Earlier this week, we published an article about Borussia Dortmund’s first Nike kits, which had differences between short- and long-sleeved versions.
In reply to that, David Reynolds had a similar example – Hibernian in 2006-07.
Like a reverse of the Hibs shirt in 2006, the long sleeve version of the shirt introduced a green underarm stripe from nowhere pic.twitter.com/DySMpYtxTn
— David Reynolds (@DavidReynolds10) November 13, 2018
Quite why the long-sleeved shirt had this alteration is unknown, but it was a strange kit season for Hibs – according to David, it was only the second time that the home shorts had been green and the first instance, in 2004-05, was supposed to be a one-off.
In addition, the away kit was green too, albeit in far darker shade – dark enough to be worn at Celtic Park with no problems.
However, it’s not a game with Celtic that we are concerned with but a clash against Kilmarnock, the CIS Insurance Cup final on March 18, 2007. Four Premier Division meetings with Killie that season would yield a single point but, at Hampden Park, Hibs found form and won 5-1.
Coincidentally, they had as many kit variations as goals. With thanks to David, they were as follows:
There was the normal short-sleeved shirt, worn by most of the team.
Abdessalam Benjelloum wore short sleeves with a baselayer underneath. The Fifa rules state that a baselayer should take the appearance of the long-sleeved shirt but, understandably, he wore a white undershirt.
Less explicable was the dark blue baselayer, as worn by Ivan Sproule.
Sheldon Martis, who came on as a sub late on, had the long-sleeved format:
And, finally, Merouane Zemmama also used a shirt that was originally long sleeves, but he took a scissors to them.
Hibs kept green shorts for each of the next two seasons but, since then, the traditional white shorts have been in use. To the best of our knowledge, long-sleeved shirts have followed the short-sleeved versions more closely, too.
