Shirt Tales & Short Stories: The Lost World of Football Kits

At last, a chance for football fans of a certain vintage to sigh nostalgically over the muddy magnificence of some proper footy kits. Many fans still harbour an unfading love for their clubs’ classic shirts, as sported by their childhood heroes. And - whisper it - even for some of their rivals’ timelessly classy (and less well-considered) gear. The Golden Age of Kits stretches from the 1960s round-collared cotton shirts via the bold new designs of the 1970s - enter the Admiral logo, Umbro diamonds and Adidas stripes - and selectively on through the 1980s. Remember Hummel testcard kits? There were even some crackers in the early days of the Premier League. Featuring a heartwarming selection of kits with great stories and memories attached - from design classics and big-match strips to striking curiosities and eye-boggling cock-ups - Shirt Tales & Shorts Stories will whisk you back to the lost world of football kits.

Derek Hammond has written about soccer and music for FourFourTwo, club programs, mirror.co.uk, and the NME. Gary Silke is editor of the Fox, one of the original and oldest soccer fanzines still in existence. The pair have provided soccer cards for BBC1’s Match of the Seventies/Eighties and the National Football Museum.