As we have previously seen, Luton Town’s distinctive colour-scheme has lent itself to some excellent interchangeability, both during the adidas era and the club’s first stint with Umbro.
Last summer saw the Hatters reunite with the double-diamond and they have picked off where they left off, with the current season seeing them use eight different kit combinations – all the more impressive considering the fact that the maximum available to them is 18, with just two types of shorts.
While Luton had white home shirts in my childhood, orange had been the first-choice colour from 1973-79. It returned for a single season in 1999-2000 but, since 2009, orange has been favoured again.
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The first home kit back in Umbro featured two shades of dark blue, while the white away leaned heavily on the last home strip of the first era, used in the 1991-92 relegation season. The set was completed with a two-tone navy third outfit.
With a different sponsor for each shirt, there was a commercial consideration in wearing change kits away from home. However, while white was worn at Barnsley on the opening day of the season, the second away fixture, at Watford, saw the home shirt and socks used with the orange shorts from the third kit.
The same combination appeared against Sheffield Wednesday in October, while the navy third socks were worn with the away shirts and shorts at Middlesbrough in November.
Then, in the space of nine days in January, three more mashups appeared. On January 16, Luton were away to Bournemouth and swapped the navy shorts of the away for the orange set; four days later, they travelled to Brentford and went navy shirts, orange shorts and socks. Finally, the FA Cup tie against Chelsea on January 24 saw the same shorts and socks used with the white shirts, which carried the cup sleeve patch as well as the logo of Luton Foodbank.
If Stoke City had red shorts, for example, then all-navy would be a runner – and would work well, too – but it looks as if eight will be the total they finish on.
If the away had come with white shorts, they would have had perfect interchangeability
Exactly my thoughts, also think orange-navy-white should’ve been the first choice home kit combo. Always love tri-colour kits, tri-colour vs tri-colour (with solid color shirts) is my favourite kit match up. And as good this kitset was I was dissappointed a tri colour kit combo wasn’t worn even a once.