Since the inception of the replica industry in 1970s by Leicestershire firm Admiral, fans the world over have donned the shirt of their favoured clubs.
As an ever-increasing market for football kits has emerged, opportunities for clubs to tout their wares have expanded with it. Replica shirts are now widely available and are big business with Premier League club favourites like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea leading the pack.
Beyond the standard home and away strips, clubs have sought to capitalise on fans’ loyalty with a third kit, and an increasing number of more fashion-led designs, such as this season’s eye-catching collaboration between Arsenal and Labrum.
Once seen as the domain of young boys and middle-aged men, even fashion girlies have been getting in on the act. Indeed, the growing appeal of the women’s game has opened up an entirely new audience, particularly at clubs such as Arsenal, who have always been at the forefront of women’s football. Presumably, it doesn’t hurt if your captain happens to be as in demand by sports and fashion pages alike, as Lioness Leah Williamson.
But what does it mean to wear a football shirt? In Admiral: 50 Years of the Replica Shirt, Adam Bushby and Rob MacDonald argue: “The football shirt is an object of cultural currency in the modern world, be it a sign of unwavering loyalty to your club or merely a fashion statement.”
Beyond a statement of fashion or allegiance, a club’s history is written on its shirts, and as major London clubs go, Arsenal have seen a fair bit of history in the last half a century. Every shirt sponsor carries with it a unique nostalgia.
From the club’s rise to prominence under George Graham in the ‘90s, and Arsene Wenger’s 03/04 Invincibles, to the just-within-spitting distance of success under current manager Mikel Arteta, who knows what history will be written on the next few seasons of Arsenal shirts?
Best Arsenal kits to wear at a glance
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Arsenal Away 91-93
Best: overall
The JVC era of Arsenal shirts is one of the most memorable periods in the club’s history, and the infamous “bruised banana” is no exception.
Worn by the likes of Ian Wright, it was not a popular shirt at the time, not least because of the turbulent times on the pitch with which it is associated.
Aesthetically speaking, not everyone was a fan of its bold graphics, but the ‘91/92, ‘92/93 away kit has become a modern classic and was even reimagined by the club recently, launching a remake of the kit and an entire bruised banana collection alongside it.
Buy now £42.00, Retro Jersey Classics
Arsenal Home 67-78
Best for: a classicist
Back in the days before the mass-marketing of football shirts and the huge money spinner this became, football kits changed less often. Indeed, this Home design hung around for a decade, overseeing some big changes at the club.
Under Bertie Mee, appointed in 1966, Arsenal was steered to its first European trophy with the 1970 Fairs Cup, and its first ever double League and FA Cup victory in 1971, all while wearing this very shirt.
Rather less brash than today’s vision in polyester, the vintage shirt has an effortlessly classic aesthetic and clean look to it.
Buy now £35.00, 3Retro
Arsenal Home 88/89
Best for: a long-suffering fan
Anyone who’s followed Arsenal’s fortunes for any length of time or, indeed, read Nick Hornby’s seminal classic, Fever Pitch, will be familiar with this shirt and season.
Nearly 20 years after its last league win, then new-ish manager George Graham – who was on the winning team back in 1971 – guided the club to victory again. But in a very Arsenal way. In their final match of the season – a game which had been postponed following the infamous Hillsborough Disaster – Arsenal beat Liverpool 0-2 at Anfield to clinch the title.
The shirt is somewhere in-between a 70s aesthetic and today’s incarnation, with a simple cannon motif instead of the crest now seen on shirts, with the club’s first kit sponsor, JVC.
Buy now £50.00, Arsenal Direct
Arsenal Home 92-94
Best for: a menace
Winners of the 1993 FA Cup, the club did so in this home shirt with a central badge, and the incorporation of some graphic black stripes on the arm. The wing-like design has a very vintage feel to it now, and some criticised it for straying too close to a “Dennis the Menace” aesthetic, which probably seems a little ironic now, given who was about to land in North London shortly thereafter. Of course, he didn’t actually land – we all know this particular Dutchman didn’t fly.
Buy now £79.99, UK Soccer Shop
Arsenal Away 95/96
Best for: an Iceman
Not everyone enjoyed this shirt at the time, as it was not in keeping with the club’s tradition of a yellow Away shirt. But you can’t please everyone, eh, Bruised Banana?
1995 saw the arrival of one Mr Dennis Bergkamp at Highbury, aka the cool, calm and collected “Iceman”. Perhaps it was this standout away kit that helped inspire the nickname, with its ice-blue lightning bolt graphic and gothic lettering on the badge.
Even though Ian Wright walked away with top goal-scoring honours this season, it wasn’t a bad start for Bergkamp, making his presence known with 16 overall.
Buy now £250.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Arsenal Away 97/98
Best for: traditionalists
The Away kit returned to its traditional yellow shortly thereafter and for a while, the team were flying.
We can’t attribute this season’s success to this shirt, but we do like the yellow paired with the navy blue band highlighting the iconic JVC sponsorship.
This was Arsene Wenger’s first full season at the club, and it ended with the team winning the double as well as the community shield, and top goal scorer Bergkamp walking away with the PFA’s Player of the Year award.
Buy now £39.00, Classic Collective Store
Arsenal Home 03-04
Best for: Glory hunters
One of the other most instantly recognisable Arsenal shirt sponsors is O2, which marked out the shirts of the early ‘00s.
It’s not just the bold logo, but the association between these shirts and Arsenal’s “Invincibles” era. Look, we had to bring it up eventually. It is the era of Jens Lehman, pre-defection Ashley Cole, and Patrick Viera, to name three. It is the continued era of va-va-voom, 30 league goals for Thierry Henry, and a season in which Arsenal did not lose a single match. It is the season of this shirt.
Prices from £94.99.
Buy now £94.99, UK Soccer Shop
Arsenal Away 05/06
Best for: fond farewells
Hankies at the ready, because this season was a bit of a tear-jerker. The final season of O2’s sponsorship, a fond farewell to Highbury, and the first of many trophyless seasons to follow.
On the plus side, it was in this season that Henry became the club’s top goal scorer of all time, during an oh-so-close European campaign. Perhaps finishing fourth – their lowest league position in a decade – was easier to swallow, having made it to the Champions League final, in 2006. But to lose 2-0 to Barcelona, the club Henry would go on to leave at the end of the next season, made season one to be remembered for mostly the wrong reasons.
Buy now £198.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Arsenal Third 17/18
Best for: forgetting
Surprisingly hard to get hold of now, in truth, your best bet at tracking one of these beauties down is on eBay.
Black with a pink font, it’s a striking number, which is more than we can say about this season on the pitch. Some fans will be keen to forget Wenger’s last season as manager, in which the team finished sixth in the league and lost out to Man City in the league cup final. That shirt, though.
Buy now £21.24, Retro Football Kits
Arsenal Away 23/24
Best for: new dawns
Reunited with Adidas and, indeed, good times on the pitch, the 23/24 away kit was a fresh take on the classic yellow away shirt. Adidas may call it “solar yellow”, but you’ll never convince us this isn’t at least a bit green, even if we can see what they’re going for.
The graphic lines are “loosely” inspired by a map of Islington, Arsenal’s home borough. While we can’t vouch for the function of the HEAT.RDY design, aesthetically speaking, it’s a nice detail.
Buy now £44.00, Adidas
