Fantasy Kit Friday – Bayern Munich special

Simon Treanor has previously featured with Liverpool adidas offerings – see here and here – but he also has a soft spot for Bayern Munich. While discussing the German club’s kits, we set him a challenge to modify five of their home kits, either by reworking the colour scheme or appropriating an away or third kit launched the same season. Take it away, Simon…

1986-87

The kit Bayern wore in the 1987 European Cup final against Poro was unusual for a couple of reasons – the red is deeper than usual, and it was worn with sky blue shorts, most likely from a Brazil-style kit worn at Kaiserslautern a short while before. Consequently, the shorts had yellow adidas stripes, and while I can’t endorse that, the whole ensemble feels like a precursor to the use of blue that became more common from the 90s. The deep red with shadow pattern is very nice, and would go with navy shorts, in a kit that resembled that worn in 2018-19.

1997-99

The superb 2018-19 kit led to a ludicrous controversy around the use of the colour blue on Bayern, leading to its unfortunate exclusion from home kits since. To me, the occasional use of blue has really livened up the clubs’ outfits, but I can’t deny that the predominantly navy home kit of 1997-99 was a step too far. It’s a nice combination, but better suited to an away kit, as seen with the 2017-18 homage. Swapping the red and blue might make it more palatable, perhaps keeping the navy shorts as an option.

2001-03

It seems to be a rite of passage for Germany’s red clubs to adopt a claret/maroon kit. Kaiserslautern and Nürnberg have done it, as did Bayern in 2001. In hindsight it looked like they missed their centenary for a year – the 120-year anniversary kit in 2020 used much the same colours, but in a different configuration. For this we’ll go with a hybrid of the two, keeping the adidas and other details.

2011-13

A two-colour stripe never fails to enhance a football shirt – be it vertical, horizontal or as a sash. Bayern have had a few away kits with this motif over the years including the 2011-12 third, usually in white or black, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t fit the home colours. Again we go with blue, and again it’s navy rather than royal blue as that offsets red better.

2014-15

In 2014-15, Bayern brought back the red and blue stripes that had been popular in the mid-1990s. As with back then though, I feel they missed a trick – striped shirts often work better when the shorts are a third colour, and in this case it has to be white. We don’t really have to imagine how that might look in 1996-97, because we can just look at Crystal Palace, but I feel it would suit the 2014 shirt as well. The use of white shorts also allow us to use adidas stripes of mixed colours, something I feel more teams should use.