Historical Football Kits

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Tottenham Hotspur

Change kits

>>Tottenham Hotspur Home Kits<<

Kit History

Background

The first reliable records describe Spurs as wearing navy and white hooped tops with their usual navy blue shorts and stockings when a change was needed between 1908 and the 1940s. There were, however, several occasions when various different shirts were used in FA Cup matches as well as one or two League games.

After the Second World War, Spurs' wore red shirts with their usual navy blue shirts and stockings with white turnovers when a change was needed (occasionally white shorts appeared). Navy shirts with white knickers were adopted late in the 1949-50 season and, although they usually wore striped shirts between 1953 and 1956, the plain shirts made several appearances as well. An all-amber strip was used several times in floodlit matches in the London Challenge Cup (October 1958) and friendlies. Tony Sealey, Andy Porter and John Matthews have discovered that this strip was worn in the Football League at least twice (at Bolton 26 March and 7 September 1960).

During the 1960s Spurs wore all-white in European competition, Bill Nicholson's tribute to the great Real Madrid team, a tradition revived in 2008. The white kit was also frequently used in domestic cup games.

Tony Sealey has provided these notes from the first Spurs programme of the 1969-70 season: Supporters who travelled to Leeds on Saturday must have been surprised to see the team turn out in yellow shirts with a blue cockerel emblem. As Leeds wear white we were forced to change. Our change strip in recent years has been navy blue shirts, but this colour has now been banned by the League as it clashes with the referee's outfit.

Yellow and navy became Spurs' established alternative colours and when Admiral designed their new kits in 1977, they took up the theme with a unique shirt with navy blue epaulettes. Over the next few year Spurs established themselves as real innovators in kit design. Le Coq Sportif introduced the first shadow-striped kits for the team in 1982, featured both on the home kit and the new powder-blue away kit.

In 1985 Spurs signed up with Danish manufacturers, Hummel, who continued the trend for innovation with a striking all-white home kit paired up with a light blue away kit featuring white and navy diagonal pinstripes. Their navy third kit was even more innovative, adding diagonal purple stripes trimmed in light blue and white.

Umbro took over in 1991 with two striking designs. The yellow change kit featured an abstract chequered design in navy with grey patches while their light blue third kit sported "SPURS" woven into the fabric. These were followed by an all-navy change kit with purple splashes in 1994. After Umbro, Pony took over with some striking kits: purple with navy stripes (1995-96) and then navy and "ecru" in 1997.

In 1999 Spurs once again changed manufacturer, signing a contract with Adidas that lasted three seasons. Their designs incorporated three tradional pallettes, yellow and navy, navy and white and pale blue and navy. They were replaced by Kappa in 2002 who introduced some striking designs over the next four seasons, including an all-mauve outfit (2003-04) and a blue and yellow kit (2005-2006) that broke with tradition.

Yet another change of kit partner came in 2006 when Puma took over the franchise. Their understated but striking designs have an all-chocolate kit with gold trim that was inspired by Spurs' colours worn in 1896 when they joined the Southern League. Puma also designed the club's 125th anniversary kit (worn once only) which was based on Spurs' 1884 colours, originally adopted as a tribute to the great Blackburn Rovers team.

Sources

• A = Away (change) kit
• 3rd = Third choice kit
• EUR = European home kit
• WCF = Worthington Cup Final

Information on kits 1901-1966 provided by Andy Porter, official historian to Tottenham Hotspur with aditional research by Tony Sealey.