Over the years I have documented the Kit History of England’s Men National Team at World Cups and European Championship Finals, and was also asked to write a piece for Kit Magazine looking in the World Cup History for the World Cup Special back in 2022..
This got me thinking… should I keep a record of the Kits worn by England across their History, so here we are!!
This will be one of my reference pieces for those people to use as they see fit to look back the Kit History of England Men’s National Team, I have broken each article down into decades starting from 1960’s (once I have caught up to this decade, I may go back in time too…)!
England played 100 Games between 1960 and 1969, wearing their Primary (Home) Kit 86 times and their Secondary (Away) Kit just 14 times!
1960 – 1963
We are kicking off from 1960, and looking between here and 1963 there was very little change in the overall shirts, with a plain white shirt with a “V” neck for both Primary and Secondary shirts with plain red “V” neck.
The exception here was the socks, with several variations used over these four years… England started the decade with red socks as the default “Tri-Colour” look, these socks contained a white band across the shins, with alternative white socks used with a red band and plain white socks also seen in action.
The most adventurous socks were seen in November 1960, when red / blue / white hooped socks were used in the Home Nations game at Wembley against Wales (Image below).
In 1961, the moved to white socks as default with red / blue bands on the cuffs and another sock variation was used, this time return to single band with Navy socks, with white band used this time, worn just the once against Wales again in Home Nations with the home kit but also worn with secondary shirt (red) and white shorts for “tri-colour” look against Austria.
1962 was a World Cup year, and year started with England returning to red socks with their Primary Kit but quickly reverted to white socks with red / blue banded cuffs.
During the World Cup, England played four games and adopted the All White look for games against Brazil and Argentina, using their default (White / Blue / White) against Hungary and all red (with banded socks) against Bulgaria.
Not much change in terms of Kit usage in 1963, however the one call out was the use of “crew” necked collar with the Primary Kit, first used against The Rest of the World XI to celebrate 100 years of The FA.
1964 – 1965
1964 introduced what would be the classic England look for the next 10 years, the simple crew collar white shirt, navy shorts and plain white socks. Socks with the banded cuffs were used at start of 1964 but they were soon replaced to the plain look we often associate the team with in this period. Also for the summer games against Ireland and Brazil a final return of the “V” Necked collar was seen.
The Secondary Kit was used four times in total in 1964, with three different variations, with white shorts and white (banded cuff) socks against Portugal and USA, with white shorts and plain white socks against Portugal and then white shorts and red socks against Argentina both these games were part of the Taça das Nações Tournament hosted in Brazil that summer.
However by the end of 1964 and into 1965, the kit became one that we would see the rest of the decade..
Of the nine games played in 1965, six were in this classic look, all white was used twice against Sweden and Spain, a new secondary kit was used for the first time, matching the crew collar of the Primary Kit and worn with white shorts and red socks, this was worn against West Germany… a match up that would be a year away from immortality.
1966
As host of the 1966 World Cup, England prepared with a number of fixtures including games in January and February, as well as four game Pre-World Cup Tour to Scandinavia and Poland and ended up playing 17 games in the calendar year.
February saw something of a “Kit Mash”, with Primary Shirt and Shorts paired with Secondary socks for another “Tr-Colour” look and not one that is thought of with these particular set of kits!
England’s look remained fairly consistent through out the year, only going for the all white look once in their World Cup Quarter Final against Argentina, and using their secondary Kit twice, against Poland and then most famously in The World Cup Final against West Germany at Wembley.
1967 – 1969
After the mammoth 17 Games of their World Cup Winning year, 1967 provide something of a quieter year with just 6 games played, no variation used just default Primary and Secondary Kits in action.
1968, was the first time England played in the European Championship Finals, by winning their Quarter Final play off games against Spain in April / May (both wearing all white), they went on to play in the finals (just 4 teams then) using their default Primary Kit in both games.
The was an alternative Secondary Kit variation used this year, when the team visited Romania in November 1968, they wore red shirts, white shorts and socks for look not seen in action since 1964 and was also the final time red shirts would be used by England this decade.
In 1969 England played 10 games, which they wore their Primary White shirts for all of them, the only change was the alternative All White Look, used against Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil on the Summer tour to these countries, in preparation of the World Cup in 1970, the shirts although looked the same in terms of design they wear in the “Airtex” material to combat the heat of Central and South America.
Breakdown per year – 100 Games in Total
- 1960 – 8 Games
- 4 Primary Kit Variations
- 1961 – 9 Games
- 4 Primary Kit Variations
- 1 Secondary Kit Variation
- 1962 – 11 Games
- 3 Primary Kit Variations
- 1 Secondary Kit Variation
- 1963 – 9 Games
- 3 Primary Kit Variations
- 1 Secondary Kit Variation
- 1964 – 12 Games
- 4 Primary Kit Variations
- 3 Secondary Kit Variations
- 1965 – 9 Games
- 2 Primary Kit Variations
- 1 Secondary Kit Variation
- 1966 – 17 Games
- 3 Primary Kit Variations
- 1 Secondary Kit Variation
- 1967 – 6 Games
- 1 Primary Kit Variation
- 1 Secondary Kit Variation
- 1968 – 9 Games
- 2 Primary Kit Variations
- 2 Secondary Kit Variations
- 1969 – 10 Games
- 2 Primary Kit Variations
More Kit looks than I expected in this decade, let me know your thoughts and comments below or over at @Kit_Geek and watch this space, as in England in 1970’s will be coming soon and an overall visual page of the England Kit History is now also live on the site here
Resources for this article / project
True Colours – Volume 2 and International Kits
Football Kit Geek - @Kit_Geek 