England Football Shirt History

Fun fact – England played in the world’s first ever international football match back in 1872, making themselves, along with their opponents Scotland, the world’s oldest international football team. Let’s delve into which brands which have had the honours to manufacture for The Three Lions over the years…

Shop vintage England shirts here. 

England Shirt History Checklist

England Kit Manufacturer History

2013 – present – Nike 

The Football Association (FA) penned a fresh deal 12-year-deal with current kit supplier Nike in 2018, meaning that the pair should be in partnership together until at least 2030 – however, there has been a recent controversy with the Lionesses number one, Mary Earps, labelling the brand as "hugely disappointing and very hurtful” for not making the England goalkeeping jersey available for supporters to purchase. Since, the American brand has agreed to sell it in ‘limited quantities’.

The first Nike range released in 2013 paid tribute to 150 years of the FA and to commemorate the landmark a special golden feature, which read ‘1863 - 150 years - 2013’, was placed under the nation’s crest. A small split in the side of each of the shirts also featured an embossed St George’s flag. The home shirt was white with a navy crewneck neckline and the alternate top was an all-red polo. Here is the England 2013 away shirt. 

For on the pitch reasons, the 2014 collection is one to forget given it was released for the 2014 World Cup in South Africa, where England failed to make it out of the group stages for the first time since 1958. Despite this, there are a couple of noteworthy features, one of which is that the printing used on the shirt was a new font that renowned English typographer Neville Brody created. Another is Nike’s attempt to bend FIFA’s guidelines, which, at the time, stated nations should try and play in just one colour – this resulted in them supplying an alternate shirt which was made up of two tones of red and pinstriped in a way that portrayed an England flag in its centre. A similar feature later appeared on the England 2018-2020 away jersey. 

The 2020 range will no doubt fill England supporters with a bitter sweet feeling given it was worn throughout a memorable home Euro 2020 campaign which ultimately ended in a 2-1 defeat in the final against Italy at Wembley. The home shirt had a central crest, navy and red zig-zagged side panels and a crew neck collar which had the lion graphic from the nations crest patterned into it. The lion graphic seemed a theme, as the blue polo away top produced as part of this collection also had a tonal lion print embossed throughout its base.

For the 2022 World Cup, England reverted back to red for their alternate jersey and it was a relative success. Its most striking feature was the navy polo collar that was paired with it because it had a light blue pattern etched in. The Nike tick and the Three Lions crest were also shaded blue.

1984 – 2012 – Umbro

Umbro and the Football Association have a lengthy, historic relationship and you could say that the pairs separation is a piece of history in itself. Coincidentally, the concept behind Umbro was inspired after tailor, Harold Humphreys, attended the 1923 FA Cup final at Wembley. It was during his attendance that Humphreys realised the market potential of football.

The 90’s was probably Umbro’s peak decade with England, however that isn’t to say that the 80’s was a disappointment – it wasn’t! The tonally striped white home top worn from 1986 until 1988 and the diamond imprinted alternate kits released in 1988, which came in red and blue, are undoubtedly classics within their own right. However, despite the compliments to the 80’s, it is mostly the 90’s looks that those who have an affiliation to the nation sought to get their hands on to this day. 

One of the most popular jerseys that came from 90’s was actually released in the very first year of the decade, and that is the interesting, uniquely patterned sky blue third strip. The fan fondness is emphasised by the fact that supporters still crave owning it even though the actual team only worn it once – and that was in a 1-0 win over Turkey, respectively. Umbro attempted to create a succeeding sky-blue hit in 1992 with a special edition third kit which had three extremely visible lions draped across its chest on a slight angle.

The players shirts of this time feature embroidered Umbro logos and badges. In the later Umbro period the players shirts have fully embroidered badges rather than patch style ones. You can shop all our verified England player and match worn shirts here. 

In 1994, Umbro opted for an interesting neckline on the home shirt which featured an extra England crest in the centre of it. It also had more of the Three Lions’ crests tonally imprinted into its base, albeit they were overlapping. Despite its distinctive features, it is often overlooked and a reason for that could be because of the well-known beloved Euro 1996 range that followed it – which also coincides with the release of the popular David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds song ‘Footballs Coming Home’.

The away shirts released in 1994 and 1998 are probably like marmite and come down to your own individual taste with each of them being potentially overly patriotic, but, like the 1994 home top, the 1998 version of the primary shirt is also quite pleasant. It was pinstriped white and it had red and navy side panels, but its most intriguing features were that its navy and red polo collar had an England crest button and a small St. George’s flag stitched on.

The 2000 collection bid farewell to the old Wembley and the side wore a commemorative version of the away kit in a 1-0 defeat to Germany, but a perhaps a more iconic shirt came in 2002. England’s World Cup qualification was in the balance and their hopes of reaching the tournament looked like it was going to rest on winning a play-off against Ukraine as they trailed 2-1 to Greece at Old Trafford, but up-stepped David Beckham, wearing a Three Lions home jersey that had one red vertical stripe running through the crest area, to hammer home a magical free-kick in the 93rd minute.

It meant that England drew 2-2 and subsequently secured their place at the tournament, where they were eventually knocked out by the eventual winners Brazil in the Quarter Finals.

From 2004 until 2006 the collections were not necessarily disappointing, but they didn’t have many glaring talking points. The 2008 range which followed, however, did have a few interesting features. One was that the home shirt incorporated side panels that were seemingly inspired by the lions that are part of their crest and another was the elegant St. George’s flag printed on the back of its neck. Away, the country played in an equally as impressive red strip which had a navy/purple tone colour block running across its chest. The same colour also broke up the neckline with ‘England’ printed in it.

A memorable shirt which celebrates cultural diversity across the nation came in 2011 and it was worn away from home. Its base was completely blacked out and it was inspired by Peter Saville’s ‘Modern England’ message. It was coupled with a sky-blue collar made up of interlocking crosses which represented the flag of St. George.

1974 – 1982 – Admiral 

For the first six years with Admiral, England played in two simple polo necked jerseys that followed the same design concept. Each of the shirts had hooped sleeve cuffs and a colour block, which combined the same two colours that appeared in the cuffs, ran up the sleeves, across the shoulders and around the lower trim of the collar. The home shirt was white with navy and red detailing, while the away jersey combined the same colours but with a red base. 

The two strips that Admiral released after this remained in place until the end of the partnership and they are still highly popular amongst fans of the national team today. From the chest to their shoulders, both shirts interchange with horizontal stripes of different sizes – from bottom to top, the colouring running order of the stripes was blue, to white, to red and back to blue. One of the tournaments that these designs were produced for is the 1982 World Cup and interestingly the Admiral logo was absent for the first game against France. Nevertheless, it returned after that game for the remainder of the tournament.

1966 – 1973 – Umbro

From the late 60’s until the early 70’s, England enjoyed another spell with Umbro and although the shirts from this period are fairly bland, the football certainly wasn’t. 

Donning an Umbro manufactured jersey in 1966, England lifted the World Cup trophy for the first, and to date only, time. The squad made up of the likes of Bobby Moore, Sir Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks, Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt defeated West Germany in the final which was played at Wembley. Historic. 

1962 – 1965 – Bukta

Bukta is an English brand which was founded in 1879 in Stockport. Some of the country’s biggest clubs have donned Bukta manufactured jerseys, including Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. 

1954 – 1961 – Umbro

This was the start of the Three Lions’ lengthy relationship with the double diamond brand that was founded in Wilmslow in 1924. 

1930 – 1953 – St. Blaize and Hope Brothers

St. Blaize and Hope Brothers are two separate brands that shared the shirt supplying responsibility for a period of time. 

The former, St. Blaize, is believed to have provided the national team with their first ever away shirt, while the latter, Hope Brothers, supposedly supplied England with their very first short sleeved jersey. 

Conclusion 

The final few sections are more ‘brand breakdowns’ rather than jersey description because during that period of time minimal national team jerseys were common – it is quite a contrast to today, where brands and football associations are allowed to work together to portray a nations personality and culture. 

Umbro is the standout supplier of England’s history so far, but, although Nike haven’t perhaps reached the heights of the double diamond brand just yet, they do have time on their side and a potential golden era of English football to supply for.