One of the things in the kit world that catches my eye, is when we see a return or revisit to classic kit or design for a club (or country).  This is something that actually kicked off my twitter account and I put some examples out there with the first tweets sent out into the twitter-sphere, here and here .

I wanted to take some time to look at some examples of these kits here.  Now I what I look for here is something a little different that we do not see every year, that people link directly to a club, so there will be no Real Madrid white kits or Monaco’s home kit, in fact most of the examples we see here are change kits (away and 3rd kits), that have been produced by different manufacturers.

To start the ball rolling lets look at one classic example of what I am talking about.

Celtic F.C. – “The Bumblebee”

A kit first seen in 1996/97 season when Umbro turned the traditional colour palette of Celtic’s away kits on its head with its fluorescent yellow and black hooped kits, since then we have also seen Nike and New Balance have their own take on this kit.

• Umbro – 1996/97 and 1997/98 (Away kit)
• Nike – 2009/10 (Away kit) and 2010/11 (Euro / 3rd kit)
• New Balance – 2015 / 2016 (3rd kit)

West Ham United – “The Hoops”

The famous West Ham United away kit is one that part of the club’s history, Bobby Moore and his teammates wearing a version in the 1960’s, for this article I am focusing on recent returns to this style under different manufactures, where we have seen four kit manufacturers produce their version of this Hammer’s Classic.

• Pony – 1993/94 and 1994/95 (Away kit)
• Fila – 2001/02 and 2002/03 (Away kit)
• Macron – 2011/12 (Away kit) and 2012/13 (3rd kit)
• Umbro – 2015/16 (Away kit)

Arsenal – “Its up for grabs now” kit

This kit will be forever linked to climax of 1988/89 season when needing to win by 2 goals at reigning Champions and the biggest club of the era, Liverpool… Michael Thomas went through in the last minute to secure that 2-0 victory and in turn win the “First Division” Title.  Although Yellow is a go to colour for an Arsenal away kit, what I am looking at here are some of the details in the shirt, the blue sleeves and the red trim, since the original Adidas version, Nike and Puma have also produced this combination.

• Adidas – 1988/89, 1989/90 and 1990/91 (Away kit)
• Nike – 2008/09 (Away kit)
• Puma – 2014/15 (Away kit)

Crystal Palace – “The Sash”

An Iconic Crystal Palace Shirt, this was first introduced in the 1976/77 season when switching their Red/Blue stripes, returned to using white has their home kit, however introducing red/blue sash for the first time.  That initial kit was manufactured by Umbro but since has been seen in several other manufacturers (five of which pictured above).

• Umbro – 1976/77 (Home kit)
• Admiral – 1977/78, 1978/79 and 1979/80 (Home kit)
• Adidas – 1980/81, 1981/82 and 1982/83 (Home kit)
• Hummel – 1984/85,  1985/86 and 1986/87 (Home kit)
• Errea – 2008/09 (Home kit)
• Nike – 2010/11 (Away kit)
• Puma – 2018/19 (Away kit)

S.S. Lazio – “The Eagle Kit” 

Something is not just seen in British Teams, Lazio introduce their unique “Eagle” kit in 1982/83 season, a design that was also used in change strips and goalkeeper kits – there is a fantastic article over at Museum of Jerserys which goes into more detail for the kits that season – click here for that article

The kit has been revisited twice in recent years both versions produced by Macron.

• Ennerre – 1982/83 (Home kit)
• Macron – 2014/15 (Home kit)
• Macron – 2018/19 (Home kit)

There is a couple more kits that I want to mention here, where we currently have only seen twice but one’s to keep an eye on the future.

Southampton F.C. – The “Keegan” kit

• Patrick – 1980 through to 1985 (*in the style of the old vidiprinter…. *FIVE SEASONS*) – (Home kit)
• Under Armour – 2017/18 (Home kit)

Newcastle United – “The Rugby Shirt”

• Adidas – 1995/96 (Away kit)
• Puma – 2018/19 (Away kit)

I am sure there so many more examples here but thought I would highlight some of the examples that spring to mind for me.

I would be interested to know if your team has one and are there any International Teams that have something similar (USA Sash immediately springs to mind), please let me know in the comments below or via Twitter here.