Speaking of the significance of the football shirt, Rob MacDonald and Adam Bushby, authors of Admiral: 50 Years of the Replica Shirt say:“Players and managers come and go, owners are temporary custodians, stadiums can be rebuilt or even moved. So all that is left, really, is the abstract concept of a football club or national team, made tangible by the shirt.”
A club with a rich history played out over the years in any number of kits, Liverpool was the first football club to feature a sponsor on the front of its shirts - although their players never actually wore the shirts by legendary kit-makers, Admiral. However, this was nearly not the case, according to Bushby, co-founder of Halcyon Publishing and a Liverpool fan, himself.
While researching the book, Bushby found that legendary manager Bill Shankly had all but signed a deal with Admiral before it was vetoed by the chairman at the time, Sir John Smith.
Admiral supremo Bert Patrick was in attendance when Steve Heighway was sashaying his way through a lounge at Anfield in the new design when Shankly came thundering in. “It’s nay a bloody circus, Stevie!”
That said, Shankly was a fan of the design and was ready to sign off on it until defender Tommy Smith leaked the top-secret information in his newspaper column, leaving Patrick fuming after he was told by Sir John that he was in charge of running the club, rather Shankly.
The good news is they found some pretty decent alternatives, ones that will go down in history as iconic shirts of their respective eras, including those worn throughout the club’s Eighties heyday, and recent successes of the Noughties and onwards.
Adidas shirts are due to make a comeback at the club from next season, by which time Liverpool fans will be hoping for a seventh Champions League star to be emblazoned on it.
Best Liverpool kits at a glance
Liverpool 82-85 Home
Best: overall
Thought by many of their fans as one of the best kits in the club’s history, the yellow pinstripes on it have made a comeback on the club’s shirts in recent years.
Sponsored by the immensely glamorous Crown paints, it was the last of Liverpool’s Umbro shirts before switching to an Adidas partnership that would run over the next decade; it featured the same old-school logo that has also returned to recent iterations.
Worn by legends of the club such as Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness, it saw the club win a treble of the League Cup, First Division and European Cup during the 1983/84 season.
Buy now £350.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Liverpool 63/68 Home
Best for: oldies
In a time before football shirts were big business, clubs tended to wear the same shirt for several seasons before bringing out a new one.
Like many of the early shirts, this classic has a clean look, with a high neckline and matching white cuffs and a simple circular crest and, let’s be honest, something of a pyjama vibe to it. It was worn by the likes of Ron Yeats, who captained the club, and saw the Reds secure two First Division titles for the 1963/64 and 1965/66 seasons as they went into one of their most successful eras.
Buy now £45.00, Liverpool FC
Liverpool 87-88 Away
Best for: faithfuls
Still sponsored by Crown Paints, by this point Liverpool’s kit was made by Adidas, and this was the first season in almost twenty years that their badge was given a little update. Gone was the stripped-down solitary Liverbird, sitting above the club’s L.F.C. initials, and it was replaced by a simpler looking beast, encapsulated in a white shield with the club’s full name running down its sides and underneath. The shirt itself had the classic Adidas three-stripes, and the away kit this season was a dashing silver. It was worn by arguably one of the club’s best teams, including John Barnes and Peter Beardsley, who bagged another first division title and finished runners up of the FA Cup that season.
Buy now £350.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Liverpool 89/91 Home
Best for: hipsters
An iconic shirt was worn by the team as the Division 1 era came to an end, making way for the Premier League in 1992. This shirt was the second of the club’s run with Italian appliance maker, Candy, and featured not only a bold looping logo across the chest, but a white geometric print marking it out as distinctly different from other home shirts both before and after. It has an unmistakably ‘80s vibe and perhaps most importantly, it saw a continuation of the club’s ‘80s results, with Liverpool winning their last domestic league title for 30 years in it, in 1990.
Buy now £19.99, eBay
Liverpool 92/93 Home
Best for: historians
Heading into the Premier League era as well as the club’s centenary year, the occasion was marked with an all-new sponsor, Carlsberg, and an all-new badge.
An even more elaborate number, this badge featured Anfield’s iconic Shankly Gates arch, along with the line “You’ll never walk alone” from the club’s anthem of the same name. The shirt featured a bold Adidas three-stripe graphic across the right shoulder.
While it might have been a great year for kits, perhaps it’s a year fans would prefer to forget on the pitch, finishing sixth in the league, being knocked out of the FA Cup in the third round as defending champions, and in the second round of the European Cup Winners Cup. You can’t win ‘em all.
Buy now £185.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Liverpool 93-95 Away
Best: you don’t mention
In keeping with earlier ‘90s kits, green was the colour, moving away from earlier silver and yellow away shirts.
This had a bold geometric Adidas three stripes motif running down each side of the torso, with green sleeves and a white front and stuck around for two seasons, outliving manager Graeme Souness, who departed in January 1994.
In terms of football, the first season in which this was worn was not much to write home about, finishing eighth in the league and having a pretty torrid time away from Anfield. But green shoots were poking through, with a teenage Robbie Fowler making his debut, and the following season they were bumped up to fourth in the Premier League.
Buy now £55.00, Soccer Lord
Liverpool 95-96 Away
Best for: the hopeful
The 90s were a bit of a wilderness for the Reds, it’s probably fair to say. There was promise, a lot of the time, but not very much in the way of tangible results. The 1995-96 season followed in that now familiar pattern, finishing third place in the league and runners up in the FA Cup. It was in this shirt, with a bold chequered pattern in forest green and white, that they lost out in the FA Cup final to *spits* arch nemeses Manchester United.
Buy now £198.00, Vinatge Football Shirts
Liverpool 2004-06 Home
Best for: glory hunters
And just like that, the wilderness period came to an end. After some success in the early Noughties in the Football League Cup and the Charity Shield came the big one: The Champions League.
The Reds won in thrilling fashion in 2005 to claim their fifth title in the tournament albeit their first in over 20 years. At this point under the stewardship of Rafael Benitez, the club came back from 3-0 down at halftime to beat AC Milan on penalties.
As shirts go, this one was pretty unremarkable - a plain red shirt made by Reebok - but it became memorable for all the right reasons.
Buy now £49.99, Vintage Football Shirts
Liverpool 2017/18 Third
Best for: exhibitionists
Now, the Reds might have been disappointed by results this season, but one thing they couldn’t possibly have been regretful about was this third kit.
Sure they finished fourth in the league, got knocked out of the FA Cup in the fourth round, and lost in the Champions League final to Real Madrid, but just look at this bold orange beauty!
Made by New Balance, this was sponsored by long-term and current affiliates Standard Chartered, and featured the current throwback logo, introduced In 2012 to mark the club’s 125th anniversary.
Simple, eye-catching – practically perfect as football shirts go.
Buy now £125.00, Vintage Football Shirts
Liverpool 2019/20 Home
Best for: modernisers
Always the bridesmaids, this season was one that would go down in the club’s history.
It was in this season that Liverpool won their first league title in 30 years, against a backdrop of the Covid lockdown and subsequent Project Restart, which saw games played behind closed doors sometimes with the noise of cheering piped into vacant grounds so it all felt “normal” (it didn’t).
And they won the league in style, in a banging shirt, featuring the yellow pinstripes of yesteryear, manifesting glory by harking back to better times on Merseyside.
Buy now £79.99, Retro Football Kits
