As discussed recently, Coventry City went through a period of manufacturing their own kits from 1999-2004.
While the second season saw a pair of interchangeable strips, the first campaign saw the use of an unusual white, black and red colour-scheme for the change kit.
There was shoulder and side panelling, similar to that which would used in the following campaign, while the shorts, devoid of a maker’s logo or a number, looked very bare.
That 1999-2000 season was the third in which Ipswich Town produced kits under their own Punch (as in Suffolk Punch, the horse on their crest) brand.
They won promotion back to the Premiership with orange as their change colour of choice but, for 2000-01, the popular palette of white and black was called upon for the new away kit, using the same template as the home strip and also with red trim.
There were differences between it and the Coventry one – raglan sleeves, narrower panels and the fact that were black rather than white, but it was something of a coincidence that the two clubs were clad so similarly on the road in successive seasons.
However, Coventry had new kits for 2000-01, and the striped home strip meant that Ipswich wore all-blue at Highfield Road, avoiding a situation where it would have looked like they were in their hosts’ old change kit.
