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The history of the Liverpool football kit

After the club came into existence in 1892 wearing a blue and white halved shirt. The kit was made to make some distinction between themselves and Everton who were playing in various strips including Salmon Pink or Ruby Red.  Just inside the 1900s the two clubs switched to their more commonly known kits.  Everton returned to their original colours of blue and white whilst Liverpool switched to a red kit.

In the early 1900s the reds turned out in all red shirts with long white shorts and red socks.  There were a couple of variations in the early years towards more white featuring in the top but this never lasted for any length of time.

After the first World War the reds were seen in red tops with white shorts and black socks.  Though just before the war they changed their kit whereby a red stripe was put on the shorts and the socks were rimmed in red and white.  Just before Bill Shankly’s days at Anfield the socks were more white but the top remained red and the stripe on the shorts remained.

It was during Bill Shankly’s days though that the kit of today was born.  He decided that the players would look even bigger and more importantly more intimidating to the opposition if the players changed their shorts to all red ones.  At this point he threw a pair of all red shorts at the Collosus – Ron Yeats and told him to put them on.  As soon as he put them on he said straight away how he looked eight feet tall and players would be scared of him.  At this point Ian St John suggested that he go all the way and give him red socks as well.  The comment was met with open arms by the great man and the all red kit was born.

In 1965 the reds played the FA Cup Final in their all red kit and for the first time in their history picked up the FA Cup.  They then embarked on their show of steel for years to come and became hugely successful with it.  In the 1970s Umbro designed an excellent kit off all red with a little white v-neck collar and small white cuffs.  A golden liver bird with the initials LFC were placed over the heart.  It’s this strip that the reds won their first European cup in Rome 1977.  The away kits of the time where the reverse scenario of white shirts and red v-neck collar.  For the occasions of playing teams like Sunderland the team would play in all yellow.

It was this home shirt which saw the very first sponsorship deal placed on it when Hitachi started sponsoring the team in 1977.  The kit didn’t really start changing until the early 80’s though when the first of the now regular changes happened.  A white pinstripe was introduced by Umbro ready for the last of the European cup wins in Rome 1984.  By this time the sponsorship had changed over to Crown Paints and had become more commonplace from the original days of only been worn if the teams were not being featured on TV.  In the same period of time the away kit had become all yellow as occasionally worn earlier in the 1970s.  The alterations had to come against Watford when the team combined three kits together with a red top, black shorts and yellow socks.

At the start of the 1985-86 season the club changed their kit manufacturer to Adidas whilst retaining the Crown Paints sponsorship.  The kit was changed back to more red in the kit at this point and remained for a couple of years.  In 1985-86 the reds wore all white when traveling away from home.  By 1988 the kit was altered to a round necked collar.  The away kit for this season became all silver with red trim and despite the recent whinges from Man United the team found each other very easily.  This kit was changed a year later with the change of sponsor from Crown Paints to Candy.  The sponsorship of Candy didn’t last too many years and was altered to Carlsberg.  However before the kit changed sponsor Adidas made what is often known as the bird droppings kit when they introduces flashes of white all over the top.  They introduced a variation of the silver kit as well when they introduced one which was silver and white mini diamonds.   Around the time of the clubs centenary Adidas made the kit all red again but introduced three flashes across the right shoulder.  This remained past the centenary year and into the Carlsberg sponsorship.  The year before the centenary the away kit also became green for the first time and in a similar way to the home kit it was all green with three white adidas flashes on the shoulder and shorts.

After the centenary year of 1992 the kit was changed again whereby the three stripes on one shoulder were moved to three stripes on either side of the shirt going diagonally upwards from the hips.  The away kit of this time was white body with green sleeves and black flashes from each hip with black shorts.  The final kit of the Adidas deal came when they tried to move back to kits of the past with a deep red kit and thick white collar with plan red shorts and socks.  The away kit of the time was to become green and white quarters with a granddad type collar and green shorts.  It was one of Adidas’ better away kits of the time.  During this time the reds also had a third kit for odd games off gold with black badges through it all and looked awful.

Reebok then took over the kit manufacturing for the club until they merged with Adidas and the club returned to wearing Adidas kits.   They started with an all red top and a white fold over collar before reverting to an older tradition top of all read with a rounded white collar like the 60s although much lighter in colour.  Reebok also introduced a whole number of away kits since they took over and sadly introduced more and more blue into the away kits.  The first away kit was Ecru in colour with black shorts but only lasted a year as first away kit when it was replaced with an all yellow kit and a tiny bit of blue.  It was then replaced one year later with a white top and a red stripe down the sleeve but sadly navy shorts.  This was in turn replaced a year on with a green kit and blue shorts.  The top had a diagonal blue and white stripe.  

Reebok continued to change the away kit year on year but then used the previous season’s away kit as a third shirt for a year.  This brought the idea that a kit would last two seasons.

In the summer of 2006 the Reds reverted back to Adidas for kit manufacture and by this time they were in full swing for three kits. The third kit was now classed as a European kit which changed once a year and the away shirt followed suit too.

About the Author

Liverpool football shirts available from Subside Sports, retailer of football kits.

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