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.

As you can see, it features the Umbro diamond logo in white running between parallel lines on the sleeves - a familiar site on many a football kit at the time - as well as down the sides of the leggings. This can be seen clearly when looking at Steve Powell (right) who, despite looking splendid in the full tracksuit, has obviously done something regrettable to upset David Nish to his left.

Nevertheless it's the tops they're all wearing that score full marks for cool. Not only do they have a fine navy blue hood with white drawstring, but also a Saab logo above the Derby badge on the left breast.

The latter detail is something of a curiosity as The Rams have never actually featured Saab as a shirt sponsor throughout their history (their first was 'Fly British Midland' in 1979). Instead, Saab, through a local car dealership, were a commercial partner of Derby County whose logo ended up on advertising hoardings, match tickets and, of course, training apparel.

But all that aside, this was an excellent ensemble from Umbro proving all too easily that from time to time in the world of tracksuit design, less can certainly mean more.

Seen any great tracksuits from football's rich and illustrious past? Tell us all about them by dropping us a line to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com. We could feature your words on our website!

Other Great Tracksuits of Our Time:

• 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)