Leaning on others for inspiration

Tonight, Serie A leaders Internazionale take on Pisa at San Siro.

We’re not certain on the visitors’ kit – they might wear their white third strip but the golden-yellow outfit is a beauty.

While you can never say for certain anymore that a home team in the Italian league will be in their primary offering, we’ll assume that Inter will be clad in black and blue and it’s entirely fitting, given the opponent.

When Pisa Sporting Club was founded in 1909, the Tuscans opted for the same colours as the Inter side that had established themselves as one of the country’s best. Bar a dalliance with a Hummel Danish Dynamite-style halved design in the late 1980s, they have worn black and blue stripes since, the same as the more famed Milanese institution (incidentally, it’s worth noting that Atalanta, who also use that colour-scheme, landed on it as the result of a merger of two older clubs).

Teams taking inspiration from others with their kits is far from rare, as you might expect. While it wasn’t the first kit that they used, Tottenham Hotspur opted for blue and white halves early in the club’s life, a tribute to the FA Cup-winning Blackburn Rovers – and it was that style they revisited for their 125th anniversary in 2007.

Of course, it doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘young’ clubs taking cues from elsewhere, either, but it can be a risky venture – Stockport County, having opted for a look resembling then-world champions Argentina in 1979, had to make a quick change after the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982.

Let us know of your favourite instances of teams basing their appearance on others – comment below or get in touch on Twitter or Bluesky.