Ipswich Town Shirt History
Ipswich Town are the only British club to have played in Europe and to have never lost a home game – they have defeated some European giants in their time too, including Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio and Barcelona. Let’s find out more about Ipswich through their shirts…
Ipswich Town Kit History - Printable Checklist
Ipswich Town Kit Manufactures History
2022 – present – Umbro
This isn’t the first time that Umbro have manufactured for the Tractor Boys with the pair having a relationship that can be tracked back to the 70’s.
In Umbro’s first collection of this era, Ipswich secured promotion to the Championship and they wore three fantastic jerseys to do so. The home strip was made up a of blue tonal pattern which was inspired by the architecture of the Cobbold Stand at Portman Road – a stand which is named after a family which formerly owned the club. The away top featured an uneven stripe graphic and this is because it pays homage to two Ipswich classics donned in the 90’s. To top off the 2022/23 season, a smart all-black stealth third kit was released which included a sleeve pattern inspired by Ed Sheeran’s ‘Equals’ album – the singer is a lifelong fan and current sponsor of the club.
The home and away jerseys released for the following campaign, which they achieved their historic long-awaited Premier League return while wearing, were both inspired by the 1999/00 collection, but it is the third strip which stole the headlines – it had a white base which was classily combined with black pinstripes and it was a modern remake of an away top worn from 1981 until 1984.
2014 – 2022 – Adidas
The first season of this eight-year spell with Adidas was pretty unoriginal with the three-stripe brand supplying a home kit to the East Anglian club which was practically a copy and paste job from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2014 home World Cup kit. However, something that was impressive from the 2014/15 campaign is the marketing of the orange away jersey – Frans Thijssen, a Dutchman who played for Ipswich in the 80’s and scored in the 1981 UEFA Cup final win over AZ Alkmaar, was spotted parading it.
Like Umbro, Adidas had previous with the Tractor Boys prior to this partnership and this was their second spell with the club. This fact was referred to within the 2015/16 home top with the blue and white pinstriped strip paying homage to an Adidas jersey released in 1981. The 2015/16 campaign also seen the birth to a Barcelona style away kit combining dark red and blue stripes – this was kept on for the following year as their third kit being worn alongside an Ipswich home top which involved three shades of blue through an eye-catching V on its chest.
The Barcelona stripes next returned in 2019/20 but this time the navy section was made up of small pinstripes. Again, this concept was kept on as their third kit for the following year, a season which commemorated 40 years since their victorious UEFA Cup campaign. For the first time since 1995, the home jersey for the 2020/21 season featured the historical club crest which was worn on the shirts on that famous night in Amsterdam when they lifted the UEFA Cup trophy – commemorative stitching was placed beneath it.
The final Adidas campaign of this era was the story of tonal pinstripes – the home top incorporated vertical ones, while the away displayed them in a horizontal format – both were a pleasant viewing.
2007 – 2014 – Mitre
The best work of this Mitre partnership arguably came in the first campaign through the home shirt which they wore until the end of the 2008/09 season. It had white pinstripes all over it, including on the sleeves, with an elegant 'ITFC’ stitching towards its lower trim. Mitre seemingly attempted to replicate it in 2011/12 with one slight change – they removed the pinstripes from the sleeves, making them plain blue.
It is the 2012/13 away jersey that probably takes the crown for the smartest Mitre alternate strip, although admittedly there isn’t much competition. It had a white base with grey and black features and the club crest was also altered to match.
Unfortunately, there aren’t too many more kits from Mitre’s spell with the club to write home about, although the partnership did have a decent ending through a sound 2013/14 home strip which included several red features.
1997 – 2007 – Punch
Unfortunately, Punch is a brand that is no longer operating, although their time with the Tractor Boys may be fondly remembered by supporters with a couple of fine jerseys coming from it.
Their first season produced three absolute classics starting with a central crest home jersey where the Punch branding was part of a showpiece neckline. The horse from the club crest also runs down the home tops sleeves, as it does on a smart, but minimal third kit. Completing a brilliant collection is a dark navy and white striped polo away top, which also incorporates red pinstripes.
The home top which replaced the aforementioned version from the previous paragraph in 1999/00 was also smart, albeit it was much more of a traditional polo look than the first.
Another fine alternate design was donned from 2002 until 2004, with its tonal maroon stripes and navy sleeves and collar combining well. It was replaced by a predominately orange shirt, which was also worn for two seasons, which had several Ipswich crests embossed into its background.
Here is one of the Punch shirts we've converted into a football shirt bucket hat!
1995 – 1997 – Core
Core only produced one Ipswich home jersey and they made sure that it would live long in the memory given its quite unique design – it’s lower trim and sleeve both begun in a solid white before phasing into a solid blue – this made for a couple of gradient sections. The away shirt was fairly different too, combining teal and maroon.
1989 – 1995 – Umbro
We mentioned earlier that Umbro had previous with the club prior to their current ongoing spell, but this still wasn’t the start of it. However, like during their current partnership, an Umbro collection saw Premier League promotion and this came in 1991/92. The home and third strip worn for that year were both in their third season, they were originally released for the 1989/90 campaign – albeit the orange third strip, which had a wavy tonal pattern, did act as the away kit for the first two of those.
The two home shirts which followed the aforementioned one had rather likeable features, with the 1992 – 1994 version including one of those old-school laced up necklines. The final one in 1994/95 had black pattern mixed into its blue base, almost tyre track like, although it actually shown up quite nicely.
This double diamond spell was also the home to the two previously mentioned red and black shirts, which were striped in different ways, that inspired the unevenly striped jersey from 2022/23 – both of them were impressive, but the 1993 – 1995 edition was particularly eye catching.
1977 – 1989 – Adidas
This Adidas era got off to a flying start with a historic collection emerging right away given the clubs on the pitch success in 1977/78 – they won their first, and to date, only FA Cup trophy after beating Arsenal 1-0 in the final. More football success followed in 1980/81, when Ipswich flexed their muscle in Europe by winning the UEFA Cup – this means that the minimal, but fantastic collection worn for that campaign is also one that is highly regarded.
After 1980/81, the Tractor Boys donned three pinstriped jerseys for three years, before switching to home and away concepts which consisted of a large red horizontal colour block on its front. White horizontal pinstripes joined the red colour block on the blue home shirt, while blue horizontal pinstripes paraded on the white away strip.
Ipswich also got three seasons wear out of the final Adidas collection and each of the jerseys featured the same, quite aesthetically pleasing, diagonal tonal stripe concept. In what was a landmark campaign, stitching was placed beneath the club crest throughout 1988/89 to celebrate their centenary year.
1975 – 1977 – Umbro
With two simple polo collared jerseys, current suppliers Umbro were the first brand to ever manufacture for the club.
Ipswich Town Shirt Sponsorship History
It is not often that you see a popular musician passionately become a club’s front of shirt sponsor, but here we are with Ipswich…let’s see who else features!
2021 – present – Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran, one of the worlds most famous singer songwriters, is the club’s current principle partner. You may be thinking that Ed Sheeran combining with Ipswich Town is a little bit random, but in actual fact he is a huge, lifelong Ipswich supporter.
The sponsor slot promotes the musicians ‘+–=÷× tour’, otherwise known as The Mathematics Tour, and to be fair, while some would say it looks a little random, it actually doesn’t look too bad.
As part of the deal, an ‘Ed Sheeran x Ipswich collaboration shirt’ was released as the clubs third kit for the 2022/23 season and it quickly became the clubs fastest selling shirt in their history. More than 11,000 were purchased within the first six weeks of its launch.
2020 – 2021 – Carers Trust
The underlined text-based feature of Carers Trust appeared for one campaign and it was actually a donated slot by The Rank Group.
Carers Trust is a charity that aims to transform the lives of unpaid carers through innovative programme work, influencing policy, undertaking research and providing specialist resources for professionals.
2018 – 2020 – Magical Vegas
Magical Vegas is an online casino site which is owned by The Rank Group, who were mentioned in the previous section.
All of the shirts from the first campaign, and the third strip from the second, paraded Magical Vegas’ colourful Vegas light branding. The home and away shirt in the second season featured toned down all-white versions – it admittedly looked much better like this.
2008 – 2018 – Marcus Evans Group
Marcus Evans bought Ipswich Town in December 2007 and his ‘multi-faceted media, corporate marketing and business intelligence company’ took the sponsorship slot for a decade.
The branding remained the same throughout the deal with a huge M appearing and blending in behind the brand name. Being honest, the readability wasn’t fantastic.
Marcus Evans sold the club in 2021.
2001 – 2008 – TXU Energi / Powergen / E-on
E-on, one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers, was originally founded as Powergen in 1989 and E-on’s recognisable all-text branding appeared for two seasons from 2006. It was a welcome change from an Ipswich point of view because Powergen’s branding wasn’t all that great.
However, this isn’t where this all started, with TXU Energi’s modest feature having the slot from 2001 until 2003. TXU Energi unfortunately ceased to exist in 2003 and Powergen took on their custom.
1995 – 2001 – Greene King
British pub and brewing company, Greene King, had a respectably lengthy stint with the Tractor Boys from 1995.
For the most part, their feature was simply text-based, but from 1996 until 1998 they opted to use the away shirt to promote their Abbot Ale.
1986 – 1996 – Fisons
Fisons headquartered out of Ipswich and they were a ‘British pharmaceutical, scientific instruments and horticultural chemicals company’.
1983 – 1986 – Radio Orwell
Radio Orwell was an independent local radio station which operated as part of Suffolk Group Radio.
1981 – 1983 – Pioneer
Pioneer were the first principle sponsors of Ipswich and they are a Japanese company which specialises in digital entertainment.
Conclusion
Umbro and Ipswich have a lengthy history together which seemingly spells success for both sides, especially since the introduction of Ed Sheeran from a sales perspective. Admittedly, the Tractor Boys have donned some bland shirts at times, but in the midst of those are some sought-after collectibles for retro lovers.