Welcome to another month – the site had more views in January of 2024 than in any month in 2023 and March exceeded January so hopefully the trend will continue. Thanks to all who visit and read.
Today’s article is two for the price of one – similar kits worn by the same club that ended up seeing action just twice.
Rangers moved from adidas to Nike in 1997 and in their first season wearing the swoosh they had a white away strip and a third shirt worn just once, before launching a new red change kit for 1998-99.
For 1999-2000, they went in a different direction – a horizontal tricolour design of white, navy blue and sky blue.
While it looked different to the traditional royal blue home shirt, it still lacked distinction against St Johnstone, Dundee or Kilmarnock. As a result, its only two outings were against the red of Aberdeen.
According to The Rangers Shirt, by David Graham and John Smith, “Many supporters were annoyed that they had purchased a shirt which saw very little use, with the club generally preferring to use the previous season’s shirt in the event of a kit clash.
“Rangers acknowledged this in the club newspaper, explaining that the shirt had been designed by Nike a full 18 months earlier when they had no idea what designs other SPL teams would be using.”
Given the proclivity of manufacturers to look the past, it is perhaps not surprising that the design would be revisited; by the same token, it was hardly a shock to find that the new iteration also had a limited functionality.
By 2016, Puma were the makers of the Rangers kit and their version featured a slightly deeper shade sky blue while the back was fully in that colour.
A white back might have increased the usefulness but the sky blue did just about make it passable for its first outing – a testimonial for Jamie Mulgrew, the captain of Linfield, who played in their white away shirts.
That was in September but it proved to be the only game for the kit in its default setting – against the navy of Ross County in November, it appeared with sky blue shorts.
