Tag Archives: Hummel

Another Rangers variation? You can bet on it

20 Thursday Sep 2018

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We hadn’t planned to write articles in the wake of every European away game played by Rangers this season…

When we wrote those words in this article, we did mean them, honestly, but then the Gers went and provided yet more kit intrigue on Thursday evening.

To recap: their first four away games in this year’s Europa League campaign had seen four different kit permutations:

 

Kits against (l-r) Shkupi, Osijek, Maribor and Ufa

We wouldn’t have thought that an away game against the all-yellow Villarreal in the Europa League would be reason enough for a kit-change. If there was to be any deviation from Rangers’ first-choice kit combination, we’d have expected all-blue.

Instead, as planned they wore the change kit in its intended colourway of white shirts, blue shorts and white socks.

villarealrangers

However, there was one key difference from the kit in the official Uefa graphic above:

Rangers-2018-Hummel-away-shirt-black-sponsor-Villarreal-01

The likelihood would have seemed to be that the shirts from the Ufa game, with the unbroken sash, had the Europa League and Respect patches applied to the sleeves and the 32Red logo put on the front.

However, the logo of back sponsors Utilita was present against Ufa but only one sponsor is allowed for the competition proper, while the shirts also had a different number font – the same as that used by Arsenal from 2009-12.

If they’re not the actual shirts from the Ufa game, they are obviously from the same batch and you’d feel that a white outline on the sponsor would work better.

An equaliser from Kyle Lafferty earned a 2-2 draw after they had fallen behind in the first minute. They don’t play away in the competition again until they go to face Spartak Moscow on November 8 – we’ll be waiting to see if a sixth different variation appears.

 

Mind the gap – dealing with sponsorship changes for Europe

01 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in Football kits, Inconsistencies, Kit history

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We hadn’t planned to write articles in the wake of every European away game played by Rangers this season (previous offerings here and here), but each outing seems to provide something worthy of comment.

Unfortunately, friend of the site Alex Anderson didn’t have his wish come true…

…but for the third time, the Gers were playing in a country where gambling advertising is banned.

With their red and orange kits, it wasn’t too much of a design problem, but against the red of Ufa they were wearing their white away shirt, which features a blue and red sash.

The fear might have been that they would have a blank white rectangle across the midriff (like Anderlecht in 1993-94l) but, thankfully, the gap was filled.

 

 

It called to mind two examples from the 1990s where big clubs had taken opposite approaches to dealing with Uefa-enforced sponsorship changes, made all the more interesting given that they were promoting the same brand.

In 1995-96, AC Milan’s new away shirt featured a pair of vertical stripes, one red and one black, down the middle of the torso. The stripes were broken for the Opel logo, but in Europe the lightning-bolt-in-a-circle wasn’t allowed due to advertising size restrictions and so the stripes extended further to meet the wordmark.

 

Incidentally, Milan wore this away to Bordeaux in the quarter-finals – earlier in the competition, they had met Sparta Prague, who were also sponsored by Opel, but as Uefa prohibited team competing clubs from advertising the same brand while playing against each other, they had worn sponsorless versions of the previous plain white away shirt in Prague.

Also partnered with Opel at the time were Bayern Munich, but they, or adidas, had a more careless approach. While their 1998-99 Champions League campaign will always be most associated with the silver kit worn in the final against Manchester United in the Nou Camp, they wore their white and red change strip the first time they visited Barcelona that season, for a group game.

However, it was simply a case of changing the logo and leaving a gap in the navy stripe which had previously been interrupted (note also how the default socks had too much adidas branding for Uefa’s liking, leading to a more prosaic set being used in the Champions League).

 

 

From 1999-2000, Uefa allowed a larger area for logos, meaning that the Opel insignia didn’t have to be altered.

Another Rangers riddle – three European away games, three different kits

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

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Recently, we looked at Rangers wearing a fourth kit against NK Osijek in the Europa League second qualifying round, following a tradition of ad hoc red and black strips in Europe.

That was their second European tie; against Shkupi in the previous round, they had worn all-white in the away leg.

 

Coupled with all-blue at home to Shkupi and their default first kit against Osijek at Ibrox, it meant four kit combinations in as many games.

 

The reason given for the use of the red kit in Croatia was that the rules there prevented the advertising of their shirt sponsor and so it wouldn’t be worth having a special set of their orange third shirts made.

So you can pretty much guess what was worn away to Slovenian side NK Maribor in the third qualifying round:

Rangers-2018-2019-Hummel-third-no-sponsor-Maribor-01

To be fair to Rangers, the fault lies with Hummel, who appear to be having problems delivering kit to a lot of teams in this still-nascent season.

As Alex Anderson pointed out to us, it may be some kind of record to have worn three different change kits in as many consecutive away games in the same competition. Not even Chelsea in their five-kit 1990-91 season managed it.

Unfortunately for those of us who like multiple combinations of the same kit, the all-blue was back for the home leg against Maribor.

Russian club Ufc provide the opposition for Rangers in the play-off round this week and next – they wear all-red so it’s unlikely Rangers will need an alternative kit. But you never know.

Rangers maintain a European tradition

30 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Change kits, Clashes, Kit history, Rarities and Oddities

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Rangers have played three games in the Europa League so far this season, but they are yet to wear any of their three new Hummel kits in their default formats.

Funnily enough, they have worn all three parts of their home kit, in the order of shirts, shorts and socks. For the first leg of their clash with FK Shkupi at Ibrox, they wore all-blue with the visitors in all-white – oddly, the Hummel chevrons on the socks seemed extra large.

Then, for the return leg in Macedonia, the home shorts were used with the away shirts and socks.

 

 

 

Then, last week, Steven Gerrard’s side made the trip to take on NK Osijek. The Croatian side wear blue and white hoops, so the expectation was that the new orange third kit would be called upon, but there was a fly in the ointment regarding the advertising of betting firms.

The solution was for Rangers to apply numbers – and the Utilita logo on the back – to a set of tops in the same design as those used for training (though the ones used for actual training have a black crest) as they won 1-0.

The club said it was a fourth kit, and the difference in crests does suggest that – in any case, what makes something a training shirt as opposed to a match shirt?

Rangers-2018-Hummel-fourth-training-Osijek-01

It revived a tradition of wearing red and black emergency kits in European competition.

In 1996-97 – when all-blue was also used, away to Ajax but not Auxerre – Rangers faced Grasshoppers in ZĂŒrich. Their blue home and white away clashed with the Swiss side’s halves, and so a red version of a popular adidas template of that time was used.

Rangers-1996-1997-adidas-third-kit-Grasshopper-01

Then, a year later, the club were in Nike rather than adidas but the away kit was still primarily white.

Their opponents in the second qualifying round for the Champions League were IFK Gothenburg of Sweden, who wear blue and white stripes.

In the first leg, a 3-0 away defeat, Rangers wore their home kit with Gothenburg in red but for the return, a 1-1 draw, a special one-off red shirt was produced.

While the horizontal-stripe design bore similarities to the Arsenal away kit, as far as we know this particular design was unique to Rangers.

Rangers-1997-1999-Nike-third-kit-shirt-Gothenburg-01

2018 World Cup kit-tracker – knockout stages

17 Tuesday Jul 2018

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Second round

France 4 Argentina 3

2018-World-Cup-second-round-France-Argentina-01.png

Surprisingly, but refreshingly, both sides were allowed to wear their full first-choice kits with no alterations. Argentina exited the tournament having only used one goalkeeper kit.

Uruguay 2 Portugal 1

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Uruguay-Portugal-01

Spain 1 Russia 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Spain-Russia-01

Russia’s home kit had match details in the middle but on the away, they were below the crest. The goalkeeper’s shirt followed suit for each game, meaning that Igor Akinfeev wore his blue (and green) kits with two different inscription versions.

Croatia 1 Denmark 1 (aet, 3-2 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Croatia-Denmark-01

With both of Denmark’s kits clashing with Croatia’s home, the two teams changed.

Brazil 2 Mexico 0

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In 2014, Mexico wore their away kit when the countries met in the group stage so it was nice to see both tri-coloured home strips here.

Brazil goalkeeper Alisson Becker switched to black, though his bright green was unlikely to have caused confusion with Mexico’s darker shade.

Belgium 3 Japan 2

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Belgium-Japan-01

This was certainly a match-up which would have resulted in one side changing kit in previous tournaments, but common sense continued to prevail in the knockout stages.

Sweden 1 Switzerland 0

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Sweden-Switzerland-01

Colombia 1 England 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Colombia-England-01

With Colombia continuing to favour white shorts and socks, England wore their alternative away shorts, as they had done against Tunisia.

Quarter-finals

Uruguay 0 France 2

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A fifth kit combination in as many games for France.

Brazil 1 Belgium 2

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Brazil-Belgium-01

Sweden 0 England 2

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Sweden-England-01

All-red for England again despite Sweden’s blue shorts – their kitman Pat Frost said that Fifa had ordered the change as Robin Olsen’s shorts were a light shade.

Russia 2 Croatia 2 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Russia-Croatia-01

The expectation might have been that Russia would have to change too, but they were allowed to wear their home shirts, with the proper socks back in action.

Semi-finals

France 1 Belgium 0

2018-World-Cup-semi-finals-France-Belgium-01

Another different combination for France, with the shorts changed too even though only the socks clashed. We’d have liked to have seen them in blue-white-white.

Croatia 2 England 1 (aet)

2018-World-Cup-semi-finals-Croatia-England-01

Despite being the away team, England were able to wear their home shirts, with the away shorts getting their first outing of the competition.

Croatia equalled France’s record from 2006 of wearing their change shirts for the fifth time.

Third-place play-off

Belgium 2 England 0

2018-World-Cup-third-place-play-off-Belgium-England-01

The outcome was the same as their group game but the visual was different as both teams wore their change kits, meaning England wore their proper away strip for the first time, their fourth different combination.

Final

France 4 Croatia 2

2018-World-Cup-final-France-Croatia-01

No seventh combination for France, but they won’t have minded. Croatia wore their home shirts for the first time since the Nigeria game, though again with white socks – along with Colombia, Egypt and Costa Rica, they didn’t get to wear their full first-choice outfit in the tournament.

2018 World Cup kit-tracker – Group C completed

02 Monday Jul 2018

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France 2 Australia 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-France-Australia-01

VAR and goal-line technology played roles as France got off to a winning start in the first game not to feature a team wearing adidas (the officials’ kits are made by the Germany company but they’re bereft of logos).

We actually quite like the three-tone blue of the French kit, but would have preferred the traditional red socks. Australia’s shirts feature a unique sleeve design – a wave design based on a rallying cry for a ‘sea of gold’.

Peru 0 Denmark 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-Peru-Denmark-01

A meeting of two of the nicest kits in the tournament, for our money. Denmark switched to red shots.

Peru are Umbro’s only contract at the finals and if we were to have on quibble it’s the way the front number is applied, creeping onto the sash – surprisingly, the back number sits flush on the sash whereas Fifa insist the likes of Croatia must have a plain back.

Denmark’s shirt features a number of subtle details, while the goalkeeper’s outfit mirrors the design.

Denmark 1 Australia 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-Denmark-Australia-01

Observers were left bemused by the fact that both teams changed kits, but according to Jack Henderson, a Danish player suffers from a rare colour-blindness which confuses red and gold.

The Danish change kit is a simple reversal of the home outfit, while Australia’s second strip is dark green with yellow trim, but with the shades used different to those of the first kit.

France 1 Peru 0

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-France-Peru-01

Though they were the ‘home’ team, France changed shorts, creating a look like that worn by Scotland against Peru in 1978.

Peru goalkeeper Pedro Gallese didn’t have match details on his shirt against Denmark, but he did here.

Denmark 0 France 0

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-Denmark-France-01

A scorless draw was mutually beneficial as both sides advanced.

Denmark wore their ‘proper’ home kit, while France were in their change kit, with with red and blue flecks thoughout the torso and sleeves.

Australia 0 Peru 2

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-Australia-Peru-01

Peru went out on a high, Andre Carrillo scoring their first World Cup goal since 1982. Their change kit was essentially a reversal of the home, but with different Umbro diamond taping on the shoulders and shorts as well as a different neck style.

Fantasy Kit Friday – Grimsby Town in Hummel halves

25 Friday May 2018

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Peter Anderson is the man with today’s request:

If you click on the link in the tweet, it shows a picture of the Southampton Hummel 1987-89 shirt, one of quite a few English club versions of the style worn by Denmark at the 1986 World Cup.

It’s a very versatile template, though the pinstripe colour running across the two halves is an important considerations so as not to make it too light or too dark. A Grimsby version is effectively a swapping of the red and black on the Southampton shirt.

Grimsby-Town-1987-Denmark-hummel-Fantasy-Kit-Friday-01

Fantasy Kit Friday, 13-4-18 – Home Nations special

13 Friday Apr 2018

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The tardiness of today’s offering should hopefully be compensated by the fact that it’s a bumper edition.

It’s the melding of two independent requests – Paul Thomas asked for a 1976 Home Internationals mix-up and then David Morrissey sought something similar from 2000, so we decided to bridge the gap and do 1988 as well.

That meant that each country could have one kit from each of the others, and the easiest way to do that was to do two pairings per year. We wanted to avoid putting countries in kits by the same manufacturer as they had at the time, and though there are slight quibbles – like Wales ending up in Umbro in each each of the three years – we’re fairly happy with the outcome.

There has been a little bit of artistic licence taken with trim colours, but if you have a problem with that, then – like Lance Armstrong in his infamous podium speech – I feel sorry for you.

1976

1988

2000

 

Midweek Mashup – Benfica 1988 and 1990

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Previously, we have looked at how all-white kits have become talismans for AC Milan in the final of the European Cup and Champions League – today’s entry may be the counterpoint to that.

All-red kits actually have quite a good record in the continental final, with an incredible run during the 1970s and early 80s. Ajax won the last of their three in a row in 1973 wearing red against Juventus and Bayern Munich were to then piece together a trio of their own, albeit having to wear white against Atletico Madrid in the first of those.

After Bayern came Liverpool’s two on the trot  and both of Nottingham Forest’s final wins, in 1979 and ’80, came in their lucky red shorts. Liverpool were victorious again in 1981 and while the white-clad Villa beat Bayern in 1982, Hamburg restored all-red’s primacy as they beat Juve in ’83 while wearing their change kit and Liverpool won again in 1984.

It was third-time lucky for Juventus against all-red as they beat Liverpool amid the sad scenes in Heysel in 1985, but while Bayern wore a variety of red kits in reaching the 1987 final against Porto, coach Udo Lattek opted for blue shorts which didn’t work their charms.

A year later, Benfica made it to the final for the first time since the defeat to Manchester United at Wembley in 1968. Opposing them as they sought to break the Curse of Bela Guttmann were PSV Eindhoven.

The Dutch club, who had allowed Ruud Gullit to alter their strip two years previously, who lost the toss for choice of shirt colour but, to increase contrast, UEFA mandated that the Portuguese side wear red shorts.

Benfica-1988-adidas-shirt-camisa-European-Cup-final-PSV-01

After a scoreless draw, the game went to penalties, where all of the regulation ten were scored before Anton Janssen scored for PSV in sudden-death and AntĂłnio Veloso missed for Benfica.

One other little thing of note was that adidas were making their first strides in breathable fabric – on the left sleeve there was a small ‘Climalite 2000’ tag (thanks to Simon Shakeshaft for making us aware of this).

While they hadn’t won the Portuguese league in 1987-88, Benfica bounced back by winning the title in 1988-89 and made it to the European Cup final once more in May 1990.

There they would face the holders Milan, who naturally opted for all-white, meaning another all-red costume for Benfica, with Hummel having replaced adidas.

Benfica-1990-Hummel-shirt-camisa-European-Cup-final-Milan-01

Unfortunately for Benfica, whether it was Guttmann’s curse or the red shorts, they fell short again, with Frank Rijkaard’s 68th-minute goal proving to be the winner.

In 1991-92, Benfica roasted Arsenal at Highbury to make the first-ever group stage and, had they beaten Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the final round of fixtures, they would have reached a third final in five years.

Unfortunately for them, they lost 2-1 and the closest they have come to the final since then have been four quarter-final appearances, in 1995, 2006, 2012 and 2016.

Great one-offs – Norwich City, 1985

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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By its nature, this series – see here for other articles – is more likely to include change kits, but there are instances of teams playing games in home-coloured unique kits.

In the past, cup finals were often a source of such outfits, and today’s entry is one of those examples. Next Saturday will mark the 34th anniversary of Norwich City winning the Football League Cup, known as the Milk Cup back then, as they beat Sunderland 1-0 (incidenally, both clubs would be relegated at the end of that season).

At the time, Norwich wore Hummel kits and in 1984-85 they had a fairly simple design, featuring the company’s chevrons down the arms. Hummel also liked to use their identifying marks down the sides of the body – as with Denmark’s Euro 84 kits – and these were the big additions for Norwich’s trip to Wembley.
Norwich-City-1985-Hummel-Milk-Cup-final-kit-01.png

As well as the commemorative text above the club crest, Norwich also had the logo of their sponsors, Poll Withey, changed from red to black for the occasion.

The latter alteration would become permanent for the 1985-86 promotion season but other than that, the only other difference would be narrow green stripes above and below the sponsor’s logo.

Incidentally, Norwich’s centre-back partnership of Steve Bruce and Dave Watson wore numbers 4 and 6 respectively in the final, as they did all season – see here for a piece on the reluctance of both players to wearing the Norwich number 5 shirt.