan, but I was happy to wear West Ham’s claret and light blue chevrons on my chest. Alan had never heard of Luton but wore their orange shirt with the white and navy stripe down one side. Richard did support Leeds, but the shirt came before the affiliation. Steve wasn’t Welsh, as far as he knew, but was
seldom seen without his gaudy red, yellow and green creation. Mitchell was a
Leicester fan, and still is, but would carefully line up the tram lines on his Coventry shirt and shorts. And we all did this because, for just a couple of years, Admiral was IT!….

The Admiral brand can be traced back to 1914 when it was used by ABC Hosiery
Ltd of Leicester who produced good quality underwear. By the early 1970’s the company producing the brand were Cook & Hurst Ltd of Wigston. At this time the first manufacturers logos were very gradually beginning to appear on football shirts and it was Admiral who first seized on the possibility of commercialising football strips. With a young and vibrant sales and marketing force, years ahead of their time, the Leicester company swiftly set about conquering the domestic
market. Don Revie’s fondness for making a bit of brass to supplement his meagre
salary at Leeds was a big help in the early days. Leeds United were the first to wear the nautical trademark. Then, when Revie became England boss, a £16,000 deal was cut and England’s traditional plain white shirt was suddenly adorned with red and blue sleeve stripes and a yellow logo, much to the horror of traditionalists and the delight of schoolboys across the nation. That shirt was the must have item of 1975 and when Manchester United were also signed up Admiral had the ‘Big Three’.
The rest fell into line.

The Admiral agents had an eye for opportunity. When Southampton beat Manchester United in the 1976 FA Cup Final they wore an Admiral strip that had been designed and manufactured since their semi-final victory and they were adorned with repeated logos down sleeves and shorts. In every copy of Shoot! there would be a full page colour advert showing their latest designs. There was even an ‘Admiral Annual’ produced which showed only photos of games in which both sides wore the approved brand. You could also send away for a poster which displayed Admiral’s growing roster of clubs from Aberdeen to Orient. Admiral, operating from a much smaller financial base, had to be sharp to stay ahead of Umbro and adidas, who were now breathing down their necks. Umbro was being worn by Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton, Derby County and Scotland, while adidas clothed Ipswich Town, QPR, Birmingham and Nottingham Forest.

Although Admiral, being a Leicester firm, had kitted City out for years only in 1976 did they introduce logos to the strip, and plenty of them.I still remember my Dad recoiling with horror when he saw Admiral’s typically unrestrained design. It was the end of football as we knew it, he reckoned. And he was probably right. But we loved it and after I got it for Christmas 1976 I seldom wore anything else for years.

Eventually, adidas and Umbro and French firm Le Coq Sportif caught up with and overtook the pioneering Admiral. They lost the England contract to Umbro in the early eighties and then went bust. Although the logo has often re-emerged over the years Admiral have never been a force in the kit market again.

But every time I see Nike or Umbro proudly, and with much gravitas, unveiling their latest ever so slight rearrangement of stripes and collars as if it were a cure for cancer, I think back to a firm from Leicester who did it first and did it best.

Gary Silke
The Fox fanzine

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

Group B mixes Nike, Puma and adidas together. Adidas have come up with some superb designs for the Germany team that really lift their outfits away from the slightly formularic approach of Nike and Puma. Green is no longer the German’s away hue and instead a dynamic combination of red and black is preferred.

Euro 2008 also sees Austria abandon their traditional white home kit in favour of a clean red and white. This outfit is supplemented by a classy black and gold change affair.

As usual Croatia’s unique style brings a rich blend of colour to the competition.

Part 3 of Euro 2008 kits to follow soon.

All illustrations are (C) 2008 www.truecoloursfootballkits.com and must not be reproduced without express permission.

Starting off with Group A where unbelievably every team has a red home kit and white away! Who says international kits are getting boring? There’s really only a few templates on view at this summer’s tournament so for those of you who love to see a wide and rich variety of different designs be warned!

The real kit of interest from this selection is the Turkey away kit that features a rather untraditional turquoise colour. The reason for this colour choice is that the origin of the word turquoise comes from the French word for Turkey. Its another example of Nike’s conceptual and intelligent approach to kit design.

Also, Portugal have ditched the darker red they have worn recently and reverted to a more familiar shade.

Part 2 of Euro 2008 kits to follow soon.

All illustrations are (C) 2008 www.truecoloursfootballkits.com and must not be reproduced without express permission.

Firstly, I must lay my cards on the table. If you’ve read a little more about me elsewhere on the site you will see that I am a Liverpool fan of old. I guess I stopped following them fanatically in my teens when I felt a bit of a fraud supporting a team I seldom saw play and that were not my local side. So although I no longer shed a tear when they lose, theirs is always the first result I look out for on a Saturday at 4.45 (older fans pre-Sky will know what I mean here!)

OK, that’s that out of the way. My work studying football shirt history over the years has led me to several conclusions: clubs have always changed their kit on a regular basis, some third strips are unnecessary (!), if you’re wearing a good looking kit it can have an influence on the pitch and that a change of sponsor/manufacturer/design CAN improve a club’s fortunes.

One of the other revelations I have also uncovered concerns Liverpool’s apparent inability to win the league title – an achievement that has escaped them for almost 20 years! Sure there have been several notable cup wins along the way, but not the elusive honour that confirms a club are simply the best in the land. The reason for this ‘failure’ in my view is not down to an aged team that has not been updated/refreshed (as was often the argument post-Dalglish) and its not down to any rotation systems. No, in my opinion the failure is, in part at least, down to the Liverpool crest that appears on the hallowed red (and sometimes white, yellow, green or black) shirt.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the current rather elaborate shirt crest which has gone through several minor cosmetic changes since it was initially introduced in the 92-93 season. Liverpool last won the title in 89-90 when the club shirt (which at the time was the infamous paint splattered affair, but don’t let that dilute my argument!) featured a simple Liver Bird surrounded by a relatively simple and traditional crest that had replaced the classic icon of the Liver Bird standing alone above a base of ‘L.F.C.’ in 1987. Strong, direct, dynamic and to the point, with the club’s symbol or identity instantly recognisable and on view clearly and simply.

This identity is now hidden and diluted within a couple of shields, the Shankly gates (emblazoned with the ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ legend and second minature version of the Liver Bird badge), and the Hillsborough eternal flames all wrapped up with a hefty dose of scrolls. Of course I fully appreciate the significance of the flames and that is something, I believe, must not be ignored. But I do think the current badge is too wrapped up and lost in the past and the mythology of the club. It is not the crest of a forward-thinking and dynamic club. The strength of Liverpool FC has been its football and its identity – familiar and recognisable and perfectly epitomised by the peak teams of the 70s and 80s that were led and accompanied by the strong Liver Bird logo on their chests – it symbolised the team and the way they played football, the club and the city. It also instilled fear into the opposition.

Design trends come in circles and now many clubs are switching to streamlined and powerful badge designs to adorn their shirts. These badges enhance the brand identity of the clubs in question by being clearly recognisable – even when viewed at a small size in a newspaper, magazine or at the match itself. They also lend themselves easily to being rendered in virtually any colour combination. I think its time for the cumbersome and intricate badge to be phased out.

A large faction of Reds fans have been campaigning for a return of the iconic Liver Bird badge and occasionally pre-season fake shirts appear with it in place, but sadly it has yet to make a return. It does still re-appear in a part-time capacity though when the club are playing in a major cup final. Eagle eyed supporters will remember that it appeared in yellow (alongside the regular club badge and Reebok logo), slap bang in the middle of the shirts worn in the glorious Champions League final against AC Milan in 2005.

Cup wins aside, is it a coincidence that the club has not won what is rapidly becoming its ‘Holy Grail’ – the league title – with the elaborate crest spearheading the club on their jerseys? Don’t get me wrong, nothing would make me happier than for the club to clinch the title next season in this splendid new adidas jersey complete with the current badge but I believe a change is needed.

Obviously a badge/crest can’t win matches on its own but as a graphic designer and football shirt historian I believe it can inspire and influence and perhaps thats what the club needs right now.

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!

Their first foray in England was in the early 90s with Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday with the teams sporting some very contemporary and forward thinking designs. Later in the decade Everton and Stoke followed suite and today the firm still produce some fine outfits for Coventry, Tottenham and Reading amongst others.

A glance at the line up of kits for Euro 2008 reveals that the international football strip market is dominated by Puma, adidas and Nike.

Sadly the Dassler brothers’ infamous falling out that led to the formation of Puma and adidas was never patched up and the brothers died unreconciled.

The firm produced kits for a consistently high number of clubs throughout the 1900s and in the 60s they supplied more teams than any other brand including that of the England national side.

Bukta’s popularity continued into the 70s with high profile deals with West Ham, Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle Utd. Later in the decade the brand were given a valuable dose of publicity when George Best joined Scottish side Hibernian who sported shirts featuring a massive Bukta logo as part of a kit supplier/sponsorship package.

However the 80s saw the firm’s flame fade and despite three logos changes and deals with Crystal Palace (for whom they produced a phenomally large number of different kits in just a few short years), West Ham and Derby the company folded as the 90s took hold. The brand suffered further indignity as several of their designs were worn the season after with a new logo simply stitched over the Bukta marque (see the Watford and Derby kits from the early 90s). Obviously in those days team kits were not as plentiful as they are now.

The Bukta brand, now owned by the Cavden Group is making a welcome comeback in 2007 with a new kit deal with Motherwell – no doubt football kit fans throughout the UK will hope to see more of this famous old company on the shirts of their heroes in the coming years.

Here are a couple of pics to show the difference. Since the additional logo shirts were introduced at the beginning of the year the club have switched between these and the standard shirts that were worn at the beginning of the season.

By the way, if any Pompey fans can explain any more about the additional Canterbury logos I’d be very interested to hear from them. You can contact me by clicking here.

It will be interesting to see how Nike interpret the French outfit. They certainly reinvented the rugby strip bringing in an elegant navy blue in favour of the country’s traditional shade.

With Umbro’s sale to Nike looking imminent it may not be too long before the English national football team sport the swoosh on their famous white jerseys.