History of the Soccer Shirt

Legendary Argentinian soccer player Diego Maradona is often quoted about players "giving everything for the shirt," in important soccer matches. Though players do play for club and country, on the pitch it is the soccer shirt that is the visible symbol of these causes.

The Victorian Era

In the Victorian era in England there were no uniforms or kits worn on the pitch. Players wore cricket whites or whatever else they had and teams were distinguished from one another by distinctly colored caps, scarves or sashes.

Although the first soccer uniforms in Britain appeared around 1870, the introduction of the English FA Cup in 1871-72 sparked significant change. Journalists and fans at soccer matches began to demand that teams wear uniforms to make it easier to distinguish the teams and players.

Many early British soccer jerseys were adorned with the colors of the school or sporting club from which the team had been founded. The first Blackburn Rovers jerseys were white and adorned with the blue Maltese Cross of the Shrewsbury School. Reading's early jerseys sported the salmon pink, pale blue and claret of the rowing club from which it was founded.

In the U.K. at the time, soccer was almost exclusively the sport of the upper middle class who could easily afford to buy a shirt in their club's colors. As a result, many of the working class clubs of the era sported plain white shirts, which were cheap and easy to attain.

With the advent of professional teams, the expense of providing soccer jerseys fell to the club instead of the players.

In 1891, after Wolverhampton turned up in Sunderland wearing the same red and white stripes as the host, rules were introduced stating that all home teams should have an alternate colored shirt to prevent such mishaps.

The Early 20th Century

At the turn of the 20th century as soccer shirts made from tough, natural fibers, became more form-fitting. London club Arsenal, became one of the first clubs to sport a kit that featured shorts and a shirt of the same color.

At the time there were a variety of collar designs on shirts of different clubs. Laced crew necks, along with rather wide stripes, became very popular. The wide stripes made it easier for players to see one another.

In contrast to vertical stripes, hooped jersey designs (horizontal stripes), such as those worn by Scottish side Celtic today, also became popular in this era.

Club soccer in England, and what there was on the continent at the time, was suspended for the duration of the World War I. After clubs resumed play in 1919, kits did not evolve to any great degree during the 1920's.

In the 1930's the laced crew neck began to disappear from soccer shirts in favor of collared shirts, similar to those worn in rugby. In 1933 Arsenal appeared wearing red shirts with white sleeves and floppy white collars, making them the most instantly recognizable team of the era.

In 1939 numbered shirts were introduced for the first time in Britain. However it would be nearly six years before they would be seen on the pitch with any regularity because club soccer was again suspended at the outbreak of the World War II.

The Post-War Period

Numbered shirts, which had been made mandatory in Britain just before the war, began to spread to other countries. Shortages and rationing made it difficult for clubs to buy new kits, and many were forced to change from their traditional colors to what they could find through rationing, borrowing or scrounging.

In 1953 the Bolton Wanderers appeared in the FA Cup final wearing kits made from light, shiny synthetic fabrics. Although few realized it at the time, the modern soccer shirt had been introduced. By the following season Torquay United and Queens Park had both switched to the lighter, less cumbersome synthetic shirts.

As continental soccer began to come into it's own, it influenced the soccer shirt. In 1954 the English national team appeared in what were known as it's "continental style" jerseys. These featured sleek v-necks, short sleeves and lighter material.

Sleek, lightweight jerseys had been worn in Spain and Italy as far back as the 1920's. In the postwar period they began to gain traction in England. Short sleeved, lighter-weight jerseys became the norm, as the last vestiges of Victorian era uniforms disappeared.

The soccer jerseys we see today could be considered stylistic descendants of the "continental" jerseys of the the 1950's.

On the other side of the world, Brazil appeared for the first time in it's iconic yellow shirt with green collar and cuffs. The design was the creation of a 19-year-old newspaper illustrator who had won a national contest with his design submission.

The 1960's

By the early 1960's, crew necks had begun to replace V-necks. Shirts in England and on the continent were becoming lighter and tighter and featured long sleeves once again.

Solid color shirts which reflected the sleek aesthetic of the 1960's became the order of the day. Solid colors were bolder and looked better under floodlights, which were now present in most soccer stadiums. Striped and hooped shirts all but vanished from the pitch during the 1960's.

During the 1960's, teams routinely wore shirts and shorts of the same color.

The 1970's

Starting in the 1960's and moving into 1970's, the distinct 3-striped logo of German sportswear manufacturer Adidas became common on the sleeves of first European and later English soccer shirts.

By the 1970's, many teams began to return to a more modern takes on their traditional colors. Stripes and hoops were back, although in sleeker, modern variations. And like just about everywhere else in the 1970's, on the pitch, collars grew larger.

In 1979 Liverpool became the first top flight club in England to sell advertising space on the front of their jersey. Other clubs around the country and the continent rapidly followed suit.

The 1980's

For a few years, broadcasters refused to show matches featuring branded shirts. However by 1983 they had given in and the era of modern soccer shirt marketing was born.

Adidas, Puma, Kappa, Le Coq Sportif, Umbro and, later, an upstart American brand called Nike, began to manufacture shirts for teams around the world.

Consequently, the logo of one of these companies is seen on just about every professional club soccer jersey in the world.

By the end of the 1980's soccer shirts had become very thin and lightweight as new fabrics, such as lightweight "performance" polyester, became widely available. Teams began to issue short and long sleeves allowing the players to choose which they would play in on that day.

The 90s and Beyond

Throughout the 1980's and into the 1990's, the soccer shirt became increasingly the domain of commercialism. Commercial advertising on the front of soccer shirts is universally accepted and often appears even on replica shirts. These days real estate on a soccer shirt is in short supply with sponsor logo, shirt manufacturer logo, team logo, player name and number all in competition for space.

The only major soccer team in the world that doesn't sell the space on the front of their shirts to advertisers is Spanish side, FC Barcelona, which instead donates that space to the charity Unicef.

Modern soccer shirts are now universally made from lightweight "performance" polyester.

As replica shirts have became more popular with fans designs have changed to reflect that. It's no longer enough for soccer shirts to look good with shorts on the pitch. These days they have to look good with jeans on the street.

References

• History of Football Kit Design