The new England kit has the OTP seal of approval. Now let’s remember when the kit designers didn’t get it so right!
1. England third shirt, 1992
Umbro seemingly replaced the Three Lions by breeding a sunflower with an iguana and letting the resulting offspring crawl over this third shirt.
2. England away shirt, 1996
England’s summer of 1996 was going fantastically well until this splash of typical English grey put a dampener on proceedings.
3. England goalkeeper away shirt, 1996
The battleship grey outfield kit might get all the retrospective attention, but we should not overlook the accompanying monstrosity of a goalkeeper shirt being worn by David Seaman on that fateful day.
4. England home shirt, 2008
This bland effort sort of merges with the previous kit (with the St George’s cross on the shoulder) in the brain. There is nothing special or distinct about it. Just boring.
5. England third shirt, 1990
Very much of its time, this England third shirt was (perhaps wisely) only worn once. It is not clear whether the opposition were mesmerised by the magic eye-style pattern.
6. England goalkeeper shirt, 1988
England were about as fashionable as they were successful at Euro 1988. The pinnacle of their brief and tasteless appearance at the tournament was Peter Shilton’s lovely jersey.
7. England away shirt, 1998
And a decade on, Umbro were still getting it wrong. This shiny effort features a patchwork of cheap looking St George’s crosses.
8. England away shirt, 2007
The current away kit was perfectly paired with the old home kit (number 4) since they were equally dull. The response to the away-kit-by-numbers training ground chic is one of the likely reasons for the change of direction for the new home kit.
9. England goalkeeper shirt, 1993
Come on. Own up: who’s been vomiting Umbro logos?
10. England home shirt, 2005
I know this shirt is well-loved in some quarters, but I suspect that is because Umbro were seen to be listening to people who thought the England shirt needed a St George’s cross on it. I don’t think the history books will look back so fondly on this pretty dull effort.
