Top 10 Classic Admiral Football Kits Of Yesteryear (Photos)

Chris Wright

22nd, September 2016

8 Comments

After watching ‘Get Shirty‘ – a great little ITV documentary about Admiral’s rise from an obscure Midlands underwear outlet to one of the biggest names in sportswear – last night, we though it would be nice to doff our own ‘umble caps to their handiwork.

Indeed, to celebrate Admiral’s all-too brief run on top, Pies thought we’d herald their pioneering vision by whittling down our Top 10 favourite offerings.

Without further ado, lets take the plunge…

Glasgow Rangers, 1990-91

No ifs, no buts, and especially no coconuts. That’s just a damn fine looking football shirt, right there…

rangers-1990-admiral

Charlton Athletic (away), 1988

It may be leaden grey, but this shirt is positively bursting at the seams with demure 1980s style and poise…

charlton-89-away

Leeds, 1978

Positively reeks of the 1970s, mainly thanks to the presence of Don Revie’s “smiley” club crest gimmick…

leeds-admiral

Manchester United, 1975-79

Unending fields of red and a teeny, tiny little badge. By ‘eck, things were simpler back then…

man-utd-admiral-shirt

 

West Ham, 1979

Trevor Brooking draped in Admiral’s era-appropriate chevrons: a vision in claret and blue…

brooking-west-ham-admiral

Photo: Allsport UK/Getty Images

Wales, 1976-79

Likely to split the vote down the middle, but we definitely have a soft spot for this Wales kit in an ‘ugly duckling’ kind of way.

Maybe it’s the fact that the groundbreaking ‘Aertex’ perforations make it look like a giant red teabag…

wales-admiral-1976

Tottenham, 1978

The less said about the corresponding yellow away kit the better, but Spurs looked slick as you like at the Lane circa ’78…

tottenham-admiral

Coventry City, 1978-80

Coventry’s deeply alluring ‘sewage farm brown’ away kit has blossomed into a true British sporting institution, as has Ian Wallace’s magnificent halo of ginger fluff…

coventry-admiral-brown

Leicester City, 1983

While many Foxes fans prefer the ‘Walkers’ kit that came after it, we reckon Leicester’s pin-striped home strip from ’83 is one of the most handsome efforts of the era…

leicester-83-admiral

 

England, 1980-83

How could we not include this little pearler in the top spot? Admiral’s definitive design had England looking (at least in the literal sense) like world-beaters for a while…

Honourable mention: Manchester United’s gorgeous, rubbery-looking Admiral tracksuits from 1976…

man-utd-tracksuits

Photo via Got Not Got

When men were men and haircuts were haircuts.

And seriously, if you didn’t catch ‘Get Shirty‘ this week then hunt it down on whatever ITV’s version of the iPlayer is.

Take it from us, it’s well worth an hour of your time.

Posted in Featured, Kits & fashion, Retro, Top 10s & lists

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8 Comments

  1. Bootsy says:

    i want them. all of them. every single one

  2. Cute thing says:

    hi bootsy, every every every single one? hummmmm that’s nice, I like!
    you want my nice ass too? hummmmm bootsy bootsy boooootsy!!!
    kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

  3. rob says:

    I wonder who’s face she’s sitting on

  4. Rob says:

    smut aside, admiral were superb, the red England away from 78 was a beauty, as were all the Coventry kits

  5. Savage says:

    That ’78 Leeds top is brilliant. I still have that same 90’s Rangers top

  6. Pogba's no Drogba says:

    Love the picket fence in the background of the Man Utd tracky photo. That would have put those 70’s “hoolies” in their place.

    • Geraldo says:

      That picket fence – a feature of the Old Trafford ground for decades – was removed at the end of the 1975-76 season as it did not serve any purpose against the increasingly large number of hoolies frequenting football matches back then.

  7. Geraldo says:

    I would have gone for United’s iconic change strip from the mid to late 70s (the white one with four thin black vertical stripes down the left side) as opposed to the fairly nondescript red one. But anyway…

    I was lucky enough to see the documentary and was amazed to hear that the most sought after Admiral top these days is that brown Coventry one, with someone saying one of them appeared on EBay recently with a reserve of £500!!

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