Turkish delights

The adidas Equipment era of the early 1990s was characterised by exuberant three-stripe branding but one exception was Turkey.

While their 1992 kits featured the new fabric pattern and v-neck (similar to the style adidas will use in 2020), bar the traditional horizontal stripe there were no extra details bar the socks.

Turkey wore their red change kit in both World Cup qualifiers against England, but their U18s played in white in the final of the European Championship as they lost to England, who wore the navy home shorts with red change shirts and socks.

However, having eschewed any standout design on these kits, seemingly the pay-off was that they had to go over the top for the rest of the decade, including a pair of styles we haven’t seen used by any other team.

For the Euro 96 qualifers, Turkey used a design which was similar to the adidas sideline wear of the time.

Then, having reached the finals in England, their home kit was a modified version of the Ireland away strip from the 1994 World Cup, while the alternative was a red edition of a common adidas offering from that summer.

In 1998, though, they once again deviated from the adidas norm. Grey was introduced to the palette as the classic adidas shoulder stripes were combined with a 1994 trope which saw them around the end of the sleeves. This was repeated on the shorts, making for the same effect that boxer Prince Naseem Hamed sported in the ring.

If that wasn’t enough, there were three hoops around the midriff too.

You’ll notice that the red stripes on the sleeves were housed in a grey panel and, rather than boxing that off on the long-sleeved shirts, instead adidas carried it to the cuffs.

Having qualified for a Euro 2000 play-off, Turkey overcame the Republic of Ireland to reach a second straight European Championship. There, and at the 2002 World Cup, they wore more mainstream adidas kits before switching to Nike in 2004 and they have sported the swoosh since then.