One of the unsung heroes of lower league kit design in the early-mid eighties, was undoubtedly Hobott – or, to give them their full title ‘House of Barrington Official Teamster Top’. The Hobott brand originated in a small sports shop in Sheffield owned by a Mr Barrington and despite never supplying a kit in England’s top flight their distinctive strips could be spotted all over Divisions 2, 3 and 4. What made Hobott unique was their somewhat over-enthusiastic kitchen-sink approach to design, shoe-horning several elements into the one strip – in theory their kits should have been disasters, but in practice many Hobott kits are, quite frankly, superb and this Scunthorpe home kit from 1982-83 is a prime example. Despite being associated with claret and blue for much of their existence Scunthorpe had been sporting either white or red shirts for 23 years before Hobott arrived and reintroduced the club’s traditional colours. The only change they made to the overall colour balance was to make blue the dominant hue with claret in a supporting role in the form of a scene-stealing V that dominated the jersey. That wasn’t enough decoration for the shirt though, so trendy pinstripes were also added. This fine outfit clearly inspired the Irons and they earned promotion to the old Division 3 in the single season this strip was worn.
Worn in: Impressive wins over Blackpool (4-3) and Northampton (5-1)
Worn by: Steve Cammack and possibly also cricket legend Ian Botham who played several times on a non-contract basis with Scunthorpe in the early eighties.
Wouldn’t have seen Botham in this kit.. didnt play for Scunthorpe in 82-83 .
Cheers Tony – even though I knew he played before that season and afterwards, I couldn’t find any definite proof of him also playing in 82-83 which is why I hedged my bets on the description!
Oh dear god no!
You should have posted this 2 days ago tom.Horrific kit.Will have nightmares sleeping tonight.
That colour has a very 80s fitness video vibe to it aswell.
Apologies to scunthorpe fans here but really this is awful IMO.
Ha ha Ciaran – yes, you either love or hate Hobott kits!!
A good variation on the old Adidas three stripe socks
Also probably worn by Paul Longden who moved to Scunny from Barnsley at some point in the early to mid 80’s and was coincidentally in the same class as me at school. (can’t beat a bit of name dropping even if it is lower league name dropping).
love this kit. very simplistic
I really like this kit…then again it has 2 of my favourite kit features…a V neck and pinstripes. Normally the chevron on the kit would look OTT when combined with the pinstripes, but in this case it lifts the shirt from average to something quite interesting.
does john or anyone know if Airdrie had the same template round that time?
Port Vale had the same template but Airdrie wouldnt have .
David, Airdrie wore a very smart Umbro kit during this period.
What’s not to like here?!! Think this is a superb kit and I loved the Hobott stuff; at least it was a bit innovative for its’ time!
Exactly Mark!
This is considered Scunthorpe’s best ever kit! I remember seeing a Nike advert from the 80s with Botham modelling this shirt holding Nike’s latest boot offering, with the tagline ‘Worn by Scunthorpe’s reserve striker’, fantastic.
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4007/4365197624_969c2bd795_m.jpg
… and here it is!
I saw Ian Botham play for Scuuny at The Den, pretty sure they were wearing this kit that day, though may have been the change strip