Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.16

Queens Park Rangers (circa 1975)

Throughout this long and illustrious series of ours, there's one tracksuit we've somehow forgotten to focus our attention on; a tracksuit that strode the footballing landscape like a giant back in the mid-70s and yet today has all but been ignored.

QPR's blue tracksuit with a big white V was a regular sight back then and stood out like a sore thumb with its bright colouring and distinctive motif. Anyone watching The Big Match four decades or so ago will have seen it often on their TV screens, especially if Brian Moore allowed a brief glimpse of the subs warming up on the pitch before the match started.

As you can see from this image taken from Shoot! magazine, the design was rather fetching when only the top half was worn, but there was also a matching pair of blue tracksuit trousers to go with it to complete the ensemble. The tops had a zip fastener and the cuffs and collar were striped in blue and white.

All in all, a very nice outfit. We're not sure who made it, but we can't help feeling they missed a trick here. Given that big white V on the top, perhaps it would have looked more appropriate if worn in different colours by a team like Port Vale or Aston Villa. The V would have had a bit more meaning if fans felt it was a reference to the latter part of their team name.

Or maybe it would have looked good in claret and blue to match the Burnley home strip of the same era. Here's Peter Noble (left) wearing it. Just imagine unzipping an identical tracksuit top to reveal a shirt beneath with exactly the same design! The very thrill of it! Oh we should have been fashion designers, you know...

Anyway, QPR's classic blue and white 'V' tracksuit is undoubtedly an absolute classic, and if you want to see some more, here are the previous 15 entries in our Great Tracksuits collection.

• No.15: Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers (1974)
• No.14: Ipswich Town and Arsenal (1978)
• No.13: Norway (1986)
• No.12: Wales (1976)
• No.11: Borussia Mönchengladbach (circa 1976)
• No.10: England (1986)
• No.9: Argentina (1978)
• No.8: Derby County (1978)
• No.7: Coventry City (1978)
• No.6: Brighton & Hove Albion (1983)
• No.5: Arsenal (1989)
• No.4: John Bond special
• No.3: Leeds United (1974)
• No.2: Liverpool (1977)
• No.1: Slovan Bratislava (1976)

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.15

Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers (1974):

In the world of international fashion, bright citrus-coloured pants have rarely, if ever, been considered as acceptable. The same can be said of sky blue two-piece outfits with red trimmings.

Luckily the world of football doesn't concern itself with international fashion, and this undoubtedly allowed the 1974 League Cup Final to be one of the most colourful occasions ever seen at Wembley. And that was before the match got started.

As the two teams walked out onto the pitch for the big match, 97,000 fans could have been excused for whipping out their sunglasses and shielding their eyes from the glare.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.14 - FA Cup Special

Not long to go now until FA Cup Final Day, so let's look back to 1978 when two rather fine tracksuit tops graced the biggest game in the English football calendar.

The scene was Wembley, the teams were Ipswich Town and Arsenal. Terry Neill and Bobby Robson emerged from the tunnel into the warm May sunshine and shortly after we got our first sight of the 22 players that would start the 1978 FA Cup Final.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.13

Norway (1986):

One glaring omission from our Great Tracksuits series thus far is Hummel, the Danish sportswear manufacturer (and not the German World War II tank of the same name).

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.12

Wales (1976):

It's May 1976, the United Kingdom is just weeks away from its hottest summer since records began and the Welsh national football team are battling for a place in the semi-finals of the European Championships. These are bizarre, surreal days.

Despite being 2-0 down from the first leg, Wales were determined to beat Yugoslavia at Ninian Park to reach the finals in... Yugoslavia, of all places. The task was tough, but their preparations were nothing short of perfect due to the tracksuits they were wearing for the big occasion.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.11

Borussia Mönchengladbach (circa 1976):

Just when you thought Puma weren't capable of producing a decent retro tracksuit, think again. Here's Charlton's very own Allan Simonsen sporting a very tasty tracksuit top during his time at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

But wait a minute... doesn't this look a wee bit familiar?

That's right. This could almost be an inverse representation of Northern Ireland's away shirt (designed by Umbro) in 2011. (And if Puma's lawyers are thinking of suing, remember who tipped you off, OK?)

Yes, this is the double-chevron that was worn by the West German league champions in the mid- to late-70's. As you can see, it's a vivid green colour with a two-tone flappy collar and black waist band, but a nice touch here is the placement of the Puma logo (a little lower than you'd normally see on a football top) and the inclusion of the name 'A.Simonsen') just below it.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.10

England (1986):

Our recent podcast covering World Cup Memories has given me the perfect excuse to mention Mexico 86 again, and what better way to do so than by selecting Tracksuit No.10.

Considering the staidness of the England kit of the time, this is actually quite a flashy affair... albeit flashy in a rather staid way, of course.

The merest hint of collar, far from the huge winged articles of the 70s, gives an air of modern cool that continues with a mixture of horizontal pinstripes and chest panels that would have looked at home on the tail fin of a British Airways Concorde.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.9

Argentina (1978):

A special occasion sometimes requires a special outfit to wear and as hosts of the 1978 World Cup, Argentina certainly got it in the form of this fetching sky blue tracksuit by Adidas.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.8

Derby County (1978):

Much as we love the flamboyance of Admiral's many daring tracksuit designs, we shouldn't forget that it sometimes pays to imply a sense of style through understatedness. To that end, we bring you a lovely Umbro tracksuit worn by Derby County in the 1977/78 season.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.7

Coventry City (circa 1978):

Seen here modelled by Gerry Daly, this is a smart design in light and dark blue with quite possibly the biggest flappy collar that's ever been seen by the human eye. Forget the Great Wall of China - this collar really can be seen from outer space.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.6

The sixth installment in our 'Great Tracksuits' series comes courtesy of Sam Swaffield, co-editor of The Seagull Love Review. A devout Brighton fan, Sam's keen to draw our attention to the apparel worn by his team during one of the high points of their history...

"As a kid growing up in the 90's, all I'd known was Albion kits manufactured by highly suspicious brands. The likes of Ribiero, Super League and Sports Express all had a shot at the stripes, and none of them are in business today.

The 80's though, as we all know, was a golden era. Our Adidas days, between '79 and '86, are viewed by my generation as some sort of kit utopia, where the historic stripes were dropped for an all royal blue dream, the West Germans no doubt unequivical over the phone to Hove; "For you Brighton und Hove Albion, ze stripes are over".

Pictures of the kits are easy to find. The British Caledonian emblazoned sheen of the '80 shirt is a classic, and the red Nobo away shirt of '86 is definitely worth a look. For what I like to call 'Leisure Wear' though, it is a different story.

Official team snaps from '82 show a classic Adidas 2-piece tracky; coaching staff in royal blue trousers and body with white sleeves and customary box fresh Copa Mundials.

For the FA Cup Final in '83 however, Adidas went into overdrive. First a new kit just for the Final (a cotton number with red and white pinstripes, danke schön), and then a new tracksuit for the journey to the team hotel and subsequent round of golf. This classic Albion apparel, a set of which I've never seen apart from in the video below, scrapped the white sleeves for dashing white and red go-faster stripes across the chest and embroidered FA Cup Finallist detail under the badge.


As Albion kit goes, this is the pinnacle. If I had one, I, too, would wear it with royal blue suede Sambas, and saunter around Brighton, king of sports casual, seagull savant, pride of Sussex.

It's worth noting in the video Chris Ramsey looking like Marvin Gaye, Jimmy Case rejecting Adidias and dressing like a crap Scouse Bruce Springsteen, and David Icke, dodging the lizard people, to actually present the piece. Happy days indeed."

Our grateful thanks go to Sam Swaffield for telling us about his 'Great Tracksuit', and don't forget, we'd love you to do the same by dropping us a line. Email us at admin [at] thefootballadmin [dot] com with all your details, and you, too, could see your words appearing in a future 'Great Tracksuits of Our Time' article!

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.5

Our good friend Rich Nelson from the always excellent 'Escape To Suomi') provides us with this contribution to our 'Great Tracksuits' series:

Arsenal (1989/90):

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.4 - John Bond special

Towards the end of September 2012, John Bond, a man who possessed great talent as a player and a manager, died aged 79. Though he spent 16 years playing for West Ham United, he will perhaps be best remembered for a long managerial career that took in Manchester City and Norwich City among many other clubs.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.3

Leeds United (1974):

Seen here in the Wembley tunnel just before the ill-fated 1974 Charity Shield match, Leeds United's Billy Bremner and David Harvey shift nervously from one foot to another in their resplendent white tracksuit tops. They needn't have been so nervous for Leeds United were in the vanguard of football fashion in 1974. Thanks to Don Revie (who had just left his managerial post to become England team boss), the Elland Road club could now rely upon a full range of kit supplied by Admiral, and that included these lovely white tracksuit tops with yellow collars and waist bands.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No. 2

Liverpool (1977):

Once again we witness the seamster's art in all its glory as Bob Paisley's FA Cup finalists of 1977 wear their name proudly on the back of their tracksuit tops. The garment itself is beautifully styled by Umbro with a striped collar, cuffs and waist band, a style that Umbro resurrected for England's 2012/13 anthem jackets [retch]. On the front (see Emlyn Hughes above), we see a big Umbro diamond opposite a Liverpool FC badge with commemorative 'FA Cup Final 1977' stitching below. On the reverse... well it has to be some shouty letters spelling out your club name, doesn't it? It was never any other way back in the 70's, and so much the better for it.

Seen any fine examples of retro tracksuit design? Tell us all about them by dropping us a line to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com.

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Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.1

Slovan Bratislava (1976):



Worn before a UEFA Cup tie against QPR at Loftus Road, this blue tracksuit top with white trim features the team name emblazoned across the back in a Basque-style font. Note how the printer failed to leave sufficient room to fit in the A and N - a sign of true quality befitting of a team capable of winning the Czechoslovakian First Division.

Seen any fine examples of retro tracksuit design? Tell us all about them by dropping us a line at admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com.

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