Hello everyone, today we are sharing the complete history of football jerseys, hope you like it!
In England, the earliest football matches were played without formal jerseys and they took to the field in cricket whites, formal shirts or flannel pullovers.
Some clubs used old fashioned colours and shirts while others used hats, scarves and belts to differentiate their teams and this is where the history of the jersey begins.
No regular uniforms.With the advent of professional football in the 1880s, clubs began to order inexpensive shirts, heavy cotton collared shirts with buttons or ties at the neck, in several standard designs.
When the Football League was formed in 1888, three clubs opted for solid-coloured shirts; Accrington (red), Bolton Wanderers and Preston (all white).
Five other teams chose shirts that look like two halves but are made up of four pieces of material – Aston Villa, Blackburn, Derby County, Everton and Notts County. Four more opted for vertical stripes, Burnley, Stoke City, West Bromwich and Wolves.
In the opening game of the 1890/91 season, Wolves were away to newcomers Sunderland and both sides took to the pitch in red and white striped shirts. The referee had no choice but to make Wolves change into their white shirts and then the league required all shirts to be registered and all clubs to have a white shirt in case of colour clashes.
At the start of the 1892 season Wolverhampton Wanderers changed their kits to the now familiar gold and black colour scheme with an uncommon diagonal design.
Over the next decade, the ever-expanding league would adopt most of the standard jersey designs we see today. Bradford, QPR and Reading’s hooped shirts, Derby County, Burnley and Aston Villa’s sleeves, and Clapton, Leeds United and Birmingham City’s deep Vs.
Whilst in the West, Bristol opted for a jersey that required a composition of eight pieces of material, few English clubs adopted the shoulder straps or the single large stripe that was so popular in Latin America. Sadly, the polka dot jerseys worn by Bolton in 1884 and 1886 failed to take off.
Regardless of the style of jersey, no jersey is allowed to play in black as it is the exclusive colour of the referee, even though for most of the era they would have been wearing a bespoke top or formal top rather than a jersey.
This restriction was lifted in England in 1992, when the Premier League allowed referees to wear green. At the 1994 World Cup, FIFA officials wore black, yellow or fuchsia, and since then referees have been exploring the full spectrum of colours – blue, pink, yellow and green.
At the turn of the century, goalkeepers wore jerseys of the same colour as their teammates and wore hats to show the difference. Even so, handballs in the penalty area were difficult to penalise, so in 1909 the Football Association rewrote the rules.
Goalkeepers were required to wear jerseys of other colours. Initially, they could choose from red, white or blue, then green was added, which soon became the colour of choice for goalkeepers in the middle of the century.
Jersey numbers appeared in Australian rugby before the First World War, and in American rugby league in the early 1920s, and soon after, in 1928, for the first time in England, in a football match between Arsenal and Sheffield. This experiment was repeated in the 1933 FA Cup Final.
Everton players wear jerseys 1-11 and Manchester City players wear jerseys 12-22. FIFA introduced the standard 1-11 numbers at the 1938 World Cup and have made their use compulsory ever since.
In the post-war period, British manufacturer Umbro was the first to experiment with the new synthetic material, producing a shiny, reflective jersey for Bolton’s appearance in the 1953 Cup Final.
But the most important innovations were coming from elsewhere, as manufacturers in Italy and South America were using lighter cotton fabrics in order to adapt to hotter conditions and a sleeker fashion culture. They’re also ditching buttons and collars, offering shorter sleeves and a more preppy, more fitted silhouette – check out this Juventus jersey from 1950.
Trend-setters included the cherry red jerseys of the great Hungarian teams of the early 1950s and the all-white shirts of Real Madrid in the late 1950s, which showcased the new tailoring styles across Europe with their V-necks and tight cuffs.
Umbro took note of this and the England and West Germany shirts worn in the 1966 World Cup final were examples of crew necks, low-profile and cool.
Perhaps the boldest design move came from Brazil, who ditched the all-white jerseys from the 1950 World Cup and opted for the yellow jersey, green trim, and blue shorts stripes that are now a Brazilian icon for a national tournament.
During the 1970s and 1980s the shirts changed to reflect the new commercialism with the introduction of sponsor logos, and in 1973 Braunschweig had the Jägermeister logo on their shirts for the first time. In England, non-league Kettering Town had Kettering tyres on their strip in 1976, which was subsequently banned by the FA. However, by 1978 the battle was won in favour of the club and all the major clubs had the logo on their shirts.
Cotton began to give way to polyester and new techniques for printing and weaving jerseys were developed. For example, the 1980 England kit produced by Admiral was one of the first to have colour blocks printed on the jersey, although West Germany’s geometric three-colour band in the late 1980s defined the genre.
And Holland’s triangular and diamond prints, which debuted at Euro ‘88, started a long and horrible trend of overly complex weaves and flourishes. For the first time football kits and street fashion began to cross over.
However, a huge market is starting to emerge and people are starting to wear replica jerseys in and out of stadiums. This is going to become very big business. Bayern sold over 3 million shirts in 2021 and the top 10 clubs in the world in terms of shirt sales over 20 million.
On the back of each jersey is a team number and a player’s name. The shirt manufacturer’s logo, first introduced in the 1980s, is ubiquitous, with clubs adding and refining their branded crests.
Sleeve labels have also been added to provide branding during matches or to be sold as additional advertising space. In some leagues, the back of the jersey can also accommodate sponsors.
Recently, the biggest changes in football kits have come from the use of new and advanced materials, with shirts becoming lighter and lighter. the Puma shirt worn by the 2021 Italy team weighs just 72 grams.
Materials with higher tensile strength have also been developed to prevent the jerseys from tearing, and special facings can be added to the jerseys to compress and protect specific muscles. And draining materials close to the skin will carry sweat away and evaporate quickly on the surface of the shirt.
All of these are made from oil and plastics that contain huge amounts of carbon, so the future is low carbon jerseys made from greens such as bamboo and coffee grounds, as well as Real Madrid’s recyclable plastic jerseys. It’s been quite a journey since the official shirt and the all-white jersey for cricket.