Hopefully, you’re aware of Fantasy Kit Friday, our weekly attempt to dress a team up in a historical style different to that which they actually wore. Tomorrow, December 30, will be the final instalment of the year, so we felt it an apposite time to collate all of the offerings together.
While the concept of a weekly edition only manifested itself this year, the idea itself is actually just over two years old, as we road-tested it with four Irish Gaelic games teams in classic adidas:
Dublin in the style of the 1991-93 Arsenal away kit pic.twitter.com/3jObEUC5Ml
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 23, 2014
Just another flight of whimsy – Offaly in the style of the 1990 West Germany kit #gaa pic.twitter.com/ydUQfF2mXF
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 23, 2014
And Wexford with the West Germany treatment pic.twitter.com/MvoLCAJRy2
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 24, 2014
They got a fairly good response, albeit to a limited audience, but other things got in the way of it becoming a regular feature. Even when we gave it a name in April, it was still ad hoc – though, unoriginally, the template was becoming fixed:
Fantasy Kit Friday – what Chelsea's away might have looked like if they had adidas in 1989 #cfc pic.twitter.com/imY6hO3yU6
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) April 8, 2016
It would be nearly a month before another attempt:
Fantasy Kit Friday – if #mufc had stayed with adidas but still gone black/blue/yellow as a mid-90s away pic.twitter.com/OHq3NA9QEl
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) May 6, 2016
We were getting some ‘engagement’, as the digital marketing bods call it, but there was an inherent fear that our adidas bias was unhealthy. We threw it out to the floor, though, and the first request for the now-hashtagged #fantasykitfriday was still from Herzogenrauch, though of a later vintage.
#FantasyKitFriday – @GiftedTunes asked us to adidas-ise mid-90s Scotland, we took some licence pic.twitter.com/qAzoicgxg2
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) May 13, 2016
Another break of more than a month ensued – we were learning how to draw on Adobe Illustrator – but this one kick-started a regular weekly flow of higher-quality renderings.
#fantasykitfriday What Arsenal might look like if they'd stayed with Nike #afc pic.twitter.com/Mt1DicziJS
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) June 24, 2016
Where possible, we liked to be topical:
#fantasykitfriday – @FAWales nearly made Euro 92, if with adidas it might have looked like this #togetherstronger pic.twitter.com/kKV6ODf5u3
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) July 1, 2016
Just in time, it's #fantasykitfriday – France's current colour scheme transposed to a 1990s adidas style pic.twitter.com/eqwLhsvQD0
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) July 8, 2016
And then, occasionally, surreality prevailed (there was a break of a week due to holidays).
Had you really forgotten when #mufc had Nike in the mid-90s? Luckily, #fantasykitfriday remembers pic.twitter.com/ScEUQYkPPs
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) July 22, 2016
At the end of July, work took us to Leeds for a few days, so inspiration was taken from that.
It's #fantasykitfriday time – this week it's Leeds United with an early-90s adidas twist #lufc pic.twitter.com/cGK4XVkuYg
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) July 29, 2016
Some of our favourite kits have been the ones that you know could never have happened but still look great.
#fantasykitfriday This Should Have Been England, '86
(right sleeve now contrasting) pic.twitter.com/h5c1TawNS3
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) August 5, 2016
It's what you've been waiting for all week, kit-nerds, #fantasykitfriday. Brazil in early 80s Admiral pic.twitter.com/xJgi84AbRV
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) August 12, 2016
There’s always time to return to the classic look.
#fantasykitfriday klaxon – Let's be honest, there'd have been a home victory at Italia 90 if they'd worn this pic.twitter.com/ezvkOmxDvm
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) August 19, 2016
Other times, we feel generous enough to give a two-for-one.
Somehow managed to tweet this from @squadnos by accident, here is #fantasykitfriday – #lfc 93-95 away with 80s twist pic.twitter.com/PzXMRuaMSH
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) August 26, 2016
Better late than never, part 2 of #fantasykitfriday – this time the #lfc 91 away gets the grey/red treatment pic.twitter.com/VwbkWBH9lA
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) August 26, 2016
Request are accommodated as much as possible, as it saves us having to think.
#fantasykitfriday – requested by @lohnjucey, if #mufc had returned to adidas a year earlier pic.twitter.com/r6ON3Pt7n9
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) September 2, 2016
For September 9, we conferred with our old sparring partner Andrew Rockall, a massive Tottenham Hotspur fan, to come with a whole suite of Spurs kits and we published them all here. If you can’t be bothered to check, this was the home:
Some kits can meet opposition from traditionalists…
Following a request from @classic_kit, today's @fantaskitfriday is Middlesbrough in Aston Villa 1993-style asics pic.twitter.com/eKKfRREFD4
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) September 16, 2016
Bork. We are not Sunderland
— Simon (@strumminsimon) September 16, 2016
…and others that you might be unsure about turn out to be well-received.
#fantasykitfriday – Barcelona in Newcastle's 'barcode' style from 1990 – so bad it's good or just so bad? pic.twitter.com/DTKor0ozCq
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) September 23, 2016
Loving this #fantasykitfriday idea from @museumofjerseys https://t.co/q8XjU3OJvV
— Brendan O'Brien (@byBrendanOBrien) September 23, 2016
It’s often fun to use a team’s current (or, in this case, soon-to-be-former) maker and go back to before they had them.
#fantasykitfriday This week it's mid-90s Chelsea retrofitted with adidas #cfc pic.twitter.com/W4RmuopoNa
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) September 30, 2016
And there are others that are very out there.
#fantasykitfriday, requested by @MatthewLysaght – an alternate universe where Ireland wore Asics at Italia 90. Sacrilege? pic.twitter.com/871hjFxfCu
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) October 7, 2016
This one worked a lot better in our heads than on the screen, sadly.
#fantasykitfriday – if Sampdoria had stayed with Ennerre and got the same design as Napoli pic.twitter.com/7zb8jo4FZ9
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) October 14, 2016
If we had time, every week would feature a home, away and third as well as goalkeeper kits. Unfortunately, we don’t, but it does make these ones more enjoyable.
#fantasykitfriday – Celtic in mid-90s adidas pic.twitter.com/iSKbLAGgjR
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) October 21, 2016
As far as we can see, this is the only instance of a team’s own home kit being recoloured.
#fantasykitfriday Unusually, Bayern had a navy home kit from 1997-99. Here's what it would have looked like in a more traditional format pic.twitter.com/hrGNQI5wmM
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) October 28, 2016
Looking at these again, one almost has to do a double-take and remember that City didn’t actually have Hummel.
Today's #fantasykitfriday is #mcfc put into #thfc's 1985-87 @hummel1923 designs pic.twitter.com/FyY8Ukb3xf
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) November 4, 2016
Their rivals switched to Umbro in 1992, but might have looked like this if they did it sooner.
#fantasykitfriday – if #mufc had switched to Umbro in the mid-80s pic.twitter.com/qGqKri71ZU
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) November 11, 2016
Just after drawing this, we were very pleased with it. Until it was pointed out that Germany’s leisurewear in 1996 was just like this, so that’s probably where the idea subliminally came from.
#fantasykitfriday – Germany kept it fairly safe at Euro 96, here's a home version of their away template pic.twitter.com/c5KWrhRIkt
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) November 18, 2016
Another request, more on which you can read about at the wonderful Hull City Kits.
#fantasykitfriday – @HullCityKits wanted something to forget their awful Pelada 'tiger' (more like leopard) pattern pic.twitter.com/5mPyncY6ks
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) November 25, 2016
The bias is very much towards the past, so it’s no harm to mix it up every once in a while.
A modern #fantasykitfriday this week – imagining France back in adidas with the Euro 2016 Spain designs pic.twitter.com/34oF5Sdwfb
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 2, 2016
And it’s not all top teams we do either. Any suggestion will be considered.
#fantasykitfriday from Kevchenko of @WSC_magazine forum, who felt #CAFC's 08-09 kit contributed to relegation. Portsmouth template used pic.twitter.com/tZrpa1kNEQ
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 9, 2016
Collaborate with a friend for an idea, if you want.
#fantasykitfriday – @squires_david chose LCS 'round v-neck' design, @Kieran_Holden chose Milan, we made a few unilateral decisions pic.twitter.com/5xQubk5ABp
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 16, 2016
But be warned, we can be selfish when we want.
Obviously has to be festive colours for #fantasykitfriday, and we make no apologies for being parochial with 97-era Nike on Cork City pic.twitter.com/yQkSsyRCKB
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 23, 2016
Edit: For completeness, here is the final one:
#fantasykitfriday – we asked @ShakeyMatchWorn to choose and he went for Hereford United in mid-80s adidas. Home is Wales and away is France pic.twitter.com/WZmUVQ8ZmK
— Museum of Jerseys (@museumofjerseys) December 30, 2016