March of the penguins

On Thursday night, Birmingham City teased the return of the distinctive ‘penguin’ design as part of their 150th-anniversary celebrations.

Friday morning brought confirmation of their plan, that the kit will be used for the FA Cup game against Leeds United on February 15, with the special commemorative range of items going on sale ten days beforehand.

While, strictly speaking, the strip fits into the current Nike template, it is well-executed as a throwback – some have expressed the view that a period crest would work better than the current one and there is a validity to that. Equally, we feel that the mix serves to underline the mix of historic sentiment with the need to keep evolving.

Of course, there is a also a sizeable portion of Birmingham fans – and general kit enthusiasts – who feel that the thick white stripe should be a more permanent feature of the club’s primary kits.

It certainly serves to set them apart from other clubs who wear blue and white but it has only been used for two seasons since the turn of the millennium and not at all in the past decade.

This new one will be the first penguin shirt to be worn with white shorts and socks – at least it won’t appear with red sets, as happened the 2007-08 iteration.

Unfortunately, going by the examples of commemorative kits for Aston Villa last year and Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur this year, it’s likely that FA Cup sleeve patches will have to be worn, which does detract from the aesthetic somewhat. We would expect a classic number font similar to that for Chelsea’s in 2020 which honoured the 1970 victory with no names on the back – ideally, the team would be listed 1-11 but that may be too much to hope for.

What are your favourite anniversary kits and do you think that Birmingham should have the penguin look as their default? Comment below or get in touch on Twitter, Bluesky or Facebook.