- Wales struggled to procure red change shorts from adidas in 2016, meaning they had to wear their away kit against England at the European Championship.
For their World Cup qualifying campaign, including the game away to the Republic of Ireland, the solution was to repurpose their old home shorts, literally removing the green stripes and sewing on white ones. It was a far cry from their previous spell with the German firm, when they were given a red change set of shorts for one game, and that a friendly.
Having reinstated white shorts after taking over from Admiral in 1980, adidas had provided back-up white socks with their second home kit in 1984 (we shall look at the wearing of these in a future article) and 1986 saw the usage of red alternative shorts.
The occasion was the meeting of Ireland and Wales at Lansdowne Road on March 26 – Ireland’s first match under the management of Jack Charlton and also the home team’s first time to take to the field in their new adidas kits.
They, naturally, had white shorts (though they would wear all-green away to Belgium later that year) and so Wales wore a red set, trimmed with very fine white pinstripes.
It was the only time in their first adidas spell that they wore all-red and it was a winning look, with the only goal coming from Ian Rush as Mike England’s side spoiled the party.
There would be better days ahead for them, while Wales were soon to part company with adidas, joining forces with Hummel from 1987 and returning to an all-red first-choice kit.
