Today’s request comes from Lombard Wall – our apologies that it took so long to bring it to fruition.
Liverpool wore Reebok kits from 1996-2006, a decade in which the club won the Champions League, Uefa Cup, two FA Cups and two League Cups. Stints with adidas bookended the time with Reebok, but Lombard wondered how the Reds might have looked in a design that initially appeared after the move but last for at least two years after it.
During qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, Russia wore a kit that featured a massive Reebok logo across the shoulders, but Fifa’s strict branding rules meant that they couldn’t wear it in America. The design was seen in games after that as well, though – the country would wear at least six different colourways encompassing two or three of white, blue and red.
By the time of the next World Cup, Chile had the design but, while they didn’t have to jettison it for France 98, a modified version was seen, devoid of the two lower ‘legs’. Ecuador also wore the style.
Given that Liverpool featured aggressive adidas branding from the period 1991-96, there’s nothing to suggest that the Premier League wouldn’t have allowed them to have these kits. A version of the home with the middle bar of the Reebok logo in green was considered but Lombard preferred all-white to better reference those adidas kits. Mashup versions of the third to mirror real life will have to be left to the imagination.
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Costa Rica also wore that shirt during 1995 (and kept wearing some other memorable Reebok kits until 1998)