Great one-offs – Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, 1989

• This article was originally posted in October 2019

Borussia Dortmund’s first-choice kit for the 2022-23 will be striped.

However, as the club rarely have to wear their second strip, there is even less call for a ‘proper’ third outfit and so they tend to have a special yellow and black uniform worn in domestic and European cup competitions.

Taking a leaf out of Hamburg’s book from 2017, it seems that the forthcoming launch will be based on a shirt that was worn just once by the club.

Obviously, Bayern Munich and adidas are intrinsically linked but, given that they had Nike kits for 15 years in total between 1990 and 2009, and are now clad in Puma since 2012, it’s easy to forget that, once upon a time, Dortmund wore adidas, too – like most German sides did.

From 1974-90, die Schwarzgelben carried the three stripes on a variety of designs (with the occasional shirt made by adidas’s sub-brand Erima). For much of that period, red – usually the colour of Bayern Munich – was favoured as an away choice, and also like Bayern, there was a high level of promiscuity as regard the style of shirts.

In June of 1989, both clubs wore a new adidas style, each for only one game, but it was a design which was to become more common.

On June 13, Bayern took on Italian side Triestina and took to the field in white shirts with red and blue bars on the sleeves, like a truncated version of the West Germany 1988-92 style.

While crestless Bayern shirts were more the rule than the exception during the 1980s, this one was also notable in that it didn’t have an adidas logo.

Eleven days later, Dortmund were up against Werder Bremen in the final of the domestic DFB-Pokal (German Cup).

For much of the 1988-89 season, Dortmund wore a yellow version of the template used by the Netherlands in winning Euro 88, but for the decider adidas provided them with the same new design – this time they included a small logo, with the trefoil and wordmark on the same line.

The change did Dortmund good as they came back from the concession of an early goal to beat Werder Bremen 4-1, ending a 24-year wait for a major trophy, paving the way for more success in the 1990s.

However, that shirt wouldn’t be seen again and neither would Bayern’s version. Come 1990 though, the design would become very popular – seemingly, the two 1989 versions were used as test-beds.

In Germany, Hamburg used what was essentially the same as what Bayern wore, while at international level Colombia had it at the World Cup in Italy.

Then, in 1991, Portugal, Luxembourg and Sweden followed suit, while France’s U21s utilised something similar to Hamburg’s away – one of many examples of them deviating from the kits used by their senior side.