Coinciding with the opening of a new city centre branch of the ‘Tiger Leisure’ club shop (in St. Stephen‘s shopping centre), the 2023/24 Hull City third kit was revealed on 14th July. Shoppers could see, but not buy, the new kit which adorned a mannequin at the front of the store.

The bespoke design by Kappa Türkiye is essentially all-blue with amber trim, the shirt has an overlapping V-neck with asymmetric trim, with an amber panel covering part of the otherwise self coloured neckline on the left side (as worn).

Neckline aside, the shirt shares a construction with the home shirts, the appearance of Raglan sleeves is created by the back panel and collar band extending over the shoulder where they are stitched to both the front body panel and sleeves that are set-in. Under those sleeves, stretchy side panels offer a range of movement while maintaining a good fit.

As on the home shirt, an amber panel finishes the front hem, and similar panels were split on each sleeve hem, this is a feature that appears on many Kappa 2023/24 shirts, such as those belonging to Monaco, Fiorentina, Genoa and Bari. As is Kappa’s wont, their Omini logo appears high on each sleeve, in addition to the logo opposite the club crest. Each of the Ominis is applied in solid amber vinyl, and the mark of main sponsor Corendon Airlines, ‘THE TIGERS’ sign off on the back of the collar band, and the standard EFL typeface for names and numbers are also applied in amber.

The tone of is believed to have changed between initial design and production. Concept artwork shown to supporters by owner Acun Ilıcalı depicted a much darker, almost navy kit, but a lighter tone was ultimately used, reportedly after the owner saw a supporter wearing one of the club’s light blue change shirts from years past. This shade of blue is somewhere between an Azure Blue and an Ultramarine Blue, and has more resonance with both the club and the city than navy.

The city of Hull’s coat of arms since the 1400s is a shield (escutcheon) in Azure blue with three ducal coronets (crowns) in Pale Or (gold), and in an attempt to reproduce this tone, Hull City wore Ultramarine blue shirts bearing the three crowns shield as part of their primary kit for the 1935/36 season, evidently a sartorial tip of the hat to our fair city by the Humber.

The Tigers wore blue at home again just over a decade later, in 1946/47, but unlike the Ultramarine blue shirts, this time it wasn’t by choice, but by necessity. With post-war austerity measures making certain dyes unavailable, the Tigers found a local solution for the first Football League campaign since the 1939/40 season was abandoned after three games.

Ultramarine blue dye was synthesised locally by Reckitt and Sons, whose successor company Reckitt Benckiser is known for brands such as Lemsip and Dettol, but back then it was their laundry blues, cleaning agents made from Ultramarine pigments and baking soda, that they were known for. Reckitt’s dyes were used to produce light blue shirts worn with white shorts and black stockings, and this was Hull City’s look in their first season at Boothferry Park, before amber and black made a comeback in 1947, albeit sans vertical stripes on the shirts.

Royal blue was used as a ‘keeper jersey colour in the mid-1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and Pelada’s mid-1993 to 1995 change shirt was jade, as much green as blue, but blue outfield shirts weren’t used again until the club’s 100th year. In conversation with the Fans Liaison Committee in late 2003, chairman Adam Pearson spoke of kit plans to mark the centenary year.

Pearson had favoured plain amber home shirts for the first few years of his tenure, but he finally gave in to requests for striped shirts for the centennial in 2004/05, and an effort was made to replicate the width of stripes on the shirts that inspired the nickname of the Tigers in the 1900s. For the away kit is was decided that light blue shirts would pay homage to that first season at Boothferry Park, and that both Diadora branded kits would feature an amended crest with 1904-2004 embroidered on the banner that normally said ‘The Tigers’.

Ostensibly a one-season affair, the use of blue as a change tone has become a quasi-regular occurrence. The Centenary away kit was used for two additional seasons, with a fresh batch with regular club crests being used as third kits in 2005/06 and 2006/07. Since then a variety of blue hues have been used:

Fusion Blue in 2009/10 (Umbro), Argentina Blue in 2011/12 and 2012/13 (adidas), Royal Blue in 2013/14 (adidas), Azure Blue was used for the third kit shorts and trim in 2014/15 (Umbro), 2015/16’s third was Blueprint and Scuba Blue (Umbro), a Navy Peony third in 2017/18 (Umbro) showed how well amber trim goes with strong blues, Medieval Blue shorts and trim complemented the bluish-green of the Deep Lagoon third in 2019/20 (Umbro), and most recently Ibiza Blue was used for the shirt yoke and shorts on the 2020/21 tertiary look (Umbro).

The Kappa third kit was given a debut in the friendly at Grimsby the day after launch, an unconventional game played over two hours with four thirty minute quarters. I wonder which player was named starting Quarterback.

The extended game did allow eyeballs to dwell on the kit longer than normal, and frankly it looks magnificent. I’m a white-as-preferred-change-kit type but I do like referencing the civic colours on rotation, and now that third kits have become a standard thing there’s scope for both types of alternate kits in a season.

However accidental, the shade of blue strongly resembles the main colour of the city’s coat of arms, and substituting ‘gold’ with the club colour of amber offers the best of both worlds, club and civic identity respected in one neat package. I was asked if I’d have preferred some trim in a third colour such as black, but I think it looks great in just two colours, especially since we’re using the same amber numbers ordered for the home shirts.

I can’t speak to the quality of the fabric or garment in general, but from a purely aesthetic approach Kappa score highly with their first ever Hull City third kit.