Crystal Palace Shirt History
Crystal Palace have a legitimate belief that they are the oldest professional football club still in existence. In June 2022, new research conducted by an author named Peter Manning lead the club to alter the year on their crest from 1905 to 1861 – this would, of course, defeat Notts County’s 1962. Taking this into consideration, you can probably imagine that the club has a fairly rich kit manufacturer and shirt sponsor history, so let’s get stuck into it.
Full Crystal Palace Shirt History
Firstly here is a downloadable graphic* for collectors showing all the shirts from 1990 onward.
*This is for personal use only. For use on other websites please link back to this page if you use the graphic.
2022 – present – Macron
After a four-season break, Macron managed to secure their second spell with the Eagles by offering them a new ‘long-term’ partnership. Within the announcement statement, it is claimed that the Italian brand had just been voted the third largest technical sponsor in football for the fourth consecutive year.
Macron returned with a bang in 2022/23 by producing Crystal Palace stripes in a form that we haven’t seen before, as they opted to modernise them in a brushstroke graffiti style. The home shirt was made up of multiple in blue and red, while the away, which had a white base, had just one blue and one red stripe running vertically in the middle. The third strip matched the away jersey by featuring just one blue and one red stripe, however this time they ran diagonally on a black base. It wasn’t what we’re used to, but it was admittedly quite cool.
Their home shirt in 2023/24 celebrates the clubs 10th year since their promotion to the Premier League. Like the strip which they wore during the first season of their return in 2013/14, it is half blue and half red. However, a difference is that the 2023/24 version has a silhouette of the original Crystal Palace, where the club was founded in 1861, subtly imprinted into the background.
The away top from this campaign pays homage to the 1970’s with the return of a sash design. It is white with a sky-blue sash, and to make a point of their newly discovered founded year, the sash is embossed with ‘Crystal Palace founded in 1861’ several times. Keeping in the theme of paying tribute to their routes, their black third shirt has London-inspired graffiti imprinted into it featuring the words ‘South London & Proud’.
2018 – 2022 – Puma
Sandwiched in the middle of their two spells with Macron was a partnership with German brand, Puma. Straight away, Puma stamped their mark on the Palace shirts by producing a home strip which has been given the name of ‘The Palace Fade Stripe’. It has been given this label because the further you get down the red stripes, the more it becomes broken by blue lines.
Their away jersey from the 2018/19 campaign celebrated 40 years since Terry Venables managed the club to a Second Division title. The shirt was a modern remake of the strip wore in 1978/79 and it was even modelled by Vince Hilaire, a member the famous championship winning squad. It was white and its main feature was a conjoined red and blue sash. Red and blue details were also added to its arms and neckline.
You’re probably already sensing a theme that many Crystal Palace kits feature a sash, and this is true, but in 2021/22 Puma used these shirts as inspiration for an impressive diagonally striped red and blue home jersey. The club had never had a home kit look like this before. From a first to something that can already be found in the Eagles’ history books. The club originates from a team of cricketers that simply wanted to stay fit during the winter months and they played in sky-blue and white half and half shirt. In 2021/22, the squad donned a strip designed in that very same concept. Like in the 2023/24 home kit, a silhouette of the original Crystal Palace was printed into the background.
2014 – 2018 – Macron
As aforementioned, Macron is an Italian brand and you could really feel the Italia within the 2014/15 collection. The home strip was traditionally striped red and blue with yellow sleeve cuffs and the kit collar, which also had yellow features, was a unique V-neck like stuck up design took from Napoli’s 2014 Coppa Italia final kit. The away shirt from the 2014/15 campaign was also inspired from the Serie A, as Macron gave Palace the same concept used for Lazio’s 2013/14 home strip. It was simply yellow, a colour first used by the club in 1971, with baby blue elements to its sleeves and collar. Crystal Palace F.C. was stitched into the back of the neck elegantly on both of these kits.
It could be argued that Macron took a slight risk with the 2016/17 home shirt, as it is a little bit different to a regular Palace home jersey. It has red arms and sides, with one large blue stripe running vertically on the base. It is a simple shirt, but because it isn’t what we’d usually associate with the football club it is also eye catching.
On the face of things initially, there isn’t much to there 2017/18 home strip, but one really cool feature is that it has Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, the five boroughs that converge Crystal Palace, on the back of it.
2012 – 2014 – Avec
Crystal Palace supporters will look back at the Avec era with fondness given the fact that they won promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs wearing Avec branded strips. The shirts which they wore throughout the season of this achievement in 2012/13 can definitely be filed in the ‘different’ category and not necessarily because of design, more because of manufacturer placement. Avec’s logo was placed towards the bottom left on both the home and away jersey and, to be honest, it was barely noticeable. ‘Founded in 1905’ was stitched into where we would usually find the technical sponsors branding.
Avec opted for the same spot in 2013/14 and, as aforementioned, to mark their return the Premier League the Eagles donned a half red and half blue home strip. For their away kit, Palace wore a shirt which had a black base with a red and blue sash – interestingly the shirt sponsors branding oddly featured where you would usually find the kit manufacturers piece. I guess marketing wise, it made you look.
On each of the goalkeeper strips made throughout this partnership, Avec’s branding featured where you would expect to find it, posing the question of why wasn’t it there on the outfield collections?
2009 – 2012 – Nike
Sticking to the theme of shirt sponsorship branding being in random places, the Nike made 2010/11 away jersey had a bit of that going on too. The sponsor feature for that year appeared directly under the Crystal Place crest. Another thing that was interesting about that shirt is that the Palace sash ran up to the left shoulder instead of the more traditional right shoulder.
Crystal Palace or Brazil? If you watched the Eagles during the 2011/12 campaign then you’re lying to yourself if you didn’t have to do a double take when you saw them in their all yellow crewneck strip which had a green neckline. Palace had been seen in similar colours back in the 90’s. The alternating zigzagged blue and red stripes on the home jersey from that season also piqued people’s interest.
2007 – 2009 – Errea
Italian brand, Errea, took us all of the way back to the 70’s and 80’s by making the 2008/09 Crystal Palace home strip all white with a red and blue sash. Nowadays, Palace have become more known for playing at Selhurst Park in red and blue stripes and this was the first time that they hadn’t since the 1986/87 campaign. This concept hasn’t been replicated since, and with the Errera logo running down its arms on a red patch, it does feel vintage.
Despite the more recognised base colour scheme, Errea didn’t necessarily do things by the book for the 2007/08 home jersey either. It was mostly red with blue stripes of different lengths in a diamond like shape. Blue also made up the outlines at the bottom of the shirt and on its sleeves.
2004 – 2007 – Diadora
Diadora is another Italian company and it was founded in 1948. They had the honours of putting together the clubs centenary strip 2005/06 and we would say that they did not disappoint. In the 1970’s, the clubs home tops featured one maroon and one light blue vertical stripe on a white base, so to mark this landmark Diadora decided to replicate it. The crest was made silver and the famous eagle was sitting on ‘100 years’ with one of the zeros made into a football. Around the outline of the emblem ‘centenary year 2005’ was stitched in. It was a centre badge design and it felt special – which is the purpose of these kind of kits.
Another strip where the crest was central was the home kit used in that very same year, 2005/06. The Italian kit manufacturers provided the Eagles with a home kit that was prominently blue with three red stripes placed vertically on its base. It had another small red feature just under its neckline towards its left shoulder. Small white touches here and there were also dotted around the shirt. In fact, 2005/06 was the last time that a Crystal Palace home jersey had a centre badge design.
To end this section on a slightly sourer note, the 2006/07 away strip is not one that we are particularly fond of. Bar its white neckline, it is grey the whole way through until a curved white patch which makes up the lower part of the shirt. It sounds simple and it is, but there’s been many better Palace shirts over the years.
2003 – 2004 – Admiral
This was Admiral’s third deal with the South London club, albeit it a brief one. Similar to the 2014/15 away jersey, the away top from this campaign was simply yellow with a baby blue neckline, however we are sure that this one has a place deeper in Palace hearts given it is another of the club’s promotion seasons.
The home top was vertically striped red and blue on its base which turned to hoops on its sleeves, although, what makes it worth mentioning is the two navy blue patches which ran by either of its shoulders. It is not a familiar feature on a typical CPFC home top.
2001 – 2003 – Le Coq Sportif
Le Coq Sportif is a French manufacturing company founded by a man named Émile Camuset and they enjoyed a two-season partnership with the Eagles.
We know that we said that navy blue features were untypical on Palace home strips, but the 2002/03 version actually had navy blue on its sides, sleeves and sleeve cuffs. Despite this, a jersey which sticks out more to us from this era for us is the third shirt which was wore for both the 2001/02 and 2002/03 campaigns. It was yellow with a black V-neck polo collar, which also had white and yellow elements. The outlines of the sleeves matched the collar. A fairly similar kit was worn back in 1994 until 1996.
The French brand also had a dabble with a white, blue and red sashed away strip but they made it their own by placing its emblem central. The Le Coq Sportif logo was placed right above the Palace one, making it really stand out.
1999 – 2001 – TFG Sports
You could make a solid argument that Crystal Palace is the biggest club that TFG Sports has ever manufactured for. The Eagles played in the same home shirt for two seasons and in fairness it was a really nice design. Its base was full of red and blue stripes, its neckline was blue with red hoops going through it and its sleeves were red with blue outlines.
However, that very shirt, along with a tidy white away kit with a conjoined blue and red stripe running down the right of it, was ruined for the club’s pre-season tour of China in 1999 with a huge Virgin sticker plastered on the front. Thankfully this was removed for a sponsor which was much more appealing before the regular season.
1996 – 1999 – Adidas
Adidas broken an unwritten Crystal Palace rule by producing a home jersey without a single Palace stripe in 1998/99. Think Bayern Munich home shirts – it just looked like one. It was red with blue sides and it had several of the Eagles’ crests patterned into it. Its red collar had blue and white details.
The above could definitely be called controversial, but there was nothing questionable about the home shirt which they wore from 1996 until 1998. It was simply lovely. It was vertically striped red and blue the whole way through, but its white polo necked collar with a conjoined blue and red hoop running through it really did make it. Another nice little feature was that Adidas branded the shirt with the word ‘Adidas’ as opposed to their logo.
1994 – 1996 – Nutmeg
Nutmeg (no, not the Morrisons clothing brand) had two seasons of Palace responsibility and both of the home shirts produced were rather similar. Both were polos with two blue stripes running vertically rather centrally. One of the main differences was that the 1995/96 version was embossed with quite large Crystal Palace emblems, while the 1994/95 shirt had a lined zigzag pattern imprinted. Another difference was the blue stripes on the 1995/96 top had a smudged black outline on the blue stripes. A slight twist to this section is the 1994/95 strip was actually designed by their predecessors, Ribero.
This brand was also the creator of the of the 1994-1996 black collared yellow away shirt which has since been replicated.
1993 – 1994 – Ribero
Ribero have a number of solid testimonials on their website and, as mentioned in the previous section, their design was actually kept on for two campaigns despite this deal only lasting one.
If you’re into your older strips then we would definitely recommend checking out both the away and third jersey from this season. Our particular favourite is the all black third top which has a blue and red chevron pattern on its polo collar – it would be great to see it modernised.
1988 – 1993 – Bukta
Despite its presence within football, Bukta, founded in 1879, has also been known for its tents and camping equipment.
Bukta had a busy time of it at the Eagles with four outfield jerseys being used three times throughout the five-year-deal. In 1989/90, Palace had a yellow and black striped cup kit which they wore for their FA Cup final replay loss to Manchester United. In 1990/91, the South London club had a fourth kit, which was chequered yellow with a black neckline. In 1992/93, Palace wore the previous seasons home and away shirt until December before switching to new designs from then onwards. 1991/92 and 1992/93 are also the years of the original green and yellow ‘brazil like’ away shirt.
1987 – 1988 – Admiral
Admiral had a basic year with the Palace in 1988/89 with a typically striped home shirt and an all yellow subtly tonal striped away top. The third jersey was slightly more interesting as it was white with an intriguing pattern imprinted. Black strips were on its shoulders with the Admiral logo running through, while the branding and the Palace logo was red.
1984 – 1987 – Hummel
Hummel is a Danish brand and like Bukta, they also have Crystal Palace previous of producing four strips in a single campaign. That season came in 1985/86 and three of the kits featured a sash.
Other than the one season throwback from Errea, Hummel were the last creators of a white sashed Palace home top. They are also the last brand to give the club a shirt that has a maroon base. The sash running across the maroon base was made up of sky-blue and white.
The standout shirt from this partnership is coincidentally the only one which didn’t have a sash running across it. It was wore as the away top for two seasons (1985/86 and 1986/87) and it was yellow with blue dashes running down its sides and on its shoulders.
1980 – 1984 – Adidas
The early 1980’s was Crystal Palace’s Adidas Originals era. All of the kits were fairly good, but when you’re scanning the collection it feels strange to see the traditional blue and red striped Crystal Palace strip in the ‘third shirt’ section from 1981 until 1983.
It also felt quite odd to see an all red away top in 1983/84. I know that I have made many comparisons to other teams already in this article, but this one really did give off Nottingham Forest vibes. For their travels for three seasons prior to this, Palace wore a rather different sky-blue shirt with a red sash.
1980 and before…
Other than opting for in-house manufacturing from 1973 until 1975, Crystal Palace had spells with Admiral and Umbro. From 1973 onwards, it was what you’d expect from the Eagles, the home kit would either be striped red and blue or it would white with a red and blue sash. However, prior to this many of the kits actually featured more of a maroon colour.
Crystal Palace Shirt Sponsor History
As hinted at during the introduction, the shirt sponsor history for Palace is quite lengthy. So, let’s get right into it…
2022 – present – Cinch
At the time this deal was announced, the online car marketplace already had a more than fair roster of sports deals in place having signed contracts with England Cricket, SPFL and Northampton Saints Rugby.
Their feature is simply ‘Cinch’ with an unfilled circle posing as the dot above the I – it is definitely one of the better ones.
2020 – 2022 – W88
W88 is a gambling company and they are now the technical sponsors of Burnley. Interestingly, Palace almost became defensive about the deal right away with the following paragraph featuring in the announcement statement:
“Crystal Palace F.C is committed to encouraging its supporters to gamble safely and in 2018 was the first Premier League club to agree a partnership with the charity, GambleAware, teaming up to produce advertisements and promotion materials at Selhurst Park to raise awareness of the risks of gambling.”
If I am honest, I am not a huge fan of this feature as the large W above the ‘W88’ kind of ruins it for me.
2017 – 2020 – ManbetX
At the time hands were shook, it is believed that Crystal Palace had brokered this deal to be the eighth biggest club deal by value in the Premier League, according to FC Business.
ManbetX is another betting brand and, again, it is another sponsor which I am not too fond of appearance wise. For me, too much was squeezed in and it looked overdone.
2015 – 2017 – Mansion
The Mansion Group is another one which specialises in online gaming and they hit the absolute jackpot when the Eagles presented the partnership alongside statement summer signing Yohan Cabaye. In the announcement images, the Frenchmen, who signed from Paris Saint-Germain, posed with the new kit featuring their branding for the first time.
Given the added bonus of a special way to make the deal public, it is a shame that I just cannot get on board with their feature. It really does stand out to me and when principal sponsors do that, unless it is justified with sublime branding, then, for me, it takes a lot away from the shirt design – no matter how hard I try to separate it!
2014 – 2015 – Neteller
The e-money brand and Palace only had a one year relationship, but Neteller received almost maximum exposure as the club agreed to let them announce Neil Warnock as their new manager via their own social accounts in August 2014.
The Eagles directed all of their followers over to Neteller’s socials with a post that read:
“The club's new manager will be announced at 1.05pm @NETELLER”
As for the appearance of their branding, there isn’t really anything to praise or moan about. It is simply the word ‘Neteller’ in either white or black. One thing that I will give it is that it was definitely more appealing than the betting brands which followed this.
2006 – 2014 – GAC
GAC, which stands for Gulf Agency Company, is a leading shipping and logistics brand. As per their website, the GAC story started in 1956 when Swedish entrepreneur Bengt Lindwall signed an agreement with two Kuwaiti businessmen.
Crystal Palace and GAC seemingly had a decent relationship that backed meaningful initiatives, as it was agreed that the World Food Programme logo would feature on the clubs shirt for their game against Huddersfield Town in December 2012 instead of GAC’s.
Before 2010/11, the branding was made up of the GAC logo and the word logistics underneath it. From 2010/11, they opted for the GAC logo with gac.com below it. This is a clever move marketing wise, as it leaves what they do fairly unobvious and it forces you to visit their website it if you want to know.
So, it can have one thumb up for the marketing technique and it can have another for the appearance. The switch to gac.com, for me, improved its feature tenfold.
2000 – 2006 – Churchill
Churchill is a British insurance company that was founded in 1989. Their feature for the first year of the partnership didn’t look quite right. It had a white background with purple text. The stick-on like feature also included their Bulldog mascot.
This was quickly improved though, as from 2001 until 2005, the feature had the same elements to it but the background was removed.
For the final year of the deal, the mascot got cut and the word insurance was added, meaning that the sponsorship simply read ‘Churchill Insurance’. Thankfully the background didn’t make a comeback.
I think the bulk of the deal, 2001 until 2005, was my favourite.
1999 – 2000 – Various
Due to going into administration, the club unfortunately didn’t have a mainstay shirt sponsor for this campaign. Instead, companies paid to feature on a match-by-match basis. Some that got involved are Turnstyles Football Barbers, Intersource and click4air.com.
1993 – 1999 – TDK
As per their website, TDK is a leading Japanese electronic components company operating more than 250 manufacturing, research and development, and sales sites in over 30 countries worldwide.
Their feature was ‘TDK’ with their logo to the left of it. As the emblem included wasn’t anything extravagant with all kinds of colours spoiling the shirt – I liked it. It was good.
1991 – 1993 – Tulip Computers
Tulip Computers is a Dutch company that unfortunately ceased operations in September 2009.
Their logo is simply the words Tulip Computers with a Tulip flower replacing the I and that is exactly what featured on the Palace shirts. I don’t think it was too bad and the design is a nice idea, but it wasn’t the greatest for a football shirt.
1988 – 1991 – Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is a British airline and its head office is in Crawley. Their feature was ‘Fly Virgin’ with the word Virgin on a slant and underlined. On the fourth shirt in 1990/91, they added ‘to L.A.’ for an extra bit of promotion. For the 1989/90 sash away strip, their branding featured where you would expect to see the manufacturers logo. All in all, it didn’t look too bad at all.
1987 – 1988 – Andrew Copeland
Andrew Copeland are insurance specialists in arranging property insurance both in the UK and Europe. With simply ‘Andrew Copeland’ on the front, it was a sound feature.
1986 – 1987 – AVR
Unfortunately, during my research I was unable to pinpoint what it was that AVR did. Their feature, though, was quite simply…simple!
On a more interesting note, on the 1986/87 sash strip, AVR’s branding was placed diagonally below the sash – it admittedly looked quite cool.
Like AVR, I sadly cannot find what it was that Top Score specialised in. Their branding on the shirts was blue and it was quite fitting really, as their away top for this campaign was yellow with blue details.
1983 – 1984 – Red Rose
Red Rose had the honours of being the clubs first ever shirt sponsor partner, but unfortunately there isn’t a great lot of information about them online. As far as shirt sponsor introductions go, this wasn’t at all a bad one.
Conclusion
Within recent history, Crystal Palace are really trying to sell their newly found founded date and are, understandably, very proud of it. They are also a club which has, so far, done extremely well in avoiding too many eye sore strips in terms of design.
However, to counteract that, Palace have had a steep amount of shirt sponsorships and, to be honest, a fair few of them aren’t too kind to the eye. Cinch is actually, probably, the best looking one – so here’s to hoping they have many years together!