I thought I owed you all an apology for the relative lack of updates on the site lately. As some of you will be aware the responsibilities of my 9 to 5 design job increased massively at Christmas meaning a huge amount of increased stress and pressure, not to mention not much spare time in which to indulge my kit obsession!
I’m hoping that things are beginning to settle down a bit and I will be able to crack on with the hundreds of kit-related updates and projects that I have planned. Please bear with me, there’s plenty coming soon!
In the meantime, I discovered this little gem at the weekend in the Topical Times Book of Football 1979. Its a very rare glimpse into the football kit production world of the 1970s – enjoy!
Never a need to apologise John 🙂 Looking forward to the new projects.
As Rich says, there is no need to apologise, John.
Unfortunately, real life gets in the way of football kits sometimes!!! 😛
While I’m here, actually, I know you get asked about True Colours 3 a lot, John, so I’m sorry…
I know you have said in the past that it’s really not up to you but the publishers, but I just wondered, if somebody did ask you to do TC3, do you have any idea what would be in it?
I’ve been enjoying 1 and 2 over the weekend, and thought to myself “I really hope we get a third True Colours soon…”
But 1 and 2 were so good, that have they not really covered everything that you’re average person who might buy a book like True Colours, would be interested in?
Or do you have an idea if the chance to do TC3 came up?
i would also love a tc3 book. not sure if i would like it to be either an update from the teams featured in tc1 +2 or to show other teams. would buy a tc3 book like ashot.
Not good enough John.The lack of updates has almost made angry.sort it out or else….ah how can I stay mad at you Dev!
Theres enough kit-related goodness on here that would keep us going even if you abandoned the site entirely.(Perish the thought.)
Would love to see a third instalment of True Colours.You could have a mix of International and European Club sides.Although the likes of Barcelona would be short with the one jersey throughout the 80s.
Just clicked on the link for TheFootballAttic aswell.Loved reading the Big-Match decor posts Rich.An absolute gem.
Simply not good enough, I’m afraid, John. How dare your life involve anything other than pleasing a small handful of obsessives and geeks?!
We recently received a lovely email from a chap who demanded that we “immediately correct” our site by adding a new kit – within two hours of it being worn for the first and only time. I expect nothing less from you, either!
Probably the most iconic liverpool strip.
Ha ha! Thanks everyone, some great comments. Really appreciate it….
Hi John,
No need to apologise, regular jobs can get in the way of our hobbies & interests sometimes!
As a further to some of the comments above, I would love a TC3, maybe concentrating on European teams? I am a fan of Bayern Munich, who have had a rich variety of strips since the early 80’s, and researching them (all thanks to you, John, for getting my interest started!) has led me to a website illustrating every strip back to 1900 (!). I would like to collaborate, if possible, if you did feature Bayern in the future.
Many Thanks,
Martyn
Where is this website Martyn?! I must see it!
Hi Dennis,
Website is http://www.stickerfreak.de – illustrations are not as detailed as Johns, being as they are based on various sticker companies illustrations, but it’s the most comprehensive run down of Bayern’s shirts I’ve ever seen. It even features the ‘one off’ cup final shirts and the rare ‘Brazil’ away kit used for games at Kaiserslautern in the 80’s, and as well as Bayern has a lot of stuff on German football in general, which is a particular passion of mine. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Martyn
Great stuff Martyn, Bayern’s kit history has always been fascinating to me!
i have a couple of those shirts , superb.
Favourite one that I have is the European kit from 07/08 (black with red and blue bar down one side and red trim). Being as adidas own 10% of the club they always seem to give Bayern classy strips, even when the rest of their roster isn’t as good – next seasons away kit is nice too – will be getting that one!
I loved this season’s home, though next season’s away would be better with red rather than orange trim IMO.
I’ve also emailed the site’s creator to point out that the shirt with ‘Mein Freund ist die Auslander’ instead of Opel from 1992-93 is missing!
I will have to see the new away shirt ‘in the flesh’ – adidas are calling it ‘infrared’, in some pictures it looks VERY orange, in others a very bright red – still like the retro styling though.
I didn’t even know about that shirt! But the Stickerfreak creators do update the site every year or so, so they’ll probably put it on soon.
‘Mein Freund ist Auslander’ (I erroneously put ‘die’ in above!) translates as ‘My friend is a foreigner’, every club wore it on their shirts for one week in 1992-93 in response to growing racism:
http://www.fcbayernshirts.com/gallery/1991-1993/thumb_Afbeelding%20179.jpg
http://img.webme.com/pic/s/s04-dfb/mfreundistauslander121292.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1157/557483245_f58689c7f7.jpg
And here’s another Bayern kit site! http://www.fcbayernshirts.com/
Thanks Denis – very interesting.
I know that the Bundesliga had a problem with racism around that time, so it doesn’t surprise me.
Thanks for the link to fcbayernshirts, I like the ‘100 years’ shirt on the home page, arguably nicer than adidas’ attempt at resurrecting stripes in 10/11…I really like lace up collars-the 1954 Germany shirt is one of my favourites, and as John is well aware, kit suppliers briefly tried to bring lace ups back around ’92.
What do you think Bayern’s third shirt will be next season? The away is white again, so I would say it’s either going to be black/grey/navy or yellow to ensure a contrast to the other two. Personally I’d like to see black and gold, which will be especially significant if FCB win the European Cup again!
Forgive my ignorance, what’s the gold/black significance?
Not really significant as regards black (other than it being a favourite third colour), but gold for being champions – adidas put gold on the home shirt this season along with the legend ‘Rekordmeister’ to celebrate their position as most successful team domestically, and I can’t see them passing up the opportunity to include gold if they win the Champions League – I just think black and gold (perhaps fashioned into a template similar to one of their 1960’s/70’s kits) would be a fitting memento IF they win it. Sorry, I just got carried away with the excitement of it all!
Perfect timing with your Topical Times article, as the iconic Liverbird motif returns to the Liverpool shirt.
http://www.footballshirtculture.com/12/13-kits/liverpool-2012-2013-warrior-home-football-shirt.html