Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of posts since the new year. Some of you may be aware that my role in my 9-5 job has increased dramatically since Christmas and with the extra responsibility comes extra work. January has been particularly busy (which is a great thing!) but its meant I couldn’t focus on True Colours as much as I would have liked.
Rest assured, balance is being restored and theres lots of exciting things coming up this year. I’ve also been working on designing some teamwear kits for a sportswear firm in Scotland – more about this project in due course!!
In the meantime, whilst thumbing through old Match/Shoot magazines in the loft I came across this series of Replica World kit ads including some really interesting Umbro items – they don’t make ads like this anymore…
Sorry if the quality of the scan is not great – its also pretty large.
It’s noticeable that most of the replica shirts in the ad don’t have sponsors names, even though the actual matchday shirts did.
Yep, and in the case of Celtic if they were going to reproduce them so much smaller than on the player issue shirts they might as well not have bothered.
Great news re the teamwear designing, John!
Some absolutely classic Umbro kits there, in particular, Everton’s home, Celtic’s Centenary and Derby’s away. I also loved the Sheffield outfits, especially Wednesday’s. How I miss ads like these 🙂
Some classic Umbro kits there! The Everton home and Derby away stand out for me. I also really loved that Sheff Wed kit, though I seem to be in the minority on that one 🙂
I like the fact there was a 24 hour ordering service, just in case you really needed a pair of Plymouth Argyle away socks at 3am 🙂
Always great to see a green and yellow Albion away kit. Another one is long overdue!
Look at the difference in size between the sponsor’s logo on the Everton home, away and goalkeeper shirts!
These days when we see kits we take stuff for granted (thanks to the internet) but back in the 80’s it used to be exciting seeing adverts like this in the likes of Match and Shoot!, especially in July/August when the new kits were released.
Also back in those days all shirts wear measured in inches rather than size L, XL, XXL and so on…… and sponsor logos were smaller on shirts that were 30/32″ or below, I say that from experience because when I was a kid I used to support Liverpool (I soon saw sense!), and had a 30/32″ home shirt in ’89, with a small Candy logo. After a lot of usage and an unfortunate end after snagging the shirt on a barbed wire fence, my old man bought me a replacement the following year, but a larger size (32/34″ – yes they did exist), but it had a huge Candy logo, almost like the players’ versions size, but obviously the heat applied plastic/nylon/whatever crap that would still break after 200 washes.
Also, the goalie shirt designs were phased out DURING the season, not that goalie jerseys were big sellers in the replica market. Around the turn of 1989, Umbro brought out a new standard goalie jersey design which was similar to this (but with the black and grey panels reversed)…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/umbrofootball/4008019888/lightbox/
Also noteworthy is that the design for Everton’s replica goalie shirt was only worn once – by Bobby Mimms in the 86/87 Charity Shield. A totally different design, green jersey with shadow diagonal print and black button-up collar, was used instead but never released as a replica as far as I’m aware, and was used up until late 1988 when a new shirt was used, as worn by Big Nev here (and worn in the 89 FA Cup final)…
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_football/SOUTHALL_N_19890513_GH_R.jpg
Curiously, this shirt did get released as a replica for the following season. Also interesting is that all Umbro replica goalie shirts were released with an ironed on official Umbro number 1 on the back, very unusual in that you couldn’t get other numbers for replica player shirts (you had to make do with a bog-standard pseudo 3D iron on plastic number, which cracked up after about 200 washes!!!)
I alway find the older add to be more intresting i still have a lot of shoot and match from the 19990 and i can rember the excitment too but i winder what happened to replica world the last i see them was about 1998 it a shame bcouse of conplaint about sale ads that the ads in the late 90 and the 00 no longer apwaered
There used to be an ad in Shoot for goalie tops (teamwear style ones)…I think it was Reusch. Every Christmas for a few years I debated which one I wanted…The green n black, or maybe the blue n silver? Dithered so much, I spend my xmas money on Action Force figures instead. Wonder if anyone else knows which ad I’m on about? I’d look myself, but I threw out all my Shoot / Match mags :'(
Replica World went out of business in 2001 according to http://secure.duedil.com/b/Replica-World-Ltd/02263784
Thank for the info alway wonder what happened to them also shoot and match used to have club shop adds sometime with the shirt in the ads i miss the old mags mordern adds so bland plus match used to have a shirt swap part near the back
I read 442 and its a good read but the adverts…20 pages of pink/yellow/green £200 boots!! loved these adverts in match and shoot,anyone remember the pyjamas in club colours?
Ahh, Replica World, used to always see an ad for them in Shoot and Match. Shame they didn’t survive into the internet age.
Anyone here remember the time when footie kits could only be bought from local sports shops and/or market stalls, as well as from the club shop? I remember a few small shops selling footie jerseys, amongst other sport goods, a lot of obscure stuff. This was in the era well before JJB and Sports Direct made a name for themselves in the high street and a billion pound industry took off.
I remember those days Azzy, where I live we used to have two sports shops, one of which was owned by a former professional footballer – both used to sell a plethora of goods for many sports, but as for football they had lots of different kits for clubs, countries, even team wear for Saturday/Sunday league teams. The old heady days when you could get a complete junior sized strip of shirt, shorts and socks for the price of a junior shirt now. And not a single pair of outlandish coloured boots in sight!
However once JJB opened up a store in the early 90’s, soon followed by Sports Division, the independent shops just couldn’t compete.