Tuesday, 30 June 2015

[50GFSE] #41 - Birmingham City 1972-74 Third Shirt by Umbro

The 'Third' kit is an interesting phenomenon. Born out of necessity because the colours on a home or away kit clash with the opposing team (unlikely, you'd have thought), it's now become a license to break as many design rules as the manufacturer sees fit. We think of Third kits as being a modern-day entity, but look hard enough and you'll find various examples worn by clubs going back many decades... and they're no less wacky in their execution...

The Football Attic Podcast 24 - 50GFSE 50-41

We've come to the end of the first 10 shirts in the 50 Greatest Football Shirts Ever and what better way to celebrate that milestone than by the four of us (Rich, Chris, John from True Colours and Jay from Design Football) waffling about those same 10 shirts? So buckle up and prepare for a rollercoaster ride (a very tame one) through shirts 50-41 in the 50GFSE! Subscribe to The Football Attic Podcast on iTunes or download our podcast he...

Fantasy Nostalgia: Regional ITV Football Kits

In much the same way as our League of Blogs graphically rendered websites as football kits, this little exercise in pointless fantasy does exactly the same for some of the ITV regional TV channels of yesteryear. And so we present the likes of Granada, Thames, Grampian, TVS and many others in football kit form. No real reason for it... just thought it might be a pleasant distraction from football in the real world... Click for larger version Left...

Monday, 29 June 2015

[50GFSE] #42 - Arsenal 2005-06 Home Shirt by Nike

When a football kit manufacturer radically changes the shirt traditionally worn by a club, it has to either (a) have a pretty good reason for doing so, or (b) have exceptional confidence that the new design will be popular. Sometimes, both. Failure to give the fans what they want as a result of not meeting either criteria tends to result in extreme displeasure on the part of the club's followers. It's happened before. Le Coq Sportif ditched Sunderland's...

Sunday, 28 June 2015

[50GFSE] #43 - Norwich City 2004-06 Away Shirt by Xara

Norwich, like their small band of similarly hued compatriots Watford, Hull City and Wolves, don’t actually, to all intents and purposes, always need an away kit. Colour clashes can be few and far between and in some seasons non-existent. This hasn't stopped all these teams sporting some superb change outfits over the years, though, and for my money this Xara-produced Canaries strip from 2004-06 is one of the best. Click for larger version Launched...

Saturday, 27 June 2015

[50GFSE] #44 - Corinthians Centenary Home Shirt 2010 by Nike

Corinthians (full name Sport Club Corinthians Paulista) are one of Brazil's biggest clubs with a history stretching back to 1910, when it was founded by five railway workers. Their shirts are usually white with black trim and occasionally white with black stripes. The club crest consists of two crossed oars and an anchor. Click for larger version As you can see from the image here, this shirt looks nothing like that.  That's because the...

Friday, 26 June 2015

[50GFSE] #45 - Cork City 1989-91 Home Shirt by adidas

Once we had selected this particular shirt for the 50, the four main contributors agreed that we had to have Cork City fan and kit expert Denis Hurley provide a guest post, which he thankfully agreed to do. Take it away, Denis... Click for larger version Jay has already referred to the fact that templates will feature in this top 50, something which is hardly surprising. This shirt is ‘kind of’ a template but, at the same time, it’s one of a...

Thursday, 25 June 2015

[50GFSE] #46 - France 2009-10 Home Shirt (Techfit Version) by adidas

Click for larger version Ah, Techfit. Much maligned, largely abandoned, the adidas technology started out as a feature of underwear and shifted to football shirts proper as part of the “underwear as outerwear” phenomenon that also influenced England’s 2010 Umbro Away shirt. The principle - most clearly demonstrated in the shirt France took to the Croke Park field in when facing Ireland in the World Cup 2010 qualification playoff first leg - as...

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

[50GFSE] #47 - Pumas 2014-15 Home Shirt by Nike

Pumas, the official football team of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), have one of the most recognisable shirts in the world. The famous stylised puma face staring out, larger than life, from the front, leaves opponents in no doubt of who they’re up against. Click for larger version But, in fairness, the fixture list carries that off pretty well too. The danger with durative iconic kits - kits which have a rigid and distinctive...

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

[50GFSE] #48 - Germany 1991 Away Shirt by adidas

Click for larger version The style of this shirt will likely be familiar to most, albeit the colours perhaps less so. Technically the first new design the national team of the recently reunified Germany wore, the shirt was essentially the famous Home version with the white turned green and the black adidas shoulder stripes - for some reason - turned white. Indeed, in green and carrying the Schwarz-Rot-Gold of the German flag across the chest...

Monday, 22 June 2015

[50GFSE] #49 - Hull City 2007-08 Home Shirt by Umbro

Click for larger version Something that this countdown will have plenty of is templates. Very few football shirts through history are unique in every element. In the modern age, panel structure, collar design and sleeve stripe placement and length, for example, will often appear on several shirts of a manufacturer’s stable, over a single season or sometimes staggered over several, before transitioning onto a teamwear range. That said, I can...

Sunday, 21 June 2015

[50GFSE] #50 - Netherlands 1996 Home Shirt by Lotto

To kick off the 50 Greatest Football Shirts Ever, we have an example which divides opinion. We can be sure that this list will contain many shirts which have become lauded pieces of design work at least partly via an iconic status - for example, evocation of on-field glory. Others may sneak in perhaps owing to being hugely popular amongst the particular team’s supporter base. Neither of those sticks can be used to beat the Netherlands 1996 Home...

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Welcome to The 50 Greatest Football Shirts Ever

For too long, people have poked fun at football kits that we're reliably informed are badly designed, garishly coloured or just plain ridiculous. Look around on the web and it won't be long before you stumble upon the usual blog articles; someone describing why Jorge Campos always looked stupid in his dayglo outfits or why David Seaman's Euro 96 kit was terrible... and that's if you're lucky enough to get a description at all. Quite honestly, we...

Friday, 19 June 2015

Football on Film: Gregory's Girl

In 1981, one of the greatest films in Scottish movie history was released. Gregory's Girl was a story that could have been about any one of us; a tale of growing up, going to school, playing football and falling in love with someone without ever fully knowing how important any of it was. Written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring John Gordon Sinclair as Gregory Underwood, the film brings to mind memories of younger days, our insecurities...

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

Collectables in 1980/81: Part 2

The second and concluding part of Greg Lansdowne's look back to the football sticker and card collecting scene at the start of the 1980's. Having launched in 1978, the Daily Star felt confident enough to chance its arm in the football sticker market just three years’ later. Although it would turn out to be a one-off, ‘Top British Teams’ was a decent effort from the newcomer. Peter Batt, Chief Sports Columnist of the Daily Star, misjudged his...

Friday, 12 June 2015

Jon Mills: The Subbuteo Years

Many of us have personal memories of playing Subbuteo and owning various teams and accessories, but Jon Mills has turned his into a guest post that captures the spirit of those innocent times. See how many chime with your own Subbuteo memories! I’d set them all out carefully before I ran downstairs for breakfast. Mum had been calling me for ages and I knew we were running late but I needed to get the formations right. It was Brazil v Peru and I’d be spending most of the day at school looking forward to it. Looking over my shoulder one more time...

Thursday, 11 June 2015

Collectables in 1980/81: Part 1

Once again it's our absolute pleasure to welcome back Greg Lansdowne who this time takes us on a sticker-packed trip down Memory Lane to the start of the 1980's. Here's Part 1, with the concluding part coming soon to The Football Attic website. By the time of the 1980-81 season, resistance to Panini’s allure in the football collectables market seemed futile. An irresistible mix of self-adhesive stickers, up-to-date strips, official club badges...