I was delighted to be asked to work with Admiral Sportswear on a fascinating project that gives people the opportunity to vote for their favourite Admiral kit from the many the company have produced over the years.
Admiral of course spearheaded the replica kit market in the 1970s and are known for their innovative, exciting and dynamic designs.
The selection of kits presented on their site is divided into decades and while for many the 1970s gave birth to the most iconic Admiral designs, I think you’ll be surprised at just how many fantastic strips Admiral have supplied to clubs in subsequent years.
So head over to Admiral’s website now, browse through the array of superb designs and get voting!
Wow that is a hard choice, so many iconic kits.
I suspect one of the England 82 World Cup kits will win as more people are likely to vote for those as most people visiting the site will be England fans. Clubwise the vote will get split.
Personally I love the Coventry brown kit, Orient’s tramlines, The Man Utd 3/4 stripe 70’s away shirt, both of the Spurs shirts… the list just goes on!
Some wonderful old kits there.. makes me wish there were more old kits on this site rather than the current kits or of course True Colours 3 and 4 (fingers crossed)
Says something that most of my favourites are from an era I didn’t even watch football in…the 70s. Probably explains why I’ve always regarded Admiral as not a great kits manufacturer, whereas people who watched football in the 70s seem to regard Admiral with more reverence.
OK, one from the 80s…
Coventry City Away Kit 1978-81
Luton Town Home Kit 1974-79
Derby County Home Kit 1984-85
Could easily pick 10 iconic admiral kits,wheres the norwich one with the green sleeves?
Ran out of time with it John. The deadline was really tight and I just needed to sort through as many Admiral kits as I could. What surprised me is the quality of some of their kit designs in the 80s/90s/00s. Some really good stuff there. More often than not they always produced unique kits for clubs rather than relying on templates. Some great designs…
Interesting choices and I can see why you ran out of time compiling the archive.
Perhaps a couple of inclusions for you from the 90’s; firstly the York City strip worn in the victory at Old Trafford in the League Cup around 94/95, very similar to the 70’s template at Bootham Crescent I believe. Secondly the Lincoln City home kit worn in the two legged demolition of Manchester City in the 96-97 season (5-1 on aggregate). How fortunes have changed for all sides concerned.
I can only agree with John about the quality of the kits in the 90’s which were well made and had some distinctive styling.
And still no Hereford United kits?
Ah Shakey!! I had all the research pics ready (both 70s and 00s versions) but just ran out of time, the deadline was so tight. Knew you’d be cross with me 😉
Shock result, two Motherwell kits in the top 11! 🙂 A shame our most famous Admiral kit (1991 Scottish Cup winning strip) wasn’t included in the poll. 🙁
Think that vote has been hijacked by Motherwell fans!!!
Willie! I’m sorry, just ran out of time to include that kit. Good to see Motherwell up there though hey? John – maybe you’re right!
Results are in now…and it would seem that only one of the top 11 was produced after 1983!
Predictably, an England kit won, though am half surprised it wasn’t the 74-80 one instead of the (IMHO awful) 80-83 version.
I voted for mufc away,mufc home and england 82,its not the best England kit(the 84-86 umbro for me)but its iconic and reminds me of my favourite world cup in spain.
I can’t imagine there is enough Motherwell fans with an interest in kits to hijack a kit poll. 🙂
Oddly the chosen two striped Admiral home kit was actually designed by a fan. It was the winning entry in competition that was organised by our then manager Roger Hynd and Admiral. Ironically the design was not popular among the fans and was only worn for around 6 months, before we reverted back to the previous Admiral home design.
The above links no longer work and Admiral site is down so cannot vote but I did have the following Admiral kits during the 70’s and they will always be my favourite kits because they evoke my childhood and early teenage years and everything else I was going through!
The full Admiral kits I had in chronological order:
England Home 1975
West Ham Home 1977
West Ham Tracksuit 1977
Wales Home 1977
Tampa Bay Rowdies 1978 (Shirt only)
New York Cosmos 1978 (Shirt only)
Crystal Palace Home 1979
West Ham Away 1979
England Home 1980
They were all lush…….
Coventry City’s home kit from the late 1970’s with the Admiral logo being in circumference within the top part of the socks.