AC Milan Shirt History

AC Milan Full Shirt History

2018 – current season – Puma 

The current manufacturers of the 19-time Serie A winners are Puma. It is the first time that the pair has partnered and it ended a 20-year partnership with Adidas. 

Given how iconic the AC Milan home shirt is, it isn’t a strip that you should over complicate, so since the partnership began it has been ‘standard AC Milan’ (and rightly so!), with just slight alterations to the collar and stripe size…until now. It could be argued that the German sportswear group has taken a risk with the newly released 2023/24 home shirt, by fading out the black slightly and breaking up the predominant black stripes. 

Puma haven’t always got it right though, with the manufacturer taking some backlash for the 2021-22 third shirts they dished out to their partners. For AC Milan, it featured the clubs name in big red writing across the chest with their crest blacked-out patterned behind. The design was labelled by some as ‘more like a training shirt’. 

Since partnering with Puma, the seven-time Champions League winners have also been partial to a fourth shirt. The most recent one came out in 2022/23 and debuted against Atalanta at the San Siro. Puma, AC Milan and Koché, a fashion band established in Paris, partnered to produce a pixelated red and black shirt ‘reinterpreted in digital 8-bit glory’.

1998 – 2018 – Adidas 

Perhaps unusual in top flight football, as aforementioned this AC Milan and Adidas team up lasted 20 seasons – and this was their third stint together! 

This time around, their two most interesting home shirts came in 2014/15 and 2015/16. For both of these strips, the modern AC Milan crest was replaced with the 1972-1973 version. In 2014/15, it was also the very first time that a Rossoneri shirt has featured two different tones of red. 

2014/15 must have been a year for creativity, as their away top also featured a change to its crest. A red and black 3D Sphere was introduced to celebrate the club’s new headquarters, Casa Milan.     

However, despite the above, arguably their most recognisable combination of Adidas kits was worn in 2006/07 and this is down to their on the pitch success. In a traditional home shirt and a typical white away strip, Carlo Ancelotti lead Kaká, Paolo Maldini, Andrea Pirlo, Alessandro Nesta and co to Champions League glory.

1993 – 1998 – Lotto 

Lotto, an Italian sports equipment company, had the honours of concepting the AC Milan shirts for a total of five years.  

If you’re a fan of a collared football shirt, then this is definitely a collection to check out. A quite historic special shirt which Lotto produced came in 1994 to mark the Italian club’s participation in the Intercontinental Cup based in Tokyo. Although AC ultimately lost out to Vélez Sársfield in the final, this special-edition shirt gives total retro vibes and it is definitely a collector’s item. 

1990 – 1993 – Adidas 

This was the second time that the pair had agreed a deal together and it is AC Milan’s ‘adidas original’ era. 

On the pitch success was certainly rife during this period, as the club won two Serie A titles, two Supercoppa Italiana’s and reached a European Cup final. 

Adidas, the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, also produced an iconic Intercontinental Cup shirt, but as opposed to wearing it at the tournament, it was brought out to commemorate the clubs winning of it. AC Milan beat Club Olimpia 3-0 in the final and it has a lovely little patch with the tournament trophy taking centre stage around the usual ‘crest area’. 

1986 – 1990 – Kappa 

Founded in 1978 by Marco Boglione, Kappa is another Italian sportswear brand and they gave AC Milan the same home and away shirt every season. It was revealed in December 2022 that the company has vowed to release a remake of the famous home strip worn by the likes of Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

The fact that Kappa no longer has permission to use the clubs crest is not an issue, as notably the Italian clubs themselves did not have it on their shirts during this period. Instead, they wore stars on their shirt with one star representing ten Serie A titles. 

1885 – 1986 – Gianni Rivera 

Gianni Rivera is the name of an absolute AC Milan great, who was in the fact the first ever Italian footballer to win the Golden Ball award, today known as the Ballon d’Or. With the Rossoneri, he won three Serie A titles and two European Cups and went on to captain the side for twelve seasons. 

Following his retirement in 1979, Rivera became the Vice President of the club for seven seasons before departing in 1986. Interestingly, the former attacking midfielder, who was also part of the first ever Italian side to win the Euro’s, then became a politician. 

As for the kits, well, given the name behind them they are certainly sought after. Their away shirt was the most memorable, as it was predominantly white with small vertical black and white stripes.

1984 – 1985 – Rolly Go

Rolly Go was the supplier for a single season and they pretty much emulated the work of their predecessor’s home shirt, with only the shirt sponsor being the noticeable difference. 

They did alter the away shirt though, they produced a shirt which had black and red hoops (five thin, one large) going up to just below the chest area on a white background. 

1982 – 1984 – Ennerre 

Ennerre were fairly popular amongst Italian clubs until the 1990’s and they have recently returned to becoming a supplier by taking on a couple of lower leagued Argentinian sides. The brand was set up by former Italian footballer Nicola Raccuglia. 

They kept an eye-catching relatively thin striped home shirt the same for two seasons and played around a little with a white away shirt. In 1982/83, they spaced out multiple red and black stripes vertically, but in 1983/84 Ennerre horizontally placed three conjoined red and black stripes from the middle of the shirt upwards.

1980 – 1982 – Linea Milan 

Linea Milan were the proud manufacturers of the shirt which seen AC Milan promoted back to Serie A at the first attempt following their relegation in the 1979/80 season. They also produced the first AC Milan shirt to have a sponsorship.

1978-1980 – Adidas

Adidas first had the honours of supplying the Italian giants in 1978, however back then their logo did not actually feature on the shirt. In fact, no type of crest featured on the 1978/79 edition. 

As you might have guessed by the previous section, it was an Adidas strip which AC Milan worn during their relegation campaign in 1979/80.

1967 – 1975 and 1962 – 1963 – Vittore Gianni

Vittore Gianni was the first ever manufacturer of an AC Milan kit. The rest of the years were covered by ‘in-house’ designs/supplies. 

If you’re a fond admirer of a V-neck football shirt, then I would definitely suggest that you take a look at this range.

AC Milan Kit Sponsor History  

AC Milan have had a whole host of shirt sponsorship deals over the years and fortunately for fans of the club, not many of them have gave their strips an ‘ugly spot’. 

1981 – 1982 – Pooh Jeans 

Perhaps not the best one to start with, given was written in the introduction, but Pooh Jeans was the first ever shirt sponsor for AC Milan. 

Despite the text and logo not looking too bad, in todays age this sponsorship would provide plenty of ‘meme material’, given the name. 

1982 – 1983 – Hitachi 

As shirt sponsors go, Hitachi did not provide an eye-sore at all. Hitachi is described as an ‘multinational conglomerate corporation’ and it is based in Tokyo. 

Interesting fact – Hitachi and Milan’s public transport company recently signed a mega-buck deal for 46 new Milan metro trains. 

1983 – 1984 – Cuore

During the Cuore era, its brand name was written out in green text across the away shirt. Now, this may initially seem a bit random on a white shirt with red and black vertical stripes, but in actual fact it actually matched up with the green Ennerre logo quite well. 

1984 – 1985 – Oscar Mondodari

The Rolly Go era was coupled with Oscar Mondodari, and to be fair, it wasn’t perhaps the most appealing shirt sponsor of the club’s history.

1984 – 1987 – Fotorex U-Bix 

At last we have a shirt sponsor that lasted for more than one season…albeit it wasn’t much longer, just the additional year!

The text on the 1985/86 shirts was quite funky too, making it a nice addition to the strips. 

1987 – 1992 – Mediolanum

Mediolanum is an Italian company which operated in banking, insurance and asset management sectors – it merged to become known as Banca Mediolanum S.p.A in 2015. Its headquarters is located in Basiglio, around 13km south of Milan. 

AC Milan will view this as a successful partnership, as with this sponsorship they won two league titles, two European cups and two Intercontinental Cups – to name a few honours! 

Bonus point – their logo didn’t ruin the shirt either! 

1992 – 1994 – Motta 

Motta’s text on a football shirt looks smart – so their fans would have no doubt enjoyed the two strips produced with it. 

Motta as a brand specialise in stainless steel goods – and it is still popular in Italy until this day. 

1994 – 2006 – Opel 

Opel is a German Automobile (car) manufacturer and it was founded in 1982. Their reign of shirt sponsorship was well…interesting. 

For two seasons, they had the name of two of their car models, Zafira and Meriva, plastered across the front and mixed in between this Opel was also replaced for short stints by other models such as Corsa and Astra. Quite smart marketing, when you think about it! 

Fortunately, they kept to white and black text which didn’t make this too much of a notable inconvenience. 

2006 – 2010 – Bwin 

Also partnering with Real Madrid, Valencia and Werder Bremen over the years, Bwin is almost an iconic shirt sponsor. 

Furthermore, Bwin was also the sponsorship of the shirt Ronaldinho worn on his unveiling – making it even more remembered and recognisable. 

Bwin is an Austrian online betting brand and a highlight for them would have been AC Milan’s 2006/07 Champions League win. 

2010 – present – Fly Emirates  

Fly Emirates needs no introduction, really. It is one of the worlds largest airlines and its hub is based in Dubai. 

They also have partnerships with Real Madrid and Arsenal, as well as the likes of Olympique Lyonnais and Benfica.

To be fair, as well as providing big money sponsorship deals, the airline also makes for a rather good-looking sponsorship option.

Conclusion

AC Milan’s colours/stripes are iconic, you can feel the history of the shirt at every version you look at. They have had a long list of manufacturers and sponsors, but when you’re a club of its size it is totally understandable as every business would like to be associated in some way, shape or form. 

Written by Dan - Find Dan on X - @dannyh9623