1999-2000
Villa’s last season with Reebok saw quite a radical change, with conventional strips used for the first time since 1888 (when the colours were brown and blue).
The new home and away kits could be interchanged while there were also sky blue shorts and socks. The white-blue-white combination was used at West Ham United in a Worthington Cup game that Villa lost on penalties – after West Ham were found to have fielded an ineligible player, the game had to be played again and Villa used the third strip.
The league game at Upton Park was four days later and again they were in the blue and black, which had been the 1998-99 away. One change was that blue socks were favoured rather than the white set of the previous year.
2000-01
Diadora succeeded Reebok as Villa’s kit-manufacturer and, while the traditional shirt style returned after the stripes of 1999-2000, the first-choice shorts were blue for the first time in 30 years.
Villa did appear in change white shorts at Sunderland, when the white socks from the third kit also appeared. Those socks were also used with the black away shirts and shorts against Manchester United but their only outing with the white shirt was against Celta Vigo in the Intertoto Cup, when Villa changed at home as the referee was unhappy with the kit-clash.
The third shirt was limited to just two outings, neither time with the full kit in its default form – away to West Ham United, the black away socks were used.
2011-12
2023-24
Squad numbers (click to open)
The pattern on the home shirt is vaguely reminiscent of the 1990-92 offering while the one on the away features lions that have appeared on the various club crests. The third is described as merely having “contemporary graphic trends”.
The fact that the change kit is slightly off-white and has a monochrome crest means that there is no interchangeability, bar perhaps if the home socks had to be used. Due to Polish advertising laws, blanks shirts were used away to Legia Warsaw in the Europa Conference League – however in the case of goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez a patch was placed over the logo.
2024-25
Villa had been one of only three Premier League teams never to wear adidas before agreeing a deal which began in the summer of 2024.
The home and away kits complemented each other well – though perhaps the claret alternative shorts and socks for the primary strip might have been put to good use with the white shirt when required.
The navy and black third kit with silver accents was intended to pay tribute to the great European nights of the past as the club returned to the continent’s top competition for the first time in more than four decades.
