Kit History

1892-1896 - Away

1892 TO THE 1950s

Despite the club's association with red, Liverpool's first kit was actually blue and white.

Some have suggested that this was because the formation of the club resulted from a split with Everton, and the blue was a link with this. However, Everton played in salmon-pink at the time.

The accompanying illustration of this first kit is from written descriptions only. I have never seen a picture. All shorts at this time appeared to be white. The colour of the socks is unknown.

No-one is quite sure when Liverpool changed their strip (several different dates have been suggested in different publications), but it was within the first five years of the club's existence. There is a photograph of the 1897/98 team wearing what appear to be red shirts, white shorts and red socks.

From then on the Liverpool kit was red shirt, white shorts and usually red socks. The only real changes in the strip over the years appear to be in the collar design and the socks, which were usually plain red but were occasionally hooped.

Away strips have never been permanent and depend partly on the clash with the home teams strip. There is an illustration of the 1905-06 Championship winning team wearing an all-white strip with a red yoke around the neck. A little later the 1922 team is pictured wearing white shirts with red trim, white shorts, and what appear to be, black socks (it is a black and white picture). At some stage the shorts changed to black. Certainly this was the strip Liverpool wore in the 1950 FA Cup final. White shirts, black shorts and red socks remained the Liverpool away strip for several decades.

Badges were not usually worn on the shirt except for special occasions. When Liverpool played in the 1950 FA Cup Final (in their away strip) the shirt had a red shield-shaped badge with a white Liver bird on it.

While in the Second Division during the 1950s, Liverpool changed their strip to include a permanent badge for the first time. The large oval badge showed a red Liver bird with the letters LFC written below.

At first the shirt had a collar but it soon changed to a V-neck. For the first time the shorts were not plain white as they included a red trim. The socks were usually red and white hoops. The away strip included a version of the badge with the colours swopped round.

After promotion to the old First Division in 1962 the kit changed back to a round collar. After winning their first modern Championship in 1964 Liverpool changed their strip to all red for the first time. To many this is the classic Liverpool strip - all red with a white collar (although often with white on the sleeve collars as well) and with the now familiar oval badge.

At the beginning of the 1970s Liverpool changed to a simpler version of the badge - a white Liver bird with the letters LFC embroidered onto the shirt. However, the rest of the kit remained more or less unchanged.

Around this time the first signs of commercialism also appeared, with a small Umbro badge appearing on the right hand side of the shirt.

In 1977 the kit changed slightly with a V-neck replacing the collar and the embellishments on the kit becoming yellow. For some reason yellow was a very popular colour in football kits in the late 1970s. Almost all scarves at the time included a yellow stripe, irrespective of the club colours.

In 1979 Liverpool became the first British team to sign a kit sponsorship deal. The name Hitachi was added to the current kit without any further change.

However, as sponsorship was not allowed in several competitions, including Europe, the unsponsored shirt continued to be used. Indeed, UEFA even insisted on the Umbro badge being covered in European matches.

The standard away strip remained white, red and black throughout the period, although small changes were made to keep the kit in the same style as the home kit.

Thankfully, Liverpool avoided the excesses of some of the kits of the 1970s when Admiral in particular produced several "dramatic" kits. The late 1970s and early 1980s also saw the shortest shorts in history - significantly the current craze for classic football kits does not extend to skimpy, shiny shorts!

At the beginning of the 1982/83 season Liverpool had a new kit, the first to show any significant change from the traditional kit.

The home kit gained white pinstripes down the front (but not the back) and the collars included a red stripe within the white. White trim was also added to the shorts.

Liverpool also changed their kit sponsor at this time to Crown Paints, although they still had to wear a plain, unsponsored kit in many competitions.

The away strip became all yellow with red trim. Presumably yellow was chosen because it was already included in the trim colours, through the yellow badge of the previous kit. In the 1984-85 season the away strip lost the red pin-stripes and became plain yellow with red collars and badges.

In 1985 Liverpool changed their kit manufacturer after a long association with Umbro. The new kit supplier was Adidas and the new kit was actually in use at the end of the 1984-85 season. The first Adidas Liverpool kit was plain red with the three Adidas stripes in white on the shoulders and the sides of the shorts.

The club sponsors remained Crown Paints. The sponsors logo was written on one line at first but it changed in the second season, written on two lines so it became larger (and easier to see on a TV screen).

The away strip returned to white and black in the first season with Adidas (although all-white was used almost as often). However, in 1986-87 the away kit reverted to all-yellow with red trim.

The new kit for the 1987-88 season showed a few subtle changes from the previous season. The Adidas stripes on the shirt now extended all the way down the sleeve and the collar was changed to a curious wrap-over design.

The badge was also changed, with the Liver bird now placed in a shield with the words Liverpool Football Club written below.

The new away strip was silver grey with red trim. Rather curiously, the Crown Paints sponsors logo was in white on the grey strip, which didn't show up very well.

Crown Paints were replaced as sponsors by the electrical manufacurers Candy after the 1987-88 season.

Again, the new Adidas kit showed relatively slight changes, with the collar style and trim remaining the same on the new shirt. However, advances in technology meant it was not easy to incorporate patterns in the fabric and the Liverpool shirt gained faint white streaks. To me they looked as though someone had been wiping a chalky snooker cue all over the shirt.

The shorts changed, gaining a broad white stripe down the sides with the three Adidas stipes in red on this stripe.

The away strip remained silver grey with red trim, but again the fabric gained a pattern, this time two subtle shades of grey.

In 1991 the Liverpool strip changed quite dramatically to include three white bars on the right shoulder of the shirt and three white bars on the left of the shorts. The away strip was the same pattern but in green.

To many this was something of a sell-out as the white stripes were part of the Adidas corporate image rather than anything to do with Liverpool Football Club. Even worse, the design was being used by Adidas for all their kits - the Cup Winners Cup defeat in Moscow in 1992 was made all the worse by the fact that Spartak were wearing what appeared to be Liverpool shirts.

The green of the away strip may have had something to do with the incoming sponsors, Carlsberg, as it is their corporate colour. However, Candy remained Liverpool's sponsor for the first season with this new kit in 1991-92.

In the first season, with Candy as the sponsors, the badge remained the same as previously - a white Liver bird in a white bordered shield with Liverpool Football Club written below. The following season the 100 years Centenary badge was used.

The Liverpool strip was changed in 1993, although it was another Adidas corporate design, this time with the three white stripes on both sides of the shirt and shorts. A green stripe was even added to the collar trim of the home shirt, presumably at the request of sponsors Carlsberg.

The new badge, incorporating the Shankly gates and the Hillsborough flame, was added to the kit, but in the centre of the shirt because of the design.

The away strip was a move back towards the old black and white kit, but with green retained as a prominent element.

In 1994 Liverpool introduced an official third strip for the first time. Football strips had become fashion items and the move was undoubtedly a way of raising revenue. The new gold and black third kit was only worn by the team a handful of times during the two seasons it was in use.

Although it was known that the Adidas kit contract only had a year to go, a new kit was introduced at the beginning of the season.

For many it merely represented another money-making opportunity, but the new kit did at least remove some of the more obvious signs of non-Liverpool corporate identity. The Adidas stripes were reduced to a trim instead of being an integral part of the kit design, and the Carlsberg green was removed from the home strip altogether.

The away kit remained essentially green, although it was a dark, almost glossy black, green. The quartered shirt echoed Liverpool's very first kit from 1892. Presumably, a return to blue was deemed too radical to incorporate in a Liverpool strip.

Reebok's first kit design for Liverpool incorporates several features intended to recall Liverpool teams of old. The home kit is plain red with little trim. The current Shankly gates/Hillsborough flame badge is set in a large oval, as in the kits of the 50s and 60s. The collar is more of a break with tradition however, and is the first to appear on a Liverpool kit since the bad old days of Second Division football.