St. Pauli Shirts

June 3, 2009 by edd  
Filed under European Club Retro

St Pauli Shirts

St. Pauli must be the coolest football club on the planet! The clubs Bohemian style and politics has made it famous with rock stars and true football fans the world over. Most of the team’s fans regard themselves as anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-sexist. FC St Pauli are certainly a unique club with a distinctive character and set of fans.

“How many clubs in the world have a transvestite President? Or a team photo with players in handcuffs? St Pauli are unique because they embrace all that is different. They celebrate freedom. And they welcome just about anybody who shares their ethos and who wants to have a good time. Their liberal, anti-establishment stance is appealing because it reflects all that has gone missing from English football.

As a football club St Pauli are legendry. They are run by anarchist punks, their logo is a skull and crossbones and they play in the red light area of Hamburg! So remember not all German football is about winning on penalties and ruthless efficiency ~ Never mind the bollocks, here’s St. Pauli!

You can view all St. Pauli retro shirts in our store ~ Click Here

Just take a look at this St. Pauli fans video…

Brazil Retro Shirts

December 14, 2008 by edd  
Filed under National Team Retro

Brazil Retro

The Brazilian national teams first ever match was against English club side Exeter City in 1914! To this day Exeter fans claim to have taught Brazilians how to play football!  The result of the game (a 2 – 0 defeat for Exeter) suggest that the Brazilians already had a fairly good grasp of the basic rules. The famous quote about the game of football is ”The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it.

When we think of the Brazil team we always imagine the famous yellow shirts and electric blue shorts, but Brazil only started to wear the yellow and blue kit from the mid 1950’s. Before then Brazil flirted with a number of different colour combinations including: Red shirts & white shorts, white shirt & white shorts, yellow & green vertical striped shirts, yellow & black striped shirts and a few more variations besides! After an embarrassing defeat at home in the 1950 world cup the Brazilian public blamed the current kit (white shirt with blue collars) for the lose! claiming it wasn’t patriotic enough.

In 1951 a Brazilian daily newspaper held a competition to design a kit incorporating the four colours of the Brazilian flag. The design of nineteen year old Aldyr Garcia Schlee from the town of Pelotas was chosen as the winning entry. The new kit of yellow shirt with green trim and blue shirts echoed the design of the brazilian flag perfectly. The kit was first used in 1954 and has remained largely unchanged ever since.

You can view a full our full range of retro Brazil football shirts in our store ~ Click Here

Liverpool Retro Shirts

December 14, 2008 by edd  
Filed under English Club Retro

liverpoolfeature

Liverpools now famous all red kit wasn’t adopted by the reds until the mid 60’s, before that Liverpools traditional colours had been red & white. Believe it or not, the Liverpool team of the early 1900’s ran out in a blue and white kit similar to Evertons!

The team that made Liverpool’s worldwide reputation was undoubtedly the side managed by the great Bill Shankly, and it was Skankly who first had the idea of the all red kit. As Ian St. John later recalled in his book: He (Shankly) thought the colour scheme would carry psychological impact—red for danger, red for power. He came into the dressing room one day and threw a pair of red shorts to Ronnie Yeats. “Get into those shorts and let’s see how you look,” he said. “Christ, Ronnie, you look awesome, terrifying. You look 7ft tall.” “Why not go the whole hog, boss?” I suggested. “Why not wear red socks? Let’s go out all in red.” Shankly approved and an iconic kit was born.

Above is a selection of the iconic shirts that helped Liverpool dominated English and European football for the last 40 years.

You can view all retro Liverpool shirts on our store pages ~ Click Here.

Arsenal Retro Shirts

December 14, 2008 by edd  
Filed under English Club Retro

Arsenal

Arsenal’s red and white home shirt has become iconic over the years. However, Arsenal players haven’t always worn those famous colours. When the club (Woolwich Arsenal) was formed in 1886 no money was available to purchase kits, two ex Nottingham Forest players working at the Woolwich Arsenal solved the problem by writing to their old club and asking for help. A few weeks later a ball and a ‘redcurrent’ coloured kit arrived courtesy of Nottingham Forest.

The iconic red and white colours Arsenal play in today were introduced during the Herbert Chapman era in the 1930’s. It’s still unclear how the combination of the white sleeves and pill box red body panel came about, one story suggest Chapman saw a fan in the crowd with a red sleeveless jumper over a white shirt and thought it made a striking combination. Whatever the reasons the Arsenal team have used the colour scheme ever since. Apart from the 2005–06, the last season that Arsenal played at Highbury, when the team wore commemorative redcurrant shirts similar to those worn in 1913, their first season in the stadium.

Arsenals yellow away shirt has also been popular with the fans over the years. Largely due to the fact that Arsenal have pulled off some memorable victories whilst wearing it: In 1971 Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1 in the F.A. Cup to complete a League and Cup double. Arsenal wore yellow in the last game of the season in 1989 against Liverpool, a last minute goal from Michael Thomas won the league title for Arsenal at fortress Anfield.

To view all the Arsenal Retro Shirts ~ Click Here.