Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Obscure Kits From British Football History #2

Today's 'Obscure Kit' is an absolute belter. Very little is known about it, other than the fact that it was worn as a third strip by Birmingham City in 1974.

I could say that it was a commemorative strip to mark the 30th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but that would be a lie. I think. That said, it does have a distinctly German feel about it, given the fact that it features the Bundesflagge running at 90 degrees down the full length of the shirt.

It's quite a daring design, one would have to say, but not to everyone's taste. Me personally, I quite like it. You could only seriously get away with wearing something so colourful as a third strip these days, but let's face it, if you're going to have one, you might as well rip up the rule book and do something daring.

Birmingham City are no strangers to quirky kit designs. A few years ago they had an away kit of red and white stripes which looked, from a distance, like a Tesco carrier bag, plus there was the blue home shirt with white flecks that gave the impression that their players were part-time pigeon feeders in Trafallgar Square.

This one from 1974, though, tops the lot. The fact that it has gone unnoticed for so long is a testament to its acceptance in football history and it's use of strong colours makes a great case for designers everywhere to be bold and unshackled in their creations.

And not only that, but it also keeps alive the hope that one day all kits will be based on national flags of countries around the world.

(Our thanks go to John Devlin at True Colours Football Kits for giving us kind permission to use the above kit design image.)

5 comments:

Flicktokick said...

An excellent kit. A bit like the Cameroon strip that never was.
For the 94 World Cup Cameroon launched a new design by Mitre, which reproduced the national flag with three panels; green, red, and gold, with a large gold star in the middle.
Unfortunately somebody at the Cameroon FA forgot to lodge the official papers with FIFA who then told Cameroon their registered strip was plain Green and that was what they had to wear in the finals. And so began a series of run-ins between FIFA and Cameroon over their kits.

Chris O said...

Hey, that Cameroon kit for the 94 World Cup was fabulous, wasn't it! Smart and I were both big fans of that one. I think they should try and bring that back some time in the future. They may have missed the boat back then, but it's never too late!

God, wasn't the Mitre replacement kit that they ended up using pretty dire?!?

Smart said...

Dear FlickToKick,

May I be so bold as to point you in the direction of this 'post' I did, way back in mid May?

;-)

http://somepeopleareonthepitch.blogspot.com
/2006/05/go-angola.html#links

I still have that shirt... somewhere... I must take a picture of it...

PS - Ignore the 'Scotland' comment... ;-)

Flicktokick said...

Sorry I discovered you towards the end of the summer.

My wife came home in 1994 and told me that she had 'nearly' bought me a Cameroon strip but thought I had enough tops!

BTW there is one on ebay at the moment for £14.99. The value can only increase; keep yours safe.

Smart said...

She 'nearly' bought it - but didnt?

Outrageous!! ;-)

So if you had too many shirts at that time, do you have any other 'classics'?

Or is that another story?

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