History of Soccer Jerseys

Early Times
Old English Teams

Juventus FC in 1903

Even though the first soccer match was played in 1860, at that time there was not yet still the concept of standard team colors.During that period, players would normally play with any clothing they had available. To distinguish  themselves, soccer players of the same team would use colored caps or sashes.

Since it was a little confusing, the 1867 rules book of the game recommended players to wear jerseys with colors similar to those of other players in their same team.

Owed to the suggestion, there was an emergence of soccer uniforms during the 1870’s, where clubs chose to use colors similar to the ones used by their institutions in other sporting or social events.
During the first years of the ruling, teams used to normally change their colors each match. Instead of using shorts, players used to use uncomfortable knickerbockers or full-length pants, most of time using a belt or even braces.

The shirts did not had any number on their back, being the only identification the color of the caps or stockings wore by players.

English Soccer Team

As the game became more popular (in its origins was exclusively played by wealthy amateurs), the kits started to change. The clubs began to be the responsible of buying the jerseys (at the beginning each individual player had to buy his own jersey). Growing financial concerns with the costs of uniforms, as well as the crowd willingness to identify players, resulted in the inclination of teams to buy soccer uniforms that displayed a simple design and set of colors.
In 1890 the Football League,  determined that team could not have similar kits, so as to avoid confusion. This rule was later abandoned in favor of one stipulating that all soccer teams have to have a second set of shirts in different designs and colors available.

At the beginning, it was the home team that had to change their uniform in case of similarity, but that rule was changed in 1921 so that the away team had to make the change.

20th Century Soccer

As the game began to expand throughout the world, institutions, clubs and national teams alike,  started to adopt stripes with designs similar to those created in the UK, and in many instances, the colors chosen to were directly related to those used in teams in Britain. In 1903, Juventus of Italy, “La Vecchia Signiora” (as it is known nowadays), adopted a black and white kit inspired by Notts County. Two years later, Argentina’s Club Atlético Independiente (los diablos) adopted red shirts after watching Nottingham Forest play in teir homeland.Juventus FC 1903

In 1909, in order to help referees to identify goalkeeper from other playes, the rules of the game were amended to state that the goalkeeper must wear a shirt different from other team members. At the beginning,  it was established that those jerseys should be either scarlet or royal blue, but when green was added as a third option in 1912 it became the most popular color. In this period goalkeepers generally wore a kind of sweater that it was more proper to cover from the cold than to play a sport.

The first sporadic experiments with numbered jersey  took place in the early 19th century, but the idea was not popular at the beginning. The first big clash where both teams wore shirts with numbers was was the 1933 FA Cup Final between Everton and Manchester City (England). Instead of having numbers added to the regular uniforms of both teams, two special kits, one white and one red, were made just for the final match and assigned to each team by the toss of a coin. Everton players wore numbers 1–11, while the Manchester City players wore jerseys with numbers raging from 12–22.  It was not until some few years before the Second World War that numbering shirts became popular, with players wearing numbers from 1 to 11. Despite the fact there was no ruling specifying which number each player had to wear, specific numbers were associated by tradition to each position in the field,being a prime example the kit numbered 1, left for the goalkeeper.

Immediately after the WWII, many football had to wear teams abiding to certain restrictions caused by the economic disaster caused by the war. During the 1950’s, soccer jerseys became much more like the ones wear  now.  V-necks replaced collars and jerseys made of synthetic fabrics were replaced by natural fibers. Thanks to international competitions, like the extinct European Cup, styles spread all over the continent. Pre-war kits completely disappear in favor of the more modern (and comfortable) designs. During the 60’s, little innovation was made in the industry. Despite that, kits from that period and the 1970’s are highly regarded by soccer fans even nowadays (they are sold as vintage jerseys).

Contemporary Jerseys

Sponsored shirts are the norm nowadays. Many teams sign agreements with big sport clothing companies like Nike, Puma, Adidas, Kappa or Umbro. During the 1970s clubs started to develop very individual kits to collect money from sales to fans. Real Madrid was the first team to develop a kit to be sold to fans as a replica jerseys. Thanks to success in sales, many football teams followed suit. Also big companies started to pay teams to feature their brand names in their jerseys (Bayern Munich was one of the pioneers in this).

Soon almost all major clubs had signed such deals, except two top Spanish soccer clubs, FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, refused to allow sponsors’ logos to be featured on their jerseys as recently as 2005.  Players also began to sign sponsorship deals with individual companies. In 1974 Johan Cruijff refused to wear the Dutch national team’s kit as its Adidas branding conflicted with his own individual contract with Puma, and was permitted to wear a version without the Adidas logo on it.

1974 Netherlands Jersey

1974 World Cup Jerseys – Vintage – Netherlands – Germany In the 1980s well known manufacturers such as Hummel and Adidas started to design more complicate shirts using a technology that allowed to design elements as shadow prints and pinstripes. This probe to be very popular.

Hummel’s distinctive halved kit designed for the Danish national team for the 1986 FIFA World Cup was very popular with the media but the FIFA was concerned over how it was going to show on television. In the 1990s jersey designs became more intricate, and sales of replica jerseys soared.  Teams started to design a new jersey each year (respecting most of the time the colors that identified the institution) to force more sales, become soccer jerseys fashion statements (rather than just comfortable uniforms to just play). Many designs failed to capture fans attention. In 1996, Manchester United introduced a grey kit which was specifically designed be worn with jeans, but abandoned during a match after Mantchester’s manager Alex Ferguson claimed that the reason why his team was losing 3–0 was that the players could not see each other on the field.  United switched to a different jersey for the second half. Rules were introduced such that players had to wear the same number throughout the season. The International Football Association Board decided that those players celebrating goals by lifting or completely removing their jerseys were going to be penalized

The market for replica jerseys has become really notorious nowadays, becoming one of the main sources of income for clubs – especially in the United Kingdom, where the market for replicas is worth in excess of £200 million. In 2003 Manchester United were fined £1.65m by the Office of Fair Trading over charges of price fixing. Many fans, owe to the high price of replicas, have chosen to buy fake jerseys imported from Asian countries.    David Beckham’s transfer to Real Madrid generated more than 1 million jerseys sold with his name and number. Also a market for authentic shirts worn by players during important matches has emerged.  For example, the jersey worn by Pelé in the 1970 FIFA World Cup Final was sold in an auction for over GBP 150,000 in 2002.
Some brands, such as Puma, started to try new designs with mixed results. For instance, during the African Cup of Nations in Mali, Cameroon national team competed without sleeves. FIFA ruled afterwards that those were not considered shirts and were not permitted by the Laws of the Game. The same brand also developed a one piece style kit. FIFA tried to rule out that kit but they disregard that option for a 6 point deduction for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification stage. That decision was reversed afterwards. Kappa introduced in 2000 the Kombat Jerseys, being Italy the first to wear them It  a highly successful design that was skin tight.