Tiger Rags book – Features
Tiger Rags book – Primary kits (This page)
Tiger Rags book – Change kits
Tiger Rags book – Third kits

1904-07 Primary

On the 23rd of June 1904, the East Riding of Yorkshire Football Association met at the Manchester Hotel on George Street for their annual general meeting. Top of their agenda was the establishment of a ‘class’ team in the city, and thus Hull City AFC were born.

Local advertising man Ernest Morison was one of the 16 founding directors and is credited with deciding the club colours. They were announced in the Hull Daily Mail 8 days before the first game: “The Hull City team, we are informed, have decided to play in black and amber vertical striped shirts.”

‘Shirts’ was an apt description for the main kit element at the time, cut as they were like dress shirts with stiff turn-over collars and button-down plackets that runs from neck to mid-torso. A change to the laws of the game in 1904 permitted “knickerbockers” to finish above the knee, those worn by City would be black, as would the “stockings”.

A photograph taken before City’s first official game against Notts County on 1st September 1904 features the Lord Mayor William Jarman, who performed the ceremonial kick off, and a team apparently clad in all-black. Photographic plates of the time rendered colours in the yellow to red range relatively dark, so the contrasting stripes of amber and black are indistinguishable.

City’s colours inspired Hull Daily Mail correspondent ‘Athleo’ to offer a nickname for consideration in March 1905: “Why should not the wearers of the yellow and black stripes be ‘The Tigers’?” he asked, and the nickname stuck.

After a season of friendly games (and their first dalliance with the FA Cup), The Tigers were elected to the Football League and would compete in the newly expanded Second Division in 1905/06. They finished in a respectable 5th place.

A slight sartorial update was noted in the local press after the first game of 1906/07, a 1-1 draw away to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Wolves wore white shirts that day, satisfying the custom of the time for the home side to change in the event of a colour clash.

The Mail noted that City were “adorned in new shirts, and as these are not as baggy as last season’s samples, the men look much smarter on the field.” As well as being more form fitting, the updated shirts appeared to have horizontal stripes on the yoke panels, a feature not evident on earlier versions.

1907-13 Primary

After three seasons in ‘shirts’, which fastened at the front with buttons on plackets and had turn-over collars, the Tigers made the switch to ‘jerseys’, which are pull-overs, have an amber central stripe and feature round edged standing collars with a drawstring. This neck style was in vogue in the English game, having been adopted by prominent clubs such as Everton, Aston Villa and Newcastle United, all recent FA Cup-finalists.

The first real kit change in club history was heralded by the Tigers’ first kit launch: The new amber and black striped jerseys were displayed in the shop window of suppliers Ward and Abercrombie in the summer of 1907.

A local press report said the tailors, of 2-3 Silver Street in Hull, “obtained the order after facing keen competition, including that of well-known London houses”. Describing the new kit, the report added “The jerseys are knitted, and the whole outfit looks exceptionally neat and well made.”

It is likely that the club only issued jerseys to players, who were expected to supply their own knickerbockers and stockings. As a result, there was no hosiery uniformity, players wore a variety of styles, even in team photos: some players have ‘self-coloured’ socks, others have stockings with hoops of various colours and widths on the fold-over bands.

City recorded consecutive higher league table finishes for the first three years of this kit’s use, eighth in 1907/08, fourth in 1908/09 and 3rd in 1909/10 when they equalled the points tally of Second Division runners-up Oldham Athletic, missing out on promotion to the top division on goal average.

Readily identifiable only by their flat caps and perhaps gloves, goalkeepers wore the same jerseys as the outfield players until 1909, when the Football League decreed that the men between the sticks should wear distinctive jerseys, and offered a choice of red, blue or white, with green being added a few years later.

City recorded their deepest FA Cup run to date in 1910/11, losing to Newcastle in the Third Round after beating Bristol Rovers and Oldham. They finished 5th in the league that year and moved further away from promotion contention in subsequent campaigns, ending 1911/12 in 7th place, and the 1912/13 season 12th out of 20 Division Two clubs. This prompted the resignation of manager Ambrose Langley, who had been in charge since election to the Football League in 1905.

1913-15 Primary

There was a summer of change at the Anlaby Road ground in 1913: after eight seasons in charge Ambrose Langley hung up his manager’s straw boater hat, to be replaced by Harry Chapman.

A number of tenured players also left the club, including the iconic EDG Wright. The former Corinthian Casual, 1912 Olympics Gold medallist and Tigers captain since 1906 announced his retirement from the game and plans to become a mining engineer in South Africa.

Among the new players brought in was the Irish centre-forward Billy Halligan, who cost £600 from Wolves, and the local press noted that new training methods and new tactics were being used. There was a new kit too.

Smart new jerseys feature a high crew-neck in black, and stripes that were slightly thicker than those of the now retired drawstring collar shirts. The stripe order changed too, with the central band being black, as was the cuffs of the sleeves. Black shorts and socks completed the kit.

City started 1913/14 in style, by the end of the year the Tigers were top of the Second Division. But 1914 proved an annus horribilis for the club: a dramatic loss of form saw a slide down the table and an eventual 7th place finish. In April a fire destroyed the grandstand of the Anlaby Road ground, the much-loved Paddy O’ Connell was sold to Manchester United and Harry Chapman’s managerial career was ended by ill health.

On the fourth of August 1914, Great Britain entered what is now termed World War One. Despite this, and the cancellation of the 1914 Charity Shield match, the Football League elected to go ahead with the 1914/15 season, a decision that drew great criticism. Among the critics was ‘Sherlock Holmes’ author Arthur Conan Doyle, who proclaimed that “there was a time for everything, but there is only time for one thing now, and that thing is war… If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle.”

Many teams lost players to wartime service, but the 1914/15 campaign was completed and under Fred Stringer City matched their previous season’s finish of 7th in Division Two. The Football League finally bowed to pressure, cancelling the 1915/16 season, and there would be no more League sanctioned competition until after the war, meaning the fetching high crew-neck shirts had just two years of use.

The Football League and FA Cup were suspended until after the First World War.

1919-1921 Primary

Though competitive football under the auspices of the Football League was suspended between 1915 and 1919, four regional leagues were set up, and the Tigers were involved in the Midland Section’s Principal and Secondary competitions.

Fred Stringer, City’s boss for the last official campaign before the War, resigned in July 1916 to serve with the newly formed Royal Defence Corps. His replacement was the trainer David Menzies, who became secretary-manager of the Tigers for three regional league seasons and was at the helm when Football League operations resumed in September 1919.

The ‘mock turtle-neck’ jerseys worn before the Great War were gone, and in their place were drawstring neck jerseys, similar to those used between 1907-1913, though the stripes seemed a touch wider.

The 1919/20 squad photograph shows there was a degree of variety on shirts that were, to all intents and purposes, uniform. Most have an amber central stripe but on a few the point of the V-cut neckline is right between amber and black stripes. Plain black ‘knickers’ look uniform enough, and though most players are wearing black ‘stockings’ with two thick amber bands on the cuff, not everyone photographed had these.

The 1920/21 group image featured 22 outfield players, compared to thirteen the previous year, so naturally there was more unintended irregularity. The variation in tone suggests that different batches of shirts procured at different times are being used, and oft-washed cotton jerseys are prone to dye-loss. While the drawstrings of most shirts pull together amber stripes and black stripes, some had a black central stripe. There is a plurality of sock styles too, many are plain black, others have just one contrast stripe on each cuff, and one pair with two cuff bands is visible.

The Football League gained four new teams in 1919, as Coventry City, South Shields, Rotherham County and West Ham joined the Second Division. City finished 1919/20 in eleventh place, with Sammy Stevens disregarding the League’s four-year hiatus to complete a hat-trick of seasons as top scorer for the Tigers with 20 goals.

There was further expansion in 1920/21, with the formation of a 22 team Third Division consisting mostly of ex-Southern League clubs. In December 1920, the cartoonist Ern Shaw sketched the Tigers wearing white change shirts after loaning visitors Wolves their primary jerseys, sadly the team in black and amber won! City ended the season 13th in the Second Division.

1921-1934 Primary

The 24th of September 1921 edition of the ‘Sporting Chronicle’ noted that “Hull City were granted permission to change their colours to white and black”, a look the Tigers sported already when they changed for clash avoidance. Curiously, neither the Hull Daily News nor the Hull Daily Mail reported this proposed switch.

There was indeed a significant kit change for 1921/22, but it didn’t involve new jerseys. Instead, it related to the ‘knickers’, which were black for the club’s first 17 years, with white shorts becoming the norm for over a decade. A less heralded change was stocking uniformity: all players now wore matching socks, black with two thick amber stripes on the cuffs, except for the 1922/23 season when black socks had solid amber cuffs.

Local press adverts for the Asbestos and Rubber Co. noted that “Hull City AFC have placed their order with us for jerseys, knickers, ‘Hotspur’ boots and ‘Pill’ footballs”, with no mention of socks. The jerseys though, did not discernibly change, most had the V-cut necklines splitting an amber central stripe.

A Northern section of the Third Division was created in 1921, and in this era of white shorted Tigers the club would be relegated for the first time but also celebrate a first promotion campaign.

Harold Lewis replaced David Menzies as secretary-manager, and in his first season the Tigers finished 5th, but his departure in January 1923 went largely unnoted, in stark contrast to the appointment of famed Irish international and Newcastle defender Bill McCracken, who arrived with much fanfare.

High hopes for promotion were routinely dashed in the Twenties by mid-table finishes. The decade spanning 1929/30 campaign was a roller-coaster of emotions, as City embarked on their finest FA Cup run to date, besting Plymouth, Blackpool, Manchester City and Newcastle to reach the Semi-Finals. They faced Arsenal at Elland Road, matching them 2-2, before bowing out in a fiercely contested replay at Villa Park, losing 1-0. This disappointment was compounded five weeks later when the Tigers dropped out of the Second Division.

McCracken left a year later, and Hadyn Green filled the void. Record setting centre forward Bill McNaughton plundered 41 goals as Green led the Tigers to promotion as 1932/33 Third Division North champions, a feat celebrated by another advert for Asbestos which read: “WE SUPPLIED HULL CITY WITH EVERYTHING – JERSEYS, KNICKERS, STOCKINGS, BOOTS, FOOTBALLS AND TRAINING GEAR.” Maybe their socks made the difference.

1934/35 & 1936-1939 Primary

If we define a ‘jersey’ as a piece of clothing with no fasteners that is pulled over the head, and a ‘shirt’ as a garment characterised by a turn-over collar and a button-fastened vertical opening, then Hull City had favoured jerseys since 1907, when they replaced shirts worn since their inception in 1904.

Shirts returned in 1934, soon after club captain Jack Hill succeeded Hadyn Green as manager. Structured like a dress shirt, these were made of heavy cotton twill, and featured collars attached to three button pop-over plackets with square ends, and yoke panels across the shoulders. Vertically striped, there was considerable variation as some shirts had amber plackets whereas others had black, and how the collar stripes lined up varied greatly.

For 1934/35, the shirts were worn with white knickers and black stockings with a single amber cuff band. Under Hill, the Tigers inhabited the drop zone in the first half of the season, but an improved second half led to a 13th place finish.

The shirts were mothballed for the 1935/36 campaign, when City wore blue shirts and socks with white shorts, but relegation prompted a rethink. Reporting on the shareholders meeting in April 1936, the Hull Daily Mail noted “A suggestion was made that the club should revert to its old colours of black and amber”.

Four months later, the reporter ‘Veritas’ covered a ‘Stripes v. Whites’ trial game between potential signings and established players, stating “The Stripes played in the club’s restored and popular colours of amber and black”. The 1934 shirts had been taken out of storage, and were now paired with black shorts and black socks that had amber fold-over cuffs so long the colour proportions looked half and half.

The returning Dave Menzies was in charge when 1936/37 began, but tragically he died of a heart attack in the October. Ernest Blackburn was prised away from Wrexham in January 1937, and the Tigers finished 5th in the Third Division North. A promotion push in 1937/38 was ended by defeat to eventual champions Tranmere in the penultimate game, and City recorded a 7th place finish in 1938/39, the season they beat Carlisle 11-1, which is still the club’s record win.

The Tigers played just two games of the 1939/40 season, the second a day after Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany to start the Second World War, before all Football League competition was abandoned.

The Football League and FA Cup were suspended until after the Second World War, with the FA Cup resuming in 1945/46 (Hull City did not take part) and the full Football League programme resuming for 1946/47.

1935/36 Primary

For the first three decades of their existence, the biggest change Hull City had made to their primary kit was the switch from black ‘knickers’ to white in 1921, but that was merely a tweak compared to the revolutionary change made ahead of the 1935/36 campaign.

On Saturday 25th of May 1935, the Hull Daily Mail proclaimed: “Hull City’s players will be seen in new colours next season. The familiar amber and black uniform which has been associated with the club since its formation is to give way to blue shirts, with white collars and cuffs, white knickers and blue stockings. On the breast of the shirt will be a badge showing the coat of arms (‘Three Crowns’) of the city.“

Whether this was a superstitious move made in the hope of positively affecting on-field fortunes, or an attempt to be more aligned with the city of Hull’s colours and iconography went unreported, but gone was the look that inspired the ‘Tigers’ nickname.

Local sports journalist Harry Comley, who went by the nom-de-plume ‘Veritas’, wrote that “Supporters have been speculating on the description to be applied to the team in the future. ‘True Blues’, ‘Blue Jackets’, ’Jack Tars’ (sailors) and ‘Pansies’ are among others I have heard suggested.” He later confirmed “the tone of blue to be favoured by Hull City in their change of colours next season is Royal blue, which I believe is this year’s most fashionable shade.”  

The addition of the ‘Three Crowns’, or stacked ducal coronets in pale or (gold) on a field of azure (blue) in heraldic terms, made the shirts the first in club history to be adorned with a badge or crest. Long white shorts matched the wide point collars of the shirts, which had self-coloured single button plackets, and the kit was completed with rather fetching blue and white hooped stockings.

It was a good-looking kit, but the Tigers endured some heavy defeats wearing it, Doncaster Rovers beat us 6-1 at Belle Vue and Sheffield United triumphed 7-0 at Bramall Lane. Manager Jack Hill stepped down, but the returning David Menzies could not stop the rot, and City were relegated from Division Two.

Unsurprisingly, the blue garb was jettisoned after just one season, and amber and black returned. Not everyone got the memo though, as several Tigers wore the blue and white hooped hose with black and amber striped shirts for the 1936/37 team photo.

1946/47 Primary

Frustrated in his attempts to create a brand-new Football League team (the inelegantly named Kingston upon Hull AFC), local construction aggregate magnate Harold Needler instead turned his eye to the hibernating Hull City.

The Tigers had played regional wartime games from 1939 to 1945 (mostly using the Boulevard as a home since the Anlaby Road Ground was ‘bombed out’, although one ‘home’ fixture was played at York’s Bootham Crescent) but were mothballed for 1945/46 as running costs proved prohibitive. They were however, brought out of dormancy in time for the resumption of League operations, 1946/47 was the first national campaign played after World War Two.

Needler had intended for his team to play in orange shirts, white shorts and orange socks all trimmed with royal blue, but with certain dyes still subject to rationing, the Board of Trade refused to release the needed pigments, and a compromise was needed. Blue dyes were easily obtainable, as they were made locally by Reckitts, so City played their first season back in Division Three North in light blue shirts, white shorts and black socks.

Despite this, City’s programmes for 1946/47, the first season at Boothferry Park, had cover artwork depicting a gleeful player clad in orange, white and blue.

The construction of Boothferry Park had first been mooted in 1929, but financial difficulties and then the outbreak of war delayed City’s move from the Anlaby Road Ground. Originally envisaged as an 80,000-capacity stadium (with every spectator under cover) served by an adjacent train station, post-war scarcity of materials forced a scaling down of plans.

Only the centre section of the North Stand was covered initially, and the south end of the ground was just open terracing with a steep drop behind it, ‘Bunkers Hill’ would not become a covered stand until 1965. The railway halt happened sooner though, opening in early 1951.

Harold Needler called the 31st of August 1946 a ‘red-letter day’, when 25,586 spectators filed into City’s new ground to witness the start of a new era, sadly they saw no goals as the Tigers were held 0-0 by Lincoln. It took the Tigers nine attempts to record a win in 1946/47, the first came at Tranmere in October (3-1) and was immediately followed by a first Boothferry Park league victory, goals from Lester and Chadwick sealed a 2-1 win over Darlington. City finished the season in 11th place.

1947-1955 Primary

Amber and black was back! Having played the first post-war league campaign (and Boothferry Park’s inaugural season) in light blue primary shirts, Hull City made the welcome decision to reinstate their familiar colours in the summer of 1947. The Tigers though, had lost their stripes.

The shirt style that inspired the club’s nickname, in use for all but one of City’s first 18 Football League seasons, fell out of favour. The new look of solid amber shirts with black trim would be the standard for over a decade.

First used in 1947/48, the new kit became ineluctably associated with former England international Horatio Stratton Carter, better known as Raich, who joined City as player-manager late that season. It consisted of a thick cotton drill jersey in amber (with black turn-over collars attached to a button holding placket) and long black shorts. Plain amber stockings were used mostly, but natty hooped socks featured in 1947/48 and appeared on programme cover illustrations for both that year and the 1948/49 season.

A tiger-head crest adorned City shirts for the first time in 1947, and the rather skinny looking tiger would appear intermittently on kits until the late 1970s when it was redrawn to look more realistic. Sometimes the tiger-head appeared on a plain amber square sewn-on to the jersey, other times it was encased in a black outlined shield.

A Raich Carter inspired City won the Division Three North title in 1948/49, a season in which games at Boothferry Park averaged crowds of over 36,000. The visit of Manchester United for an FA Cup Quarter-Final tie drew 55,019 spectators, a record attendance for a Tigers game that still stands. City acquitted themselves reasonably well in Division Two, finishing 7th in 1949/50 and 10th in 1950/51, but fortunes declined after Raich’s departure in September 1951.

In the latter part of this design’s seven-year lifespan, a shiny, silky looking version of the shirt was occasionally used, most likely in floodlit matches; Boothferry Park’s first broad-beam lamps were installed early in 1953 and illuminated several friendlies beginning with a Monday night game against Dundee in the January.

This kit will forever be ‘The Raich Carter kit’. The man nicknamed ‘The Maestro’ by his peers passed away in October 1994, and in a fitting tribute the club styled the 1995-97 home kit on the one he wore while orchestrating City’s 1948/49 promotion season.

1955-1962 Primary

Confident of its own superiority, British football maintained an insular approach until the 1950s, eschewing World Cups and European club competitions alike. When England were humbled by the Hungarians in 1953 though, the 6-3 defeat at Wembley sent a shockwave of insecurity through the game in the ‘Home Nations’ that saw everything from tactics to kit design reconsidered.

At the start of the Fifties, teams wore kits that were essentially the same as those used before World War Two: heavy drill cotton jerseys, long baggy shorts and thick woollen stockings. As British sides took their first tentative steps in the European Cup and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, they encountered opponents clad in lightweight kits made of synthetic fibres.

The fashion soon spread to these shores: Manchester United made the switch in September 1955, the Tigers played at least part of the 1955/56 season in new look kit and by 1957 nearly all Football League clubs wore what were advertised as ‘continental’ playing kits.

Made by Umbro, the modernised kit dispenses with plackets and turn-over collars on the shirts, instead using a simple V-neck design with black collar and cuffs providing contrast on the amber strip. Over the heart is a sewn-on square featuring the skinny tiger-head crest first used in the Forties.

The shorts are more faithful to that description, with material cut down significantly from the baggy pants they replaced, the socks are made of Nylon, which unlike wool didn’t become heavier when wet and is both shrink-proof and colour fast. The socks used most with this kit had long amber fold-over bands over black legs, but for 1960/61 and 1961/62, hooped hose were worn. 

City endured bitter failure and toasted sweet success in this kit. In 1955/56 the Tigers propped up Division Two, falling through the relegation trapdoor to join Division Three North. The lower divisions were de-regionalised after 1957/58 and Division Four was created, City avoided the ignominy of that level courtesy of a 5th place finish in Division Three North’s final year.

1958/59 was a more successful campaign, 19 home wins helped City secure runners-up spot and promotion back to the second tier. That triumph was short lived however, and a 23rd place finish to 1959/60 meant an immediate divisional descent. City exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle that year, losing 5-0 at Fulham wearing white shorts and socks with the home shirt.

1962/63 Primary

After fifteen seasons of sartorial stability, in which City wore just two shirt styles between the start of 1947/48 and the end of 1961/62, the Tigers went through a period of rapid kit cycling, starting with a kit used for just one campaign. Black and amber stripes, the shirt style most commonly associated with Hull City and the look that informed the club’s nickname, made an auspicious comeback in Summer of 1962, having not been seen on a City home shirt in league action since before World War Two.

That shirt style had still been visible in the Football League however: Port Vale rocked black and amber stripes from 1958, though at the end of 1962/63, the side from Stoke-On-Trent switched to white shirts, handing back ‘ownership’ of the look to the Tigers.

City’s new shirts had striped V-neck panels that were not cut uniformly, so some were amber sandwiched between black stripes, but other panels have two black stripes and two amber stripes, with a whole spectrum of cuts in between.

The shirt body stripes are quite thin, with the central stripe always amber, creating an average ratio of five amber stripes and six black stripes on the front panel. the stripes extended to the arms, ended by striped cuffs (on both short and long-sleeved shirts) that like the collar panels lacked uniformity. On the reverse of the shirts, numbers are added in black on sewn-on amber panels.

Completing the kit were plain black elasticated waist shorts and fetching black and amber hooped stockings, as used in the season before.

The 1962/63 campaign was ravaged by the coldest winter on record since 1895. After City’s 2-1 home defeat to Southend on the 29th of December 1962, they didn’t play at home again for 52 days, hosting Orient in an FA Cup Third Round replay on 19th of February 1963 (after a 1-1 draw at Brisbane Road). The enforced winter break meant for a gruelling end of season run of fixtures: City played 7 league games in the months of March, April and May.

48 points were gleaned via 19 wins and 10 draws, but 17 defeats meant City ended the season ten points off automatic promotion, 10th in Division Three. In an era when teams usually changed kits with the frequency of general elections, it was odd that this ensemble lasted just one season, but greater change was afoot…

1963/64 Primary

We now live in an age where home kits change every season for commercial reasons, as clubs chase replica shirt revenue. Yet still, the notion of wearing TWO distinct home shirts in a single campaign is out of the ordinary. That, however, was the case for the 1963/64.

Having lost their stripes post-War, the Tigers reintroduced the shirt style that inspired the big cat nickname for 1962/63. Then, as if to redress the balance after sixteen consecutive campaigns with shirts that were a solid tone save for contrast collars and cuffs, City used two sets of striped shirts as they looked to build upon a 10th place Third Division finish.

The season began with three draws, and with City dressed in shirts that had black and amber banded V-necks and cuffs essentially the same as on the jerseys from the previous season. What differed was the width of the stripes, these were thicker, and the positioning, the central stripe was now black. Shirt numbers were again black, appearing on a sewn-on amber patch.

The ensemble is completed by plain black shorts and amber socks that have black fold-over bands split by two amber hoops.

City ended 1963 in 11th place in the league and in the Third Round of the FA Cup after besting Crewe (after a replay) and Wrexham. The next time the Tigers played, in the cup against reigning English champions Everton at home on January fourth, 1964, they were wearing new shirts.

Again, the collar piece and cuffs are the same, but the stripes were no longer uniform in width. There was much more amber as the black stripes were much slimmer, starting either side of the point of the V-neck. No reason for the mid-season change in shirts was noted in match-day programmes, though the old set still got some use, being passed to the reserve team (who were still using them in 1965). The shorts and socks were unchanged from the first half of the season.

The Everton game ended 1-1, necessitating a replay that was lost 2-1 at Goodison Park. In the league City finished two places higher in eighth, despite winning three less games than in 1962/63. Stand out results were a 2-1 win over eventual division winners Coventry, and 4-1 victories against Port Vale, Crewe and Notts County. Chris Chilton was the club’s top scorer for a second time with 24 goals.

1964/65 Primary

The use of amber shorts away from home became an established practice in the 21st century following a kit clash at Darlington in October 2001, a practice that remained until 2023, when the EFL effectively outlawed alternate shorts. The Tigers though, neatly side-stepped the rule change by introducing an all-amber change kit, allowing for our traditional colours to be worn away even when the hosts have dark shorts. As alternates, or part of a change kit, amber shorts have proven popular.

However, when City were compelled to use amber shorts at home in March 2011/12 (as Southampton brought only black shorts), they drew murmurs of disapproval. The shared opinion that amber shorts away = good, but amber shorts at home = bad, reflected a sentiment held towards the home kit used in 1964/65, the only season in which the Tigers regularly wore amber shorts at home.

For amber shorts to work from an aesthetic standpoint there needs to be enough black in the kit for the amber to ‘pop’, to remain tonally strong. Too little black and the lack of contrast can make the solid block of amber seem insipid, and such a washed-out look may account for the poor regard the 1964/65 home kit was held in.

It was disparagingly dubbed ‘the banana kit’ and dispensed with after just one season (in an era when kits changed less often than governments). What a shame, the shirt could have been considered part of a classic kit if paired with the regular black shorts.

The shirt features two contrast bands across the chest and back, a style popularised by West Ham’s early 1960s away strip. The bands are replicated in miniaturised form on the round collar and sleeve cuffs and the socks also have two black hoops, at shin level.

The Tigers recorded some impressive results wearing this kit, thrashing Barnsley 7-0 and Colchester 5-1 at Boothferry Park. The latter win was part of a 15-match unbeaten run that stretched from mid-December 1964 into March 1965. City ended the season fourth in Division Three, with Cliff Britton’s men missing out on promotion by just one point.

Black shorts were paired with the beautiful banded shirts in the Brian Bulless testimonial match played at season’s end. That game, against an ‘All Star XI’ was a goal-fest, with City winning 9-8! The shirts though, and amber ‘home’ shorts, were soon consigned to history.

1965-1969 Primary

After a season long dalliance with all-amber in 1964/65, the Tigers returned to a familiar black shorted look in 1965/66. The new kit was made by Bukta, who supplied a shirt that was essentially the same as that of the previous season with the chest hoops removed. The crew-neck with twin black band trim was retained, though the sleeve cuffs changed slightly, with three black bands of irregular width.

Simple black shorts and amber socks with collar matching two-hoop trim completed the kit that City would wear as they looked to build on a fourth place finish the previous campaign. Cliff Britton’s men started as they meant to go on with a 3-2 win over Scunthorpe at home, kicking off a season that still has fans of a certain age cooing with delight as they describe with awe City’s attacking prowess.

The free-scoring Tigers were led from the front by Ken Wagstaff and Chris Chilton, a formidable striking partnership responsible for 52 of City’s 109 league goals as City romped to the Third Division title. Stand out results include 6-1 wins against Bristol Rovers and Exeter, a 6-0 tonking of Workington and a 5-1 eclipsing of Oldham.

That winning form spilled over into cup competitions too, with City progressing to the Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup after dispatching Bradford Park Avenue, Gateshead, Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Southport before coming up against top-flight Chelsea. Ken Wagstaff scored both goals in a creditable 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge that forced a replay. The Blues were victorious in Hull however, a 3-1 scoreline at Boothferry Park retrained City’s sights on winning their division.

Once promoted, the Tigers didn’t look out of place in Division Two after a six-year absence, finishing a respectable 12th in 1966/67. The kit was tweaked slightly for 1968/69, the collar matching sock trim was dropped, and plain amber hose were used for a season in which City achieved an 18-year league table high, finishing 11th in the second tier.

The home kit’s black shorts were occasionally paired with plain white V-neck shirts and socks away from home. Goalkeepers Maurice Swan and Mike Williams mostly wore green jerseys with the same shorts and socks as the outfield players.

City had more aesthetically notable kits than this in the Sixties, but the title winning exploits of the 1965/66 side ensure that this is the one from that decade most readily recalled.

1969-72 Primary

In stark contrast to high street fashions which became more daring and vibrant as the Sixties drew to a close, football kits remained minimalist and traditional in design. The construction of kits was changing though, as suppliers moved away from using moisture absorbent cotton for shirts, favouring synthetic fibres that absorb much less moisture and are less prone to shrinking, wrinkling and colour fading.

Nylon, the first polyamide fibre available, was used to make new long-sleeved shirts that are ‘self-coloured’, completely lacking in contrast trim. The only embellishment is black numbers stitched onto the back, though plain amber shirtfronts might not have been the original plan.

The club evidently toyed with the idea of placing the tiger-head crest last used in 1962 on the left breast but decided against it. Though most were plain, some shirts had a faint tiger-head with club name that was only visible close-up, not at distance, as if a crest had been applied but then removed after a change of mind.

Like the shirts, the black shorts are completely plain but for a number, as City used short numbers for the first time, copying Chelsea who used them from 1964. Applied on the right side (as worn) for two seasons, they switched sides in the last year of use. Plain amber socks finished the ensemble. 

The Tigers finished 13th in Division Two in 1969/70, after which long serving manager Cliff Britton moved upstairs to become General Manager. City looked to infuse fresh ideas into a club with an ageing side, and tempted Arsenal central defender Terry Neill to Boothferry Park with a player-manager role and an E-type Jaguar. At 28, the Northern Ireland international became one of the game’s youngest ever managers.

Neill inspired the Tigers to a 5th place finish in 1970/71, their highest final league position since 1922. City also made it to the Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup, bowing out to top-flight Stoke despite leading 2-0. Controversy raged as Neill had a third goal disallowed in a 3-2 loss.

The shirts were slightly updated for 1971/72 when the tiger-head crest was embroidered onto the centre of the chest (a look trialled in late 1970/71) and players now had the option of wearing short sleeves. Without all-time leading scorer Chris Chilton (who was literally sent to Coventry), City couldn’t challenge for promotion again and had to settle for a 12th place finish.

1972-75 Primary

Hull City did a spot of rebranding ahead of the 1972/73 season, revealing an updated club crest that appeared on the covers of match-day programmes throughout the new campaign. The new tiger-head logo was a vast improvement on the series of bear-like renderings used in programmes and on merchandise previously.

As in past years though, the crest used in club publications did not correspond to that used on player shirts, it wasn’t until the end of the decade that both shirt badge and printed crest were the same.

The shirts of the new kit retained the somewhat bedraggled and underfed looking tiger used intermittently since 1947. This was the last kit to carry that badge, which was placed centrally on shirts made by the venerable Bukta brand using ‘Bri-Nylon’ (a proprietary fabric of British Nylon Spinners, the ICI Fibres subsidiary).

The body of the shirt was solid amber, maintaining a sequence of plain home shirts that began in 1964, with contrast cuffs and collar. The neck style was on trend, inset triangular panels with spread collars were ubiquitous at the time.

The shirt was worn with simple black shorts, and though solid amber shirts usually means amber socks, those for this kit are black with an amber stripe on the fold-over band, (only one previous home kit had black socks paired with amber shirts, that worn between 1957-60). Cottingham born Stuart Pearson evidently preferred an all-black stockinged look though, rolling the band to obscure the amber stripe.

The Tigers’ standing in Division Two improved year on year wearing this kit; they finished 13th in 1972/73 and 9th in 1973/74 under the stewardship of Terry Neill. When Tottenham Hotspur lured Neill back to North London, John Kaye took over and led City to an eighth place finish in 1974/75. Ken Wagstaff’s 11 strikes that year made him the Tigers’ outright top scorer in a season for a fifth time.

City also wore this kit in the last Watney Cup final (a 2-0 defeat to top-flight Stoke in August 1973) and during a continental foray in the Anglo-Italian Cup. the Tigers won their home games, beating both Hellas Verona and Lazio 2-1 at Boothferry Park, while in Italy they lost 1-0 to Fiorentina at the Stadio Comunale. City also matched Bari 0-0 but had to borrow kit from the home side as their own remained on the plane heading to Ghana!

1975-1980 Primary

City drew inspiration from their sartorial past when deciding on a new kit in 1975. Striped shirts returned after twelve years of solid amber jerseys, but the most striking element of the new outfit was not the shirt style. It is the white shorts that created a throwback look, referencing Tigers kits used between World Wars.

The club first paired white shorts with striped shirts (using black socks with amber trim to co-ordinate the kit) in 1918/19, doing so again between 1923 and 1935. The 1970s update of this style would have white socks as well as shorts, so some white was needed on the shirts to connect the whole ensemble. The broadly striped top features a white V-neck with turn-over collar and white sleeve cuffs.

Shirt advertising was still a few years away in the mid-1970s, but sportswear manufacturers were pushing the boundaries of branding on kits. Europa Sports of Wigston, Leicestershire became the first kit maker to put their logo on a City kit. Their brand mark appeared in white on one of the shirt’s two broad black body stripes, on the other the club’s initials formed a diagonal monogram.

Despite the switch to white shorts, a black set was often needed on our travels. Those shorts, with two amber side stripes, were used with both the home shirts and white away jerseys as elements of both kit sets were used interchangeably away from Boothferry Park. Though the kit was first used for the 1975/76 campaign, it is more commonly associated with the 1976/77 season, when John Kaye signed combative midfielder Billy Bremner from Leeds United.

The Tigers finished 14th in Division Two for two consecutive seasons before a wretched 1977/78 ended with ignominious relegation. Kaye was dismissed in the October, replaced by Bobby Collins who didn’t even last till the end of the season, as City finished bottom of Division Two.

Europa modified the shirt several times during its lifespan, enlarging their logo and later adding a wordmark, before City replaced the monogram with a redesign of the old tiger-head crest for 1978/79, when white shorts and socks were dropped. The black away shorts became part of the primary kit, worn with amber socks that have black fold-over bands.

Europa branded shirts were ‘matched’ with adidas shorts and socks for the first five months of 1979/80, until City were supplied with shirts that feature the German firm’s branding.

1980-82 Primary

The switch of kit brands, from Europa to adidas, was an oddly protracted affair: The Tigers began 1979/80 wearing Europa’s white collared shirts with black adidas shorts and amber adidas socks, taking until January 1980 to complete the change to the brand with the three stripes.

The all-adidas kit was tweaked slightly for 1980/81, although the shirt remained the same, featuring a contrast V-neck with wide turn-over points, and two black stripes amid thicker amber bands. One of the black stripes contains the German sportswear giant’s trefoil logo and wordmark, and on the other is City’s tiger-head badge. The sleeves are amber but for the trademark adidas three stripes in black.

This is the first Tigers shirt made from polyester, which replaced Nylon as the preferred material for shirts because of its sweat wicking properties (fibres draw moisture from within the garment to the exterior where it evaporates) and it is easier to print onto. The black stripes on the shirt body are not woven in but printed on using a process called sublimation: high temperature and pressure turns solid dye into a gas that permeates the fabric, solidifies and becomes part of the material.

The accompanying black shorts no longer carried the brand wordmark evident in 1979/80, just the trefoil on the left side, and amber socks made way for black hose with three amber stripes on the fold-over bands.

City may have looked good in their three-stripe attire, but poor form made for grim viewing. The Tigers won just 8 games in 1980/81, ending the season bottom of Division Three and relegated to the fourth tier for the first time. City did reach the Fourth Round of the FA Cup though, losing 2-0 at top-flight Tottenham wearing the white away kit shorts with the home shirts.

Earlier in that cup run, it took City three games to see off Blyth Spartans, but those games proved a useful scouting exercise when City signed the non-league sides’ striker Les Mutrie within days of beating them in a second replay. Mutrie had a memorable 1981/82 season, plundering 27 league goals, hitting four in a 5-2 win that made Hartlepool pay for crimes against simianity.

City’s good form belied off field drama, as the Tigers went into receivership in February 1982, raising doubts about the club’s ability to complete the season. They did however; finishing eighth in their first Division Four campaign.

1982-1984 Primary

A prolonged spell of financial misery drew to a close in 1982 after Hull City became the first club in the land to enter receivership. Seeking investment and financial stability, the club turned to Scarborough based entrepreneur Don Robinson, who became Chairman.

It was no coincidence that soon after his arrival, a new colour was added to the club palette; the Tigers would now play in amber, black… and red. Robinson, theme park operator and former wrestler, is said to have introduced the sanguine tone to represent ‘the blood players are willing to shed in the cause of Hull City’.

Leicestershire sportswear firm Admiral, pioneers of replica shirt sales in the late 1970s, were tasked with creating a new set of kits that would clothe not just the players, but fans too. Though loose approximations of the late 70s white collared home shirts were available to buy, Admiral provided City fans with their first true replicas, and the club with a new revenue stream.

The Tigers’ new home shirt was amber with red pinstripes. Red trim is evident on the collar too, a black ribbed V-neck that matched the sleeve cuffs. Oddly, the club crest appeared on the right side of the chest rather than over the heart, in that space was Admiral’s naval rank inspired logo. The accompanying black shorts have an amber stripe containing black and red trim on each side and completing the kit are red socks with repeating white Admiral logos on the fold-over bands.

Robinson appointed former Scarborough boss Colin Appleton to revive the Tigers fortunes and revive them he did. Boothferry Park became a fortress in 1982/83, City lost just one home game in their Division Four campaign and were promoted as runners-up to Wimbledon. Among the 25 league wins that year were 4-0 nobblings of Northampton and York, and a 7-0 stuffing of Stockport. 

The Tigers upward mobility continued in 1983/84, when City shirts would bear the name of a sponsor for the first time. Kitchen component firm Hygena had their name on player’s chests as City gunned for a second successive promotion.

They came close; Needing a three-goal win on the last day of the season, a Brian Marwood brace at Burnley put City tantalisingly close to the third and final promotion spot, but a third goal proved elusive and Sheffield United, level on points, pipped the Tigers on goal difference.

1984-86 Primary

After narrowly missing out in 1983/84, City would again challenge for promotion in 1984/85, but with a new man at the helm: Colin Appleton was lured away to Swansea, so chairman Don Robinson offered Luton midfielder Brian Horton a first managerial role as Tigers player-boss.

There was a sartorial update too as Admiral refreshed our home kit for the new season. The design of the new shirts was essentially the same at those used between 1982-84: amber with red pinstripes, featuring a black V-neck and cuffs with amber and red trim.

Advances in textile technologies allowed sportswear manufacturers to have patterns woven into the fabric, a process called Jacquard weaving. The simplest of these was ‘shadow stripes’, alternating bright and dark tonal striping that was first seen on Tottenham Hotspur shirts by Le Coq Sportif and became ubiquitous. On City’s updated shirts the red pinstripes split glossy and matte amber stripes.

Arrow Air, the airline that flew City to Florida to face NASL side Tampa Bay Rowdies in June 1984, signed a one-year deal to become the club’s second shirt sponsor. The previous season’s shorts, black with amber side stripes split by black and red trim, were re-used for 1984/85, worn with funky new amber, black and red hooped socks that had white feet.

Overcoming a mediocre start to their Division Three campaign, Horton’s men enjoyed a 13-match unbeaten run that stretched from late October to mid-January. The free scoring Tigers plundered 78 league goals, 20 of them by Billy Whitehurst. Two runs of five consecutive wins, the first in March, the second starting mid-April, helped seal promotion as City took 3rd place behind Bradford and Millwall.

Some more kit tweaking was done ahead of 1985/86: the shirt no longer carried a sponsor’s wordmark, Admiral’s logo previously appeared as a black outlined, sewn-on patch but was now rendered in white embroidery, player numbers switched from black to red and new black shorts were introduced, featuring shadow stripes and black side panels decorated with stacked Admiral logos.

This kit features in the short film ‘See You At Wembley, Frankie Walsh’ (which opens with footage of City’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland) that won director Mark Herman a student Oscar. The Tigers acquitted themselves well in Division Two, achieving their highest league standing in 15 years by finishing 6th. A year later that position would have sealed a Play-Off berth.

1986-1988 Primary

After firmly establishing themselves as a Division Two side, Brian Horton’s Tigers faced a season of transition in 1986/87. Admiral, in their fifth season as club technical partner, supplied City with a transitional kit, producing new shirts, but retaining the shorts and socks from the previous year.

The redesigned shirts were in a strikingly unfamiliar shade of amber, despite a similar hue appearing on the preceding season’s home shirts. Those had two alternating tones of amber divided by red pinstripes, the darker matte stripes meant the lighter, shiny tone did not dominate or look incongruous. The shade is lighter still on the new shirts, making them a glistening yellow, with matte yellow shadow pinstripes.

They also feature a thick black chest hoop (where sponsor names were later added) and red sleeve rings. The collar is a black overlapping V-neck and a black stripe containing repeating red Admiral logos ran across the yoke. Though quite beautiful, these shirts looked as if they were designed to be part of a Watford kit rather than made for Hull City.

The skimpy black shorts have tonal stripes throughout, though on occasion the red away shorts were paired with the home shirt on our travels, notably at Grimsby and Swansea (in the FA Cup). As with the shorts, the fetching amber, black and red hooped socks from 1985/86 were recycled, but for 1987/88, a change was made to solid amber stockings along with a change in shirt sponsor.

The Tigers were backed by local poultry firm Twydale Turkeys in 1986/87, a deal which prompted some surreal promotional photos, including Horton and Chairman Don Robinson casually admiring a pair of fowl, and club captain Garreth Roberts playing football with a giant anthropomorphised turkey wearing a Tigers hat and scarf. It was just a one-year deal though, and for 1987/88, Mansfield Beers were advertised on City shirts. 

Despite an excellent start to 1986/87, form was inconsistent across the season and the Tigers finished that campaign 14th. 1987/88 saw another good start, City went the first 10 league games unbeaten (a run that included an Alex Dyer inspired 2-0 win at Leeds) and were 2^nd at the end of September.

Despite doing the double over Leeds (winning 3-1 at Boothferry Park), Horton could not halt a late season slide and was removed after a 13-game spell without a win, City ended the year in 15th place.

1988-1990 Primary

After six seasons wearing Admiral, the Tigers switched suppliers, going with Matchwinner of Scotland. The firm from north of Hadrian’s Wall firm utilised one shirt template for two kits: both home and away shirts were of the same design.

Mostly amber (proper amber, not the glossy yellow used on the previous kit), the home shirt has diagonal contrast yoke panels, stacked red over black, split by a red overlapping V-neck with black tipping trim. The embroidered club crest is placed centrally, above the changeable sponsor.

In the last year of Mansfield Beers’ deal, they promoted their Riding Bitter brand for 1988/89. The following season, 1989/90, began with the name of unloved municipal authority Humberside on the shirts, a move that angered locals who consider themselves Yorkshire-folk. Local dairy firm Dale Farm took over in November 1989, with their logo first appearing on shirts for the Zenith Data Systems Cup tie against Aston Villa.

The sponsor isn’t the only change however: the shirt’s Jacquard weave pattern, chequerboard for the Riding Bitter and Humberside iterations, became repeating parallelograms (which appeared on the 1990-92 home shirts too).

The black shorts with white drawstrings have two thin diagonal stripes, amber and red, cutting across the leg, over Matchwinner’s arrowhead like logo. They feature the same chequerboard shadow pattern as the Riding Bitter and Humberside shirts and didn’t change when the Dale Farm shirts were introduced. Red away shorts, the same design as the black set, were used with the home shirts for the trip to West Brom in December 1988. Amber socks with two thin hoops on the fold-over band, red over black, competed the ensemble.

Eddie Gray took the helm as City manager at the start of 1988/89. It is a season best remembered for an FA Cup Fifth Round tie against the decade’s dominant team, Liverpool. 20,058 fans packed into Boothferry Park, and those of a City persuasion were rubbing their eyes in disbelief as the Tigers went in at the break 2-1 up courtesy of goals from Billy Whitehurst and Keith Edwards. Alas, John Aldridge scored twice in the second half to dash City’s dreams.

Gray’s tenure lasted just one season, as City finished 21st. His successor was Colin Appleton, returning for a second, disastrous stint as manager that only lasted until the October. Stan Ternent was the long-term replacement, and the Tigers ended 1989/90 14th in Division Two.

1990-92 Primary

Throughout the tenure of popular chairman Don Robinson, red was part of the club’s colour palette, but when he stepped down just months before the turn of a new decade, the days of the sanguine tone were numbered.

When Scottish brand Matchwinner supplied a new home kit for the 1990/91 campaign, red was conspicuous only by its absence as the Tigers went back to black and amber basics and traditional striped shirts, a style not used since 1982.

The shirt features slender stripes on the body panels, and set-in sleeves that are solid amber. A repeating parallelogram shadow pattern ran throughout the whole shirt, save for the black turn-over collar attached to a placket with three buttons on a white panel that is obscured when the shirt is fully buttoned up.

The club crest and Matchwinner’s ‘arrowhead’ logo were not consistently placed; some shirts had both on the black stripes either side of the placket in amber stitching, but on others they are spaced further apart, with each on an amber stripe, using black (and on occasions white) contrast stitching for the maker’s mark. The wordmark of sponsor Bonus is spelt out in black text on a rectangular heat bonded white panel.

The black shorts are indeed very short, and have a thick amber stripe on each side, matching the amber fold-over bands on the otherwise black socks that completed the set. Competition patches featured on kits for the first time in 1990/91, with Football League logos sewn onto each shirt sleeve.

Though the Tigers looked smart in the new get up, the 1990/91 campaign was an unmitigated disaster. Andy Payton’s 25 goals couldn’t stop City losing almost half of their league games, some by considerable margins: West Ham thrashed us 7-1, Plymouth won 4-1 at Home Park (where City wore white Umbro shorts with the home shirt) and a 5-1 defeat at Portsmouth on New Year’s Day spelled the end of boss Stan Ternent’s reign. Terry Dolan took over in the February, but the rot could not be stopped and City tumbled out of Division Two.

Adjusting to life in Division Three wasn’t easy, and the Tigers ended 1991/92 in a disappointing 14th place. City exited the FA Cup in the Third Round that year, losing to top-flight Chelsea. Earlier in the competition, City won at non-league Morecambe wearing white socks with the home kit to avoid a clash.

1992-1993 Primary

For a kit to permeate the national psyche usually requires a team to perform laudable exploits while wearing it; win a major trophy, secure promotion, or at least embark upon a plucky cup run. Not so with Hull City’s 1992/93 home kit, worn in two seasons of unspectacular lower league mediocrity.

It is purely the design that secured this kit’s enduring infamy, as Scottish brand Matchwinner looked to the club’s nickname for inspiration and produced a lurid tiger stripe print shirt. Though universally mocked outside of Hull, this shirt is much loved by Tiger Nationals, who revel in the kitsch value and remember the media hoopla generated as a rare bright spot in an otherwise bleak decade.

The shirt’s polo collar (also tiger striped) is connected to a placket with a black angular cut front panel exposing part of the amber panel beneath. Short-sleeved shirts have Matchwinner’s arrowhead-like logo on each arm, contained within a black arched panel, however long-sleeved versions have just one logo on the chest, opposite the club crest.

The black shorts have arched panels on the sides that corresponded to those on the shirt sleeves, these though are tiger striped. The kit’s black socks have amber turn-over bands with thin black bands sandwiching a single thick hoop. 

When unveiled in the summer of 1992, the new kit inspired manager Terry Dolan to remark “the players look like tigers, now they’ve got to play like tigers”. They did on opening day: besting Stoke 1-0 at Boothferry Park thanks to a Paul Hunter goal. The form was not maintained though, and City ended the season a lowly 20th in the third tier. The shirts and socks were paired with the white away kit shorts for a 3-3 draw at Fulham, and white socks were worn with the home shirt and shorts in a 2-1 win on Preston’s artificial pitch, with several players wearing tracksuit pants.

The deal with Matchwinner collapsed so abruptly that replacement supplier Pelada could provide only socks for the start of 1993/94, forcing City to use the 1992/93 shirts and shorts with Matchwinner brand marks covered by patches until a new kit was ready. The name of new sponsor Pepis also appeared on logo-obscuring patches.

Though a myriad of magazine articles have dubbed this one of the worst football kits ever, City fans will tell you that they are, of course, very wrong.

1993-95 Primary

Whenever discussions about the worst football shirt ever arise, City’s tiger striped 1992/93 home shirt is inevitably mentioned, but in truth, it isn’t even the worst Hull City shirt. That dubious distinction falls upon the ill-advised follow up, worn for part of the 1993/94 season and the entire 1994/95 campaign.

After a dispute with Matchwinner, City tasked sportswear firm Pelada (of Melton Mowbray) to design a non-copyright violating approximation of the tiger skin shirts. While the shirts were being made, Pelada supplied new socks, but City used the Matchwinner shirts and shorts with the maker’s badges cheekily covered with Pelada stickers.

Patches with the wordmark of local nightspot Pepis covered the old sponsor and the heat-bonded white numbers were covered with black sewn-on squares with white numbers. The new home shirts and shorts were ready by November, when City retired the Matchwinner made gear.

The new shirts feature a much tighter tiger stripe pattern, up close it is amber and black but from distance the pattern merged into a rusty copper hued mess. The black turn-over collar with single amber stripe is connected to a black asymmetric placket, and the sleeves are ended with a thick black band. The changed kit’s new shorts were plain, shiny black and feature the same club crest and white Pelada logo as the shirt.

After a 9th place finish in Division 2, City started pre-season looking just as they did at the end of 1993/94, but by the time the 1994/95 campaign kicked off, the kit had changed again. A new sponsor meant yet another patch to cover the old one, and the logo of new backer Needler’s Sweets was placed on unfeasibly large felt patches.

Incredibly, there were further changes made during in 1994/95, midway through the season the plain black shorts were replaced with an amber side striped and hem banded set that had an alternating matte/shiny thin stripe shadow pattern. The amber sadly, did not match the rusty shade of the shirts (which was so unlike our regular tone, Oxford were permitted to wear their yellow kits at Boothferry Park).

Later in the season the amber socks with black fold-over bands and shin hoops were ditched for plain amber stockings that are a different shade to that used on both shirts and shorts. City finished the year respectably in eighth place, but this was a season to forget in kit terms.

1995-1997 Primary

Kit design went through an experimental phase in the early 1990s: repeating geometric shapes, gaudy colour combinations and abstract, asymmetric patterns (amply illustrated by City’s two distinct tiger stripe print home shirts). In the middle of the decade, there was a shift towards more traditional styles. 

Three Lions, the Euro ’96 anthem and a requiem for past glory, captured the zeitgeist as wistful nostalgia took hold and retro inspired shirts became popular. City could be considered trendsetters, releasing a home kit that harked back to the days of Raich Carter in the summer of 1995. The new kit, made by Lancashire based Super League, is superficially similar to the heavy cotton drill garb worn by City in the late 1940s. Like that post-war kit the new strip is made up of plain amber shirts, black shorts and amber socks. 

The new shirts feature a black turn-over collar with subtle shadow striping, connected to a placket that fastened down with three press studs. As in the Forties, the club’s tiger-head crest (rendered more realistically than the emaciated post-war version) sat inside a sewn-on escutcheon on the left breast. On the right-side Super League’s wordmark was contained within a white sewn-on patch. 

A rather lovely Jacquard weave of repeated tiger-heads in front of double pinstripes ran throughout the shirt, which had the logo of new sponsors, local haulage firm IBC, applied in heat bonded red felt. 

The black shorts carried the same striped shadow pattern as the shirt collar, and amber piping an inch above the leg opening corresponded to the contrasting black piping on the shirt sleeves. The shield carrying the tiger-head crest on the shorts is smaller than that used on the shirt. Amber socks with black fold-over bands decorated with two amber hoops completed the ensemble. 

First worn in pre-season against Grimsby, the new get-up made its competitive debut on the opening day of the 1995/96 campaign: the Tigers, starting as they would go on, succumbed to a 1-0 home defeat to Swindon. City finished bottom of Nationwide League Division Two that year, the first team in the land to be relegated. 

Returning to the basement division after a 13-year absence, the Tigers plumbed new depths in 1996/97, finishing 17th in Division Three, our worst league finish to date. That dismal finish finally brought an end to Terry Dolan’s six-year tenure as manager.

1997/98 Primary

Winds of change were howling through Boothferry Park in the summer of 1997, as the club underwent ownership and managerial reform. Hull City had been in the hands of the Needler family since 1946, led first by Harold, who invested in the ground, tempted Raich Carter to Hull and oversaw several exciting and successful periods, and latterly by Christopher, who sadly lacked his father’s zeal for the club.

The Nineties was a period of alarming and excruciating decline for City, managed for most of that decade by the pilloried Terry Dolan. Though part of the furniture, both owner and manager departed in one close season, as Tennis coach David Lloyd bought the club, bringing in former Rangers, AC Milan and England striker Mark Hateley to manage.

For the new era, striped shirts returned after a five-year hiatus. This strip features a black-tipped amber collar folded over two amber panels that squared off at the point they overlapped. Kit supplier Super League used a slightly deeper shade of amber than on their 1995-97 home shirts, but retained the repeating tiger-heads over twin pinstripes Jacquard pattern. The club crest and Super League’s interlocking initials logo are embroidered above a felt panel featuring the stacked wordmark of the University of Hull.

The kit’s black shorts have thin shadow stripes throughout and an amber half stripe on each side that is obliquely angled at the top. Black socks with amber fold-over bands and SL in block letters finished the set. At Darlington in November 1997, the white shorts of the away kit were worn with home shirt and socks in a 4-3 defeat.

Early season dreams of leaving Division Three as one of three promoted teams were quickly replaced by relegation nightmares, “Thank God for Donny Rovers” was a popular refrain as only they lost more games than City (27) to drop out of the Football League into the Conference.

There were some high points however, such as a 7-4 win over Swansea, an away-goals-rule victory over Premier League Crystal Palace in the League Cup (that set up a trip to Newcastle) and a 3-0 win over Scarborough inspired by Chelsea loanee David Rocastle.

The low point was a depressingly inevitable loss at Doncaster, a game delayed several times by protesting home fans. The Tigers’ 22nd place finish (90th in the professional game pyramid) represented our worst ever end of season ranking.

1998/1999 Primary

As owner of both Hull City and rugby league club Hull Sharks (nee FC), David Lloyd sought to weld the two clubs together financially in the late 1990s. Part of this merging was a shared merchandising arm called Tiger-Sharks Inc. and a joint deal with Olympic, previously kit supplier to Genk, Leyton Orient, Benfica and the Portuguese national team.

Olympic’s designs for those sides had been sober, simple affairs, but the kits they designed for both City and the Sharks were radical departures from tradition. The rugby side’s black and white irregular hoops made way for tapered aqua and black bands on a white jersey. As for City, white was elevated from regular trim colour and given equal billing with amber.

The body of the 1998/99 home shirt features alternating gradated stripes, with amber transitioning into white on one stripe, and vice-versa on the next. Thin black lines separated the dual-coloured stripes, and completing the shirt are black set-in sleeves and a black V-neck with polo collar that has HCAFC in amber on the back, splitting a white trimmed amber contrast stripe. The black shorts have an oblique amber stripe over a triangular white panel on the right side and the black socks feature two amber hoops, one on the fold-over band.

For the first time since 1979, the familiar left-facing tiger-head crest did not appear on a City kit. For one season only, an alternate design that intermittently appeared on programme covers and merchandise since the mid 1970s was used instead. It was fully embroidered on the first batch of player shirts, but later batches used the more detailed, stitched on patches that feature on replicas.

City started the season disastrously, and by the turn of the year propped up Division Three. Player/manager Warren Joyce replaced the jettisoned Mark Hateley and inspired a remarkable turnaround fondly dubbed ‘The Great Escape’ as relegation to the Conference was avoided.

This kit was notably worn in a Third Round FA Cup tie that pitted Premier League leaders Aston Villa against bottom of the league City, 1st v 92nd. The home shirt was paired with white away shorts and socks early in the season for a League Cup tie at Bolton, a game held up by protesting City fans throwing tennis balls onto the pitch.

Though unpopular in its time, this unique design is certainly memorable, and evokes memories of late season heroics.

1999/2000 Primary

After masterminding ‘The Great Escape’, safeguarding League status for the Tigers, player-manager Warren Joyce was given a permanent deal by the South Yorkshire based consortium that bought Hull City (but not Boothferry Park) from the tempestuous David Lloyd.

In March 1999, those owners revealed a new club crest to appear on kits designed by Avec, previously suppliers to Sunderland and Sheffield United. The design, created by the son of controversial Vice-President Stephen Hinchliffe, features the Humber Bridge, three coronets and a crudely rendered ‘tiger-head’ that looked more like an owl with a goatee beard. It was instantly unpopular.

A hasty redesign by club marketing staff gave the main element a more tigerish appearance. It is this version that appeared on new kits, the first to be chosen by fans who were invited to vote on one of four designs showcased in the match-day programme.

The winning kit garnered 34% of the votes and features a shirt with bold black and amber stripes, a crew-neck with amber and white tipping trim (a change from the V-neck of the concept image), and raglan sleeves with tapering stripes. The chest stripes are broken to make the red logo of local haulage firm IBC (backing City for a second time, the first between 1995-97) more distinguishable. Both the black shorts and socks carry the simple amber and white stripe trim used on the shirt collar.

Avec supplied City with a plain amber placeholder kit for pre-season games while they produced garb featuring the amended crest and new sponsor. The home kit was ready for the start of the 1999/00 season, but the away kit was not, so the first use of the home shirt saw it paired with purple shorts and socks borrowed from Exeter City on opening day. The first appearance of the full home kit came a few days later in a League Cup tie at Rotherham.

1999/00 was a difficult campaign as City sought to make the transition from relegation battlers to promotion contenders. High points included cup ties against Liverpool and Chelsea and the play of Jamaican internationals Theodore Whitmore and Ian Goodison, who joined in October 1999.

A 14th place finish in Division Three failed to meet the expectations of the owners who relieved Warren Joyce of managerial duties in April 2000. Brian Little was installed as his replacement and oversaw the final game of the season.

2000/01 Primary

Ignoring off-field turmoil that resulted in administration and a change of ownership, the Tigers challenged for promotion in 2000/01, qualifying for the post-season Play-Offs (contested since 1987) for the first time.

Though the campaign was memorable, the home kit was not. For the second year running, fans got to choose one of four designs showcased in the matchday programme. The winning kit seemed an unusual choice, as the shirt had white sleeves, though voters probably weren’t expecting the tone of amber to be different from that used on Avec’s 1999/00 home shirt. This ‘amber’ had a washed out and mustardy hue.

The shirt features white set-in sleeve panels split by full length black shoulder bands. Thinner white yoke panels connected the sleeves with the black polo collar above the main ‘amber’ body sections that are tapered by curved black side panels with white piping. The shirt body has a rib-knit pattern and the sponsor’s wordmark was applied in black felt. Essentially plain black shorts were paired with black socks that have amber fold-over bands and two thin white shin hoops. 

Expectations were low ahead of the 2000/01 season after a summer of tumult for City: they were locked out of Boothferry Park over rent arrears, a transfer embargo limited recruitment options and the club’s finances were under FA and Fraud Squad scrutiny. 

In their mediocre kits, the Tigers made a mediocre start, failing to record a league victory until mid-September, but the threat of non-existence concerned fans more than mid-table performance, and in late January the club faced a winding up order over unpaid taxes. 

Administration followed in February, yet amid the chaos, Brian Little’s men (who went unpaid for two months) drew inspiration from adversity and struck a rich vein of form, winning all 5 league games that month. By the time Adam Pearson took control of the club in March, City were looking good for a first Play-Off appearance and went unbeaten in their last 11 regular season games. 

The Tigers finished in 6th place in Division Three, extending their season and the mustard-coloured shirts’ lifespan by at least two games. City’s inaugural Play-Off game ended in triumph, John Eyre scored in a 1-0 win over Leyton Orient at Boothferry Park, setting up a tense Semi-Final second leg at Brisbane Road. There would be no fairy-tale ending however, a 2-0 win gave Orient a 2-1 aggregate victory.

2001/02 Primary

An unexpected Play-Off appearance in 2000/01, coming just months after the club entered administration and changed hands, raised expectations of a promotion drive the following season.

To that end, City spent big (relative to the rest of Division Three) in the summer of 2001 as the Tigers sought to escape the basement division. Manager Brian Little brought in almost a full team of new faces, including forward Lawrie Dudfield from Leicester for a then record fee of £210,000.

City had an aesthetic refresh too, as the club changed crest and signed deals with new kit suppliers and new shirt sponsors. The unloved crest used between 1999-2001 was unceremoniously dumped, and the beloved tiger-head used from the late 1970s until 1998 returned, only now encased in an escutcheon.

The new design appeared within larger sewn-on shields on kits that carried the branding of Belgian firm Patrick. Owner Adam Pearson expressed a preference for solid amber shirts when he took over the club and the new kit had one. The shirts feature thick black V-neck collars, a tight pinstripe Jacquard weave and two lines of black piping bookending each side panel. Advertised on the chest is Sportscard, a credit card whose reward scheme promised ‘hard to find tickets to key sporting events.’

Plain black shorts with white Patrick logos were used in pre-season, replaced by black shorts with two amber piping lines (that corresponded with the shirt piping) when the Division Three campaign began, though amber alternates were used at Lincoln and Luton. Completing the set are amber socks with Patrick’s two stripes and wordmark on the fold-over band.

Unbeaten in their first eight games, City ensconced themselves in the automatic promotion berths in the first half of the season, but a disastrous month between mid-January and mid-February began a precipitous drop down the table. After a home loss to Macclesfield in February, the reign of affable boss Brian Little came to an end. Billy Russell acted as caretaker until April while City negotiated compensation with Kidderminster for Jan Mølby. By the time the Dane had taken over, promotion was out of reach, and City finished the season 11th, ten points off the final Play-Off place.

This kit was last worn for a 1-1 draw at Bristol Rovers, as on the final day of 2001/02, City previewed Patrick’s 2002/03 home kit in a 1-1 tie with Lincoln at Boothferry Park.

2002-04 Primary

We’re now in an age where club finances are discussed almost as much as team tactics, merchandising is seen as a vital revenue stream and kits changing every season is the industry standard. The last time the Tigers used a home kit for more than one year, it became associated with a momentous event in each full season of use; a move to a new home, and a long-awaited promotion.

The Patrick branded design for 2002/03 was used in three distinct seasons, making a debut in the 1-1 home draw with Lincoln that closed out 2001/02. It carried the wordmark of Bonus Electrical, who became sponsors for a second time having backed City from 1990 to 1992.

The solid amber shirt is looser fitting than the one it replaced and feature a black polo collar and overlapping V-neck with amber and white trim. A white edged black yoke stripe ran from collar to cuffs, and under the arms a thick black band on each side corresponded in width to contrast amber panels on the black shorts. Completing the kit are amber socks with black fold-over bands.

The club crest appeared within an amber shield on both shirts and shorts in 2002/03, but black fielded patches were used on the shorts in 2003/04 (to distinguish them from those of the black away kit). It was not uncommon, however, to see a mixture of both sets used in games. A set of amber alternate shorts were paired with the home shirts at Lincoln in February 2004.

Jan Mølby was City boss when 2002/03 kicked off, but the Dane was gone by October after an uninspiring start. Peter Taylor was in charge when City bade farewell to Boothferry Park in December with a somewhat fitting 1-0 loss to Darlington, and when the Tigers inaugurated the KC Stadium with a 1-0 friendly win over Sunderland. The rest of 2002/03 was largely uneventful as Taylor retooled the side for a promotion tilt.

City made a blistering start to 2003/04, swatting Darlington aside 4-1 on opening day. Goals flowed all season long, strikers Ben Burgess and Danny Allsopp combined for 33 goals as City topped the scoring chart, netting 82 times.

Standout results were a 6-1 cuffing of Kidderminster, a 5-1 shoeing of the Cobblers at Northampton and a 4-2 overwhelming of Oxford as the Tigers took runners-up spot in Division Three, ending a long promotion drought.

2004/05 Primary

When Peter Taylor addressed the massed ranks of the Tiger Nation from the Guildhall balcony in May 2004, he said there was nothing to fear from the third tier (freshly rebranded League One) after promotion, and that City would attack it. It wasn’t a platitude from the manager, he meant it. Hull City went on to mark their 100th year of existence with a second successive promotion.

The Tigers also marked their centenary with a return to the shirt style that inspired our nickname early in club history. In the first four years of Adam Pearson’s ownership, plain amber home shirts were favoured, but fan entreaties to go with traditional black and amber stripes for the centennial were respected.

The first home shirt to feature the branding of Italian firm Diadora had an amber ribbed V-neck that is separated from the body of the shirt by white piping. The amber was deeper on this kit than had been the case since 1998/99. As a nod to the first City shirts, the stripes are thick and bold, the central stripe is amber and on the black stripes either side sits Diadora’s wordmark and the club crest.

The Diadora text was embroidered in white, opposite a slightly amended club crest which had ‘1904-2004’ on the scroll banner instead of ‘THE TIGERS’. The crest was full sized, rather than shrunk to fit within a larger shield, as it had been on the Patrick kits.

The black shorts feature a wavy, tapering amber stripe with a thin white ‘featheredge’ stripe on each side. The amber socks have black fold-over bands edged with white, and a black calf stripe containing the club’s initials. Plain white Umbro shorts (bought on the day of the game from the Harrogate branch of Sports Direct) were used with the home shirt and socks in a memorable victory at Hillsborough as Nick Barmby spearheaded a 4-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday that dispelled any doubts that we meant business in 2004/05.

That game wasn’t the only time City were rampant, we won 4-0 at Bournemouth, beat eventual Champions Luton 3-0 and mercilessly put six past Tranmere, who had former Tiger Theo Whitmore reluctantly replace injured keepers in goal.

Defeat in the last three league games of the season mattered not, City had already wrapped up the runners-up spot and promotion, elevating Peter Taylor to the pantheon of great Tigers managers.

2005/06 Primary

Back-to-back promotions in 2003/04 and 2004/05 quickly elevated the Tigers to the second tier of English football, a level they’d not competed at for 15 years.

The division had changed name twice during City’s absence: it was called Division Two when City dropped out following an ill-fated 1990/91 season, becoming Division One in 1992/93 when the Premier League assumed control of the highest domestic level. A rebranding exercise in 2004/05 saw the three remaining Football League divisions change designation, with the highest becoming ‘The Championship’.

City’s second Diadora branded primary kit, like the first, features shirts with black and amber stripes, although these stripes were thinner than those of the 2004/05 home shirt. By ominous coincidence, the stripes are the same width as those that appeared on the 1990/91 home shirt, worn throughout a harrowing campaign that culminated in relegation.

This shirt though, has a mesh amber collar piece tipped with an elasticated white band that overlapped in front of a black triangular panel. The two piece sleeves are largely black with amber underarm panels that are meshed for ventilation, these are connected to curved white breathable side panels.

A prototype shirt shown at a December 2004 Fans Liaison Committee meeting had much larger white panels that would frame squad numbers on the back, but these were reduced in size when consensus was established that white should be only a trim tone, not a full third colour.

The black shorts have a thin, curved amber stripe on each side that is split midway down by an oblique white band. Completing the ensemble are amber stockings with black fold-over bands edged by a white stripe and twin black side stripes. The shorts of the away kit were designed with interchangeability in mind, and the white shorts (with a black waist panel on the back that joined tapering amber side stripes) were used with the home shirts at Sheffield Wednesday and Luton Town.

Having cut a swath through the lower divisions, City found Championship life tough, but ended the season strongly, finishing ten points clear of the relegation zone in 18th place. The Tigers lost just one of their last nine games, a pulsating Yorkshire derby at Bramall Lane that ended 3-2 to Sheffield United, coming soon after the season’s high point: a 1-0 home victory over Leeds, with ‘The Beast’, January transfer window signing Jon Parkin scoring for City.

2006/2007 Primary

After a sequence of three solid amber home shirts (spanning the 2000/01 to 2003/04 seasons), City gave striped shirts the same treatment: releasing three consecutive kits with the traditional home shirt style.

Despite being the club’s third home kit to feature the wordmark of Diadora, the 2006/07 set was the first to be actually designed by them. The branding of the firm, from Giavera del Montello in north-east Italy, was previously used under licence, with actual design and production done locally by Dewhirsts. The difference showed when the new kit was unveiled in mid-June 2006.

The shirt, which has a black central stripe giving the shirt front three black stripes and four amber stripes, has a slim fitting cut. Oblique seams tapered the two outside amber stripes and meant the shirt clung to less than athletic looking physiques (such as that of burly Tigers forward John Parkin). Raglan sleeves and yoke panels ensured good fit on the shoulders, and concealed ventilation sections on the upper arms complemented mesh underarm and neck panels for body heat dissipation.

For the first time, City had a back of shirt sponsor: The wordmark of local scanner supplier Gemtec appeared underneath the numbers after Football League rules on kit advertising were relaxed to allow clubs to chase extra revenue.

The shorts for this kit are black with amber stripes that started halfway down each side. Completing the kit are black socks with white Diadora ‘arrowhead’ logos at shin level and amber fold-over bands that feature HCAFC monograms. Loan signing Ricardo Vaz Te had a tendency to cut the feet off his City socks, pulling the remaining band over his own white stockings. 

Amber alternate shorts were used with the home shirts at Preston and Sheffield Wednesday, and the amber socks of the 2005/06 home kit were unretired for use at Hillsborough and in the early season 0-0 draw at Ipswich.

City endured a gruelling 2006/07 battling against relegation from the Championship. It began under the stewardship of Phil Parkinson, who made a horrible start as Tigers boss, losing five of the first six league games. After crushing losses to Colchester and Southampton dropped the Tigers into the relegation zone, Parkinson and City parted ways in December. Interim boss Phil Brown brought Dean Windass home and inspired a turnaround in form that not only secured our second-tier status but also condemned Leeds United to the drop.

2007/08 Primary

Over a century of Hull City history could be defined by a lack of nationally acknowledged success until 2008; The club had never reached the top division and never played at the national stadium. Those failures clung to the club’s back like a pair of overfed monkeys but were finally cast off when City ended 2007/08 with a Championship Play-Off final win at Wembley.

The prospect of such glory seemed slim early in the campaign. City made an indifferent start, opening with a 3-2 home defeat to Plymouth. Interim manager Phil Brown had the prefix removed when a permanent deal was sanctioned by new owners of the club, which also had new main sponsors and new kit manufacturers.

KCOM, sponsors of the eponymous KC Stadium, signed a two-year deal to have their Karoo broadband service advertised on City’s primary shirts, their branding (along with back of shirt sponsor Gemtec) would appear on kits made by Umbro.

The Cheshire brand, long-time suppliers to England, gave the Tigers amber shirts similar to the national team’s jerseys: a round collar is flanked by interconnected black diamonds with asymmetrical tapered stripes underneath. Umbro’s double diamond logo is embroidered at collarbone level, higher than the club crest on the other side, and an abstract diamonds pattern vaguely resembling tiger stripes embellished ventilation panels under the raglan sleeves. The matching black shorts feature amber piping on the sides, above joined amber diamonds that visually connected each element of the kit. Black socks with amber diamond trim completed the set.

Late in August, City made Wigan’s Caleb Folan their first £1million signing, and when Manchester United’s Fraizer Campbell arrived on loan, our fortunes improved considerably. Three consecutive wins propelled City up the table in November, and the Tigers lost just twice in a fine run that stretched from late January to mid-April.

City faltered late on to put automatic promotion out of reach, but third place offered a shot at elevation via the Play-Offs. Watford were swatted aside 6-1 on aggregate over two Semi-Final legs, setting up a final against Bristol City in the capital. The club’s first Wembley appearance was commemorated on the shirts with game detail text applied underneath Umbro’s logo.

Cheered on by 40,000 Tiger Nationals who made the East side of Wembley a sea of amber, City triumphed 1-0 courtesy of a spectacular first half strike from Deano, propelling the club into the Premier League.

2008/09 Primary

Dean Windass’ sweetly struck volley at Wembley on 24th May 2008 did more than just promote the club. It ended a 104-year wait for top division football in Hull, it thrust the club into the global spotlight, and it also added some chromatic diversity to a Premier League awash with red and blue, as the amber and black of the Tigers joined the famed colours of the elite.

Umbro’s second City home shirt of the modern era is a traditional striped affair that features a simple round neck connected to set-in sleeves by black yoke panels. A black central stripe allowed both the mostly amber club crest and white maker’s logo (placed asymmetrically, high up at collarbone level, as was Umbro’s wont that season) to sit on black stripes. The wordmark of sponsor Karoo increased in size compared to the previous year’s shirt, and Barclays Premier League patches were applied above pinstriped connected diamonds transfers on each sleeve.

The black shorts feature the same pinstriped diamonds motif as the shirt sleeves, and thin, curved amber ‘slash’ detailing on each side seam. The matching black socks with amber fold-over tops have the Umbro logo above an amber band filled with repeating black solid diamonds, though plain amber alternate socks were used at Tottenham, Manchester United and Portsmouth.

A 2-1 opening day home win over Fulham kicked off a memorable start to life at the top table, and wearing this kit City pulled off a slew of results that had Tiger Nationals rubbing their eyes in glorious disbelief. Long range Geovanni strikes inspired wins at Arsenal and Tottenham, and creditable draws were chalked up at Liverpool and Chelsea.

Media pundits identified the infamous on-pitch half time team talk at Manchester City as the starting point of a near-fatal loss of form, whether that is true or not, the second half of the season made for rather uncomfortable viewing as City became embroiled in a relegation scrap, winning only one of their last 22 games (courtesy of Manucho’s late goal at Fulham).

It was by the skin of their teeth, but The Tigers did successfully avoid the drop, and after the final game against Manchester United, boss Phil Brown serenaded a global audience with some impromptu karaoke. This was the first Hull City shirt to be copied by counterfeiters in Asia, proving that the club was now known all around the world.

2009/10 Primary

Against the odds, City survived their inaugural top flight campaign with Premier League status intact, and hoped to repeat the feat in 2009/10. For the final season of a three-year deal, supplier Umbro used a classic Tigers shirt as design inspiration for the new home kit.

The shirts feature a V-neck and pinstripe detail, echoing the shirts produced for the Tigers by Admiral in the early to mid-1980s. Back then, red was a part of City’s colour palette, and the pinstripes of the shirts worn between 1982-1986 were in the sanguine tone, but red disappeared from City kits in 1990, so the pinstripes of Umbro’s design are black.

Though the shirt had a distinctly retro look, it is packed with technical features, such as under-arm black mesh panels for ventilation. The body panels are made from Umbro’s ‘Trilogy’ fabric, a chemically treated, layered polyester designed to wick away perspiration. Completing the ensemble are black shorts that have amber mesh side panels starting halfway down the thigh, and amber socks with what must logically be described as black ‘pinhoops’.

The club had a new sponsor in bookmaker Totesport, who signed a two-year deal. Their logo was emblazoned on shirts the first time the kit was used at North Ferriby in pre-season, but it was missing for two games played in the Far East when City were invited to contest the Barclays Asia Trophy.

The 2009 edition of the bi-annual tournament took place in China, with all games played in Beijing. The Tigers drew 1-1 with local side Beijing Guoan, advancing after spot-kicks to the ‘final’, which Tottenham won 3-0. Betting advertising is not permitted in China, so City sported sponsorless shirts.

City made a less than optimal start in the league, losing 7 of the first 10 games, but had an unbeaten November. Returning after nine months out injured, Jimmy Bullard inspired wins over Stoke and Everton and draws with Everton and Manchester City, and was named Premier League player of the month.

Bullard was again side-lined by injury in December and the Tigers’ fortunes declined, failing to win again until February 2009, when a spectacular George Boateng goal sealed a 2-1 win over Manchester City. Four straight defeats followed, and Phil Brown was relieved of managerial duties, replaced by interim boss Iain Dowie. It was too little, too late and Dowie could not save the Tigers from relegation.

2010/11 Primary

There was great trepidation ahead of the 2010/11 season, as the true cost of relegation from the Premier League became apparent, leading to the club’s sale, but one announcement was met with excitement at least; that Hull City would again wear kit made by adidas.

It had been almost three decades since the Tigers were outfitted by ‘the brand with the three stripes’. The 1980-82 primary kit, worn during a period of brutal, seemingly terminal decline, remains one of the most highly regarded City kits ever.

Teaser campaign images focused on the three sleeve stripes, not revealing if the shirt was solid amber, or black and amber stripes. It turned out to be both; adidas supplied City the ‘Stricon’ shirt template (also used by Stoke), it is all-amber on the back, whereas the front has a V-neck and fuzzy, abstract stripes (an unpopular but contemporary look, Bayern Munich, Internazionale and Juventus also had indistinct stripes).

The adidas marks and three stripes are stitched onto amber yoke panelling (made of a blended mesh fabric for ventilation) that became part of the collar. The club crest is a two layered felt appliqué that is ironed on.

The Tigers were again sponsored by The Tote (their web address is applied in black outlined, white text) but had secondary and tertiary sponsors too. On the shirt backs, the logo of Neil Hudgell Law is placed above player names, and for the first time shorts bore a sponsor’s mark, that of laboratory equipment supplier SLS.

The black shorts have three amber stripes on each side, starting below a thin strip of amber on the backside, beneath the waistband, although the white shorts of the away kit were used with the primary shirts at Doncaster, Preston and Derby. Completing the kit are black socks with three amber stripes on the fold-over cuffs, but white away socks were used with the home shirt and shorts at Millwall.

Loan signing John Bostock got the season underway with a bang with a spectacular long-range strike in a 2-0 win over Swansea, but the Tigers found the going tough. After some chastening results, manager Nigel Pearson retooled the defence and made us hard to beat, especially on our travels, as a new club record of 17 away league games without defeat was set. City flirted with the Play-Offs, but inconsistent late form saw us finish 11th.

2011/12 Primary

A debate over shirt sponsor suitability raged throughout the summer of 2011, as Tiger Nationals pondered whether the club should be picky or just take the highest bidder’s cash. This was in response to City signing a deal with Cash Converters, some felt the association with a high street pawnbrokers was unseemly, but the ugly rectangular patch that sullied an otherwise attractive shirt was the worst part.

For a second year running, the Tigers are issued the same shirt design as Stoke, the adidas ‘Tiro 11’ template, also used by West Brom. On the plus side, the stripes were not fuzzy and extended to the back panel, answering the main criticisms of the previous home shirt. Complaints about the new shirt were all about the sponsor.

It features a mock wrap crossover V-neck, with the thicker of the black collar bands extending to the edge of amber yoke panels, which are in turn connected to solid amber sleeves with the three stripes truncated for competition patch application.

Beneath the yokes, a striped front body panel have the adidas logo centrally placed and a club crest over the heart that is heat bonded but appeared sewn-on. A mesh ventilation stripe started under each arm, cutting obliquely across the back panel and coming together just above the tail of the shirt, splitting the stripes from a plain amber section. SLS became back of shirt sponsor leaving the shorts ad-free.

The black shorts have an amber panel on each front hem that curved past the three side stripes, and black socks with three amber stripes finished the kit, though a set of amber alternate shorts and socks were made for use with the home shirt on our travels.

They were debuted at Derby and later used at Southampton, Coventry, Crystal Palace and Portsmouth. The amber socks were used with the black shorts at Burnley, and when Southampton turned up at the KC Stadium with only black shorts, the Tigers were the ones to change, using amber shorts with black socks.

Manager Nigel Pearson jumped ship in November, returning to former club Leicester. He was replaced by caretaker boss Nick Barmby, who called time on his playing career to take charge ‘permanently’ in January, though he too was gone by season’s end. After publicly stating he’d not received promised backing from the Allams, Barmby was dismissed soon after an eighth place finish.

2012/13 Primary

The Tigers needed some managerial stability following the acrimonious departures of two men, Nigel Pearson and Nick Barmby, within the space of six months. So Assem Allam turned to the “expensive” Steve Bruce in the summer of 2012, an appointment that paid quick dividends.

Up to this point, adidas had only provided City home kits with striped shirts (1980-82, 2010/11 and 2011/12) but changed tack by supplying the ‘Autheno 12’ template. The mostly solid amber shirts have amber mitred V-necks contrasted by black chest panels which contained both the maker’s logo and club crest. The black panels were underlined by a single thin black band and complemented by curved black panels atop the set-in sleeves, giving way to amber decorated with three individually sewn-on black stripes.

Instead of the sponsor’s logo appearing on an unsightly patch, as in 2011/12, the characters are individually applied, except for the Crystal Palace home game in November when an amber patch was used to cover the standard sponsor with a ‘tash converters’ moustache graphic to promote the Movember men’s health charity drive.

Charity patches adorned the shirts in March too. Prostate Cancer UK were the Football League’s charity for the season and City’s home shirts had small appliqués underneath the V-necks in games at home to Birmingham and Nottingham Forest as well as away at Crystal Palace and Burnley.

The ‘Parma II’ template shorts are black with three amber stripes on the sides, running perpendicular to amber hem banding. Alternate shorts reversed the colours of the home set, they were first worn at Sheffield Wednesday in October, and later at Birmingham, Derby, Bolton, Burnley, Huddersfield and Ipswich. Whenever the primary shirt was used, the socks are solid amber with three black stripes on the fold-over band, and the adidas performance logo in black at shin level.

In his first season as boss, Steve Bruce served up our finest season in the Football League as Championship runners-up (one place higher than our previous best, third in 2007/08) to secure automatic promotion.

By the end of March, the Tigers were just four points from top spot and poised to challenge for the title, but a late season loss of momentum had us looking anxiously beneath us. On a chaotic final day, a 2-2 home draw with Champions Cardiff (as well as results elsewhere) sealed second place and a return to the Premier League.

2013/14 Primary

Against a backdrop of off-field unrest, Steve Bruce pulled off the remarkable feats of leading City to their highest ever finish in the English leagues and reaching the Final of the world’s oldest football cup competition.

Frustrated in his plans to buy the stadium owned by Hull City Council, Assem Allam declared that Hull City was a “lousy identity” and announced plans to rename the club ‘Hull Tigers’, an incendiary move that sparked organised protest from supporters. Ultimately the name change was rejected by the FA Council, but the 2013/14 kits would be the last to feature the crest introduced in 2001, as Allam moved to expunge the club’s name.

For the club’s Premier League return, adidas issued City a primary shirt based on the Tiro 13 template (also used by West Brom). It features a two-tone V-neck and wide stripes on the body, with a broad black diagonal band on the sleeves truncating the maker’s three shoulder stripes and creating a ‘free zone’ for competition patches. A ‘Climacool’ garment, the shirt combined performance fabrics, including mesh underarm panels for ventilation.

The ‘Squadra 13’ design shorts are black with three adidas stripes on the sides broken by curved amber piping, but when the new shirt debuted in simultaneous pre-season friendlies, it was worn with re-used 2012/13 shorts, black at North Ferriby and amber at Winterton. Undoubtedly the best element of the kit is the hooped socks with three amber stripes on the fold-over bands, though solid amber socks were used at West Ham.

Standout results in the Premier League were a 3-1 larruping of Liverpool and a 6-0 flagellation of Fulham as City comfortably steered clear of relegation, ending the campaign 16th (going one better than the 17th place finish of 2008/09).

The Tigers bettered their previous deepest FA Cup run too (Semi-Finals in 1929/30), overcoming Middlesbrough, Southend, Brighton, Sunderland and Sheffield United to make the final. For both Wembley games the shirts featured ‘Respect’ and FA Cup patches on the sleeves, and for the Final, heat bonded game detail was added opposite the club crest: The FA Cup With Budweiser, Final, Arsenal v Hull City, 17th May 2014.

City raced to a 2-0 lead in a thrilling Cup Final with goals from James Chester and Curtis Davies, but the Gunners fought back, forcing extra-time and going on to lift the trophy after Aaron Ramsey’s goal made it 3-2.

2014/15 Primary

The bitterness of an FA Cup final defeat had a sweet aftertaste at least, as City would appear in European competition for the first time. UEFA regulations on shirt number legibility are stricter than those of the Premier League: “Around the figures, there must be a zone free from any item and comprising a single-colour background”, meaning a variant set of shirts was needed for Europa League games, distinct from those for regular use.

The ‘domestic’ home shirt was unveiled in mid-June, as Umbro became kit supplier again. It features a deeper shade of amber (to better match the ‘Pantone’ colour used in print), the logo of new sponsor 12BET and a redesigned crest that omitted the club name, a by-product of the wretched name change attempt.

A simple, round amber collar complemented plain amber sleeves, which bookended body panels with stripes 1cm thinner than those from the previous year. The black shorts have a thin amber stripe on each side, corresponding to a black stripe on the fold-over band of the amber socks.

First worn in simultaneous friendlies at Ferriby and Harrogate, the kit made a competitive debut in Žilina, Slovakia when City took on AS Trenčín in the Europa League Third Qualifying Round. We got away with Premier League numbers (no names) on fully striped shirts for both legs, a 0-0 draw away and a 2-1 home win.

UEFA rulebook compliant shirts were ready for the Play-Off Round, which pitted City against Belgian side Lokeren. They lacked Umbro sleeve text and have plain amber back panels, to which names and numbers are applied in a bespoke typeface. They were worn in the second leg with amber alternate shorts after Lokeren won the first leg 1-0, wearing their away kit at home so City could debut their third kit. The Tigers won 2-1 at the KC Stadium but were eliminated on the away goals rule.

The ‘Euro shirts’ became cup shirts, worn in defeats at West Brom in the League Cup (again with amber shorts) and at Arsenal in the FA Cup. The amber shorts were given one league outing, in a 3-1 win at Sunderland.

Steve Bruce spent £40M on new players for 2014/15, but despite some impressive results, score draws at Arsenal and Manchester City and a 1-0 win at home to Liverpool, City didn’t win enough Premier League games and were relegated in 18th place.

2015/16 Primary

Déjà vu set in during the summer of 2015, when Umbro replaced a shirt with equal width black and amber stripes with one with black pinstripes on an amber field, just as they had six years previous. There was a huge contrast in the years City had wearing pinstripes though: the 2009/10 season ended with relegation from the Premier League, whereas the 2015/16 campaign culminated in a Championship Play-Off final victory that permitted a swift return to what boss Steve Bruce called ‘The Big League’.

The front and back panels are amber with contrast pinstripes, parted by black side panels that are meshed for ventilation, and black set-in sleeves with amber cuffs and the Umbro wordmark underneath the space set aside for competition patches. The neckline is an Eighties style crossover V-neck, black with amber tipping trim.

City signed a one-year sponsorship deal with North Yorkshire theme park Flamingo Land, and their wordmark is applied to the front of the shirt in white outlined black text. On the back of the shirt, above the player names, the wordmark of associate sponsor Hudgell Solicitors is applied in black text underneath the TIGERS text sign off.

The black shorts have amber trim on both the waistband and the hem edges, and amber socks with black fold-over bands and mid-calf black bands containing the Umbro logo completed the ensemble. The 2014/15 amber alternate shorts were re-used at Sheffield Wednesday, Brentford and Bury (FA Cup) before stocks ran out, so when City travelled to Derby in early April, they paired the primary shirts with the change kit’s white shorts and socks, an unsightly look for a lamentable performance and a 4-0 loss.

This situation was rectified for a second visit to Pride Park in the Play-Offs following a fourth place finish. The amber alternates for the forthcoming 2016/17 primary kit were supplied early and in all-amber the Tigers avenged the April defeat with a 3-0 first leg triumph. Derby won the second leg 2-0 but an aggregate win sent City to Wembley for the fourth time.

In addition to commemorative Play-Off sleeve patches, City’s shirts for the final featured game detail: SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP, PLAY-OFF FINAL 28.06.2016, WEMBLEY STADIUM, TIGERS V SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY.

City dominated a tense affair in Steve Bruce’s last competitive game as Tigers’ manager, with Mo Diame’s spectacular 25-yard strike in the 72^nd minute proving decisive in a 1-0 win.

2016/17 Primary

The thrill of returning to the Premier League was tempered over a chaotic summer in which Steve Bruce resigned as manager three weeks before the start of the season, the first team coach was sacked as he prepared to board a flight to Austria for pre-season training, and there were no additions to a senior squad depleted by injuries and departures.

Mo Diame, whose Wembley goal clinched promotion, elected to join Championship side Newcastle, never wearing the home kit he modelled at its launch in competitive action. Umbro took elements from the 1970s home shirts by Europa, notably the broad striping and the use of white as a contrast tone for the collar and cuffs, and gave them a modern remix.

The stripe order changed, with a black central stripe, and the white neck-piece is a ‘Kiwi collar’, a wishbone shaped styling commonly used for Rugby Union jerseys but popularised in football by Brazil’s 2014 World Cup shirt. Underneath the collar lay the wordmark and roundel logo of Kenyan bookmaker SportPesa, who signed a three-year deal to sponsor the Tigers.

The back panel has an interlocking mesh construction for ventilation and on the inside of the neckline the co-ordinates of the recently renamed KCOM Stadium (53.7461 °N, 0.3678 °W) are applied underneath a band of tiger stripes.

The primary shorts are black save for amber flashes at the hem, though colour reversed amber alternates, first seen in the Derby Play-Off game earlier in the year, were used at Exeter (League Cup), Sunderland, Tottenham and Fulham (FA Cup). The amber socks have a black hoop sandwiched by thinner white hoops at calf level.

Tipped to go down, City made a remarkable start, defeating reigning Premier League champions Leicester on opening day. At the end of August City were 5th, made a record signing in Ryan Mason of Spurs and caretaker boss Mike Phelan was named manager of the month. It couldn’t last, and the Tigers began 2017 in the drop zone.

Phelan was replaced by young Portuguese ‘head coach’ Marco Silva. His plan of recruiting talented but out of favour loanees such as Oumar Niasse of Everton and Andrea Ranocchia from Internazionale saw an upturn in fortunes: City made the Semi-Finals of the League Cup and in the Premier League Silva inspired six wins (including a 2-0 beating of Liverpool) that raised survival hopes. A late collapse though, saw City relegated.

2017/18 Primary

Relegation to the Championship signalled a mass exodus, with seventeen players departing. Amidst this massive squad upheaval, a new home kit was launched at the Streetlife Museum, which hosted the ‘Tiger Rags’ exhibition celebrating club kit history.

The shirt features a black crew-neck and irregular width stripes: the thin black bands are half the width of the amber stripes, reminiscent of a look seen in 1963/64, though oblique stripes on set-in sleeves was a contemporary styling. Across the shoulders a black panel contained a tonal, printed double diamond taping, a nod to classic Umbro shirts from the 1970s.

Umbro’s logo is embroidered in black, opposite the sewn-on crest piece which has a parquet pattern texture on the amber field. SportPesa dropped the blue globe device used on previous shirts but increased the wordmark size. On the back, ‘TIGERS’ is applied under the collar, and a green rectangular patch advertised Burflex under the numbers.

Black shorts have the double diamond motif on each side, truncated part way down, and on the back a round appliqué bore the World Wide Fund for Nature logo. Amber alternate shorts with black side stripes were used with the home shirt at Derby, Bolton and Preston. Completing the kit are amber socks that have black fold-over bands with a single thin amber stripe.

City appointed former CSKA Moscow boss Leonid Slutsky, and the exuberant Russian endeared himself with his cheerful demeanour, animated touchline presence and a Hull Fair visit. Despite some convincing wins, such as the 6-1 battering of Birmingham, form was patchy. A seven-game winless streak broke Slutsky’s spirit and he departed in December. Nigel Adkins took over and the Tigers finished 18^th in the Championship.

City used home shirts to support several charities and memorialise events in 2017/18: in September small WWF appliqués were added for the Sunderland game, and remembrance poppy shirts were worn versus Ipswich in November.

Derby’s visit in December was chosen to promote SportPesa’s Kits For Africa campaign, and in February 2018, the shirts worn at Chelsea in a televised FA Cup tie featured sleeve patches marking the 50th anniversary of the sinking of three Hull trawlers, the Ross Cleveland, St. Romanus and Kingston Peridot.

The kit’s final use came in a post-season trip organised by sponsor SportPesa. The Tigers faced Kenyan champions Gor Mahia in front of 60,000 spectators in Nairobi, winning 4-3 on spot-kicks after a goalless 90 minutes.

2018/19 Primary

Hull City signed a four-year extension to the Umbro deal in April 2018, committing to the heritage brand until 2022. Whereas the last home shirt of the 2014 contract was based on a past Tigers kit, Umbro delved into their own vast archive of designs for the first shirt of the new deal. Though described as “a modern take on the traditional club stripes”, the new shirt was clearly based on a 1993 Umbro design, the black with amber Aberdeen away kit, with the colour order flipped.

The shirt features ‘twin-stripes’, pairs of thin black stripes printed onto amber body panels, underneath a two-tone neckline. Black Raglan sleeves are embellished by amber cuffs containing repeating double-diamond ‘taping’, another retro Umbro design element.

On the back, the stripes are slightly truncated by a black hem band, and a ‘TIGERS’ sign-off is applied under the collar. Burflex were again back of shirt sponsors, and the green heat-bonded patches containing their wordmark were bigger than those of the previous season.

The black shorts have amber hem bands on the back, and the ensemble is completed by amber socks with two sets of ‘twin-stripes’, though the amber band separating the stripe pairs is wider than on the shirts. The kit was first used in a pre-season friendly against Marítimo in Albufeira, Portugal.

Amber alternate shorts were pressed into use at Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United twice (once in the EFL Cup), Bolton, Preston, Derby and Brentford. Poppy appliqués appeared on shirts against West Brom and at Birmingham in November, and SportPesa’s ‘Kits For Africa’ campaign was promoted on shirts for the Swansea home game in December.

After another summer of high-profile departures, City started the season dreadfully, picking up just eight points from the first twelve games, leaving them propping up the Championship. There was a considerable upturn in form late in the year however: City won five games in December including a 2-0 win at Leeds, earning Nigel Adkins and Jarrod Bowen the manager and player of the month awards respectively.

A 6-0 battering of Bolton and a 3-0 whipping of Sheffield Wednesday in January put the Tigers in the top half of the table. By March a Play-Off berth seemed an achievable goal, but three consecutive defeats in April ended the dream. City finished the season 13th, and soon after Nigel Adkins declined a new contract offer and left the club.

2019/20 Primary

Nostalgia informed kit design trends for the second half of the 2010s, and as the decade drew to a close the retro focus shifted from the Eighties to the early Nineties, with its bold graphic shirt prints. With the originals becoming rare and pricey commodities on auction sites, a modern remastering of Hull City’s infamous tiger print shirts became inevitable. Umbro had after all tested the waters with subtle tiger stripe elements on consecutive third shirts.

Unveiled on 14th June 2019, Umbro’s take on a classic shirt sensibly kept the print to the chest, with only a few thick black tiger stripes generously spaced so that the amber and black didn’t merge when viewed at distance.

It also features solid amber set-in sleeves and a contrast collar piece broken at the front by a trapezium shaped amber panel. The name of the club was back on kits after a five-year absence, courtesy of a new crest that had supporter input, and the nickname appeared under the collar on the back.

The black shorts have a small flash of amber on the back hem, and amber socks with black fold-over bands and ‘TIGERS’ woven at mid-calf level completed the kit. No amber alternate shorts were produced this season, so the white shorts (and socks) of the change kit were used with the primary shirts at Sheffield Wednesday.

There was no back of shirt sponsor when the season commenced, but On Line Group, an Immingham based provider of ‘integrated engineering solutions’ had their branding added to shirts underneath the numbers from mid-September, and in early November the East Riding College became the back of shorts sponsor.

Round patches advertising the social media publisher SPORTbible appeared on the shirtsleeves for the Chelsea game in the FA Cup in late January, and in February blue sleeve patches for the Heads Up mental health initiative were used at Reading. For the final nine league fixtures, rainbow ‘NHS – Thank You’ patches produced by the EFL were added to the front of the shirts.

Ulsterman Grant McCann, previously boss at Doncaster and Peterborough, took charge of the Tigers after Nigel Adkins departure. City made an indifferent start, but form plummeted after the sale of stars Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki, and when football resumed behind closed doors after a three-month shutdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, City won just one game in nine and succumbed to relegation.

2020/21 Primary

Head Coach Grant McCann might have feared for his job after an ignominious relegation, but the proud Ulsterman was given a shot at redemption and responded by delivering City’s first divisional title since the playing days of Waggy and Chillo. For their part, suppliers Umbro provided a classic looking kit worthy of champions.

After the Coronavirus pandemic halted and then extended the 2019/20 season until three weeks into July, the following campaign began a month later than usual in September. Launches of new kits were delayed even further by the search for a new sponsor, which ended when Hessle based information technologies firm Giacom became the ‘principal club partner’.

As in 1995, when a back-to-basics approach was taken after the use of a tiger stripe print on the home shirt, an archetypal Hull City kit was launched on August 27th 2020, with bold vertical stripes on a shirt chassis that features solid amber Raglan sleeves and a black tipped mitred V-neck in amber.

Giacom’s upper-case wordmark is sympathetically applied in white, underneath white embroidered Umbro marks and a woven crest. On the back, the now usual TIGERS sign-off is in white under the neck, above the player names, which had the ‘squiggle’ from the logo of mental health charity Mind branching off the first letter. Under the numbers, the branding of back of shirt sponsor On Line Group returned, this time in white.

Simple black shorts with an unbroken amber stripe down each side, and amber socks with black turn-over cuffs completed the kit, though amber alternate shorts (effectively inversions of the home set) were paired with the home shirt, first at Sunderland in the EFL Cup, and later in League One at Rochdale, Sunderland, Plymouth and Lincoln, where the title was secured with a 2-1 win at Sincil Bank.

The kits’ last appearance came in a 1-0 defeat at Charlton, as the Tigers, given a guard of honour before the game, received the League One championship trophy after it. There were no fans present at The Valley however: with the exception of the Oxford away game in December (which 1000 spectators were permitted to watch), the entire season was played ‘behind closed doors’, though games were ‘live-streamed’ over the Internet.

The Tigers’ twelfth promotion represented their first table-topping season in 55 years, when Cliff Britton’s legendary side were Third Division champions in 1965/66, and only their third title in club history.

2021/22 Primary

As the Tigers reacclimatised themselves to Championship life following promotion, Umbro followed a modern take on a 90s classic (2019/20) and a quintessential look perfectly executed (2020/21) with a more experimental home kit for 2021/22.

Launched on the 18th of June, the mostly amber shirt features a pattern of obliquely aligned abstract stripes on the front body panel. Tonal for the most part, the print contains a contrast black ‘glitch sash’ running from the left shoulder to the right hip. The woven club crest sits atop this sash, opposite embroidered Umbro marks in black, and above the logotype of main sponsor Giacom in white (though for the Fulham home game they gifted the space to the Tigers Trust charity).

A black triangular insert emphasises the self-coloured mitred V-neck, set against plain amber sleeves joined at the armscye. On the back, the TIGERS sign-off is in black under the neck, above the surname lettering which again had the Mind logo ‘squiggle’ branching off the first letter. Under the numbers, the logo of back of shirt sponsor On Line Group was now just overlapping company initials, applied in white. The accompanying black shorts have an amber side panel at the base, and the amber socks have a flash of black on the cuff reverse, and TIGERS woven in black at the mid-calf point.

The EFL tweaked their kit regulations ahead of this campaign, relaxing their stance on short clashes (now permitted at the ref’s discretion) and limiting clubs to the elements of three registered kits.

This effectively outlawed alternate shorts, so the club made amber shorts part of the third kit, never intending to wear them with the ‘wine’ coloured shirts. City mashed-up a lot, going all-amber on opening day at Preston, and later at Fulham, Cardiff, Reading, Bournemouth, Derby and Sheffield United. All shorts feature the East Riding College logo on the back.

The Tigers started the campaign under Grant McCann and still owned by the Allam Family, who had put the club up for sale seven years earlier. All of that changed in January 2022 when Turkish media magnate Acun Ilicali bought the club. McCann soon followed the Allams out of the newly renamed MKM Stadium exit and former Ajax, Rangers and Georgia striker Shota Arveladze was appointed head coach.

It was a season of constant struggle, but City eventually pulled away from the drop zone, recording a 19th place Championship finish.

2022/23 Primary

In October 2021, City announced a single year extension to their long-running partnership with Umbro, stretching the agreement to the nine-season mark. News of the deal was well received, but its short-term nature hinted at an impending separation.

The double-diamond brand are the masters of subtly referencing historical kits without being too derivative and having used past Tigers kits as inspiration to great effect several times, they had one last contemporisation of a classic up their sleeves. Launched 3rd July 2022 and modelled by Jacob Greaves, Keane Lewis-Potter and Ryan Longman, the shirt has hints of the 1998/99 primary jersey by Olympic, which has broad stripes gradating from white into amber (and vice versa) split by thinner black stripes.

Here, white is simply a trim tone, in thin lines that separated the thick black stripes and even broader amber bands. The amber stripes, including the central band which contained the point of a chunky black wrap-over V-neck, feature a tonal tiger-skin print. The outer amber stripes carried the Umbro marks embroidered in white and a woven club crest, and wide amber cuffs ended black sleeves. City had a new main sponsor in Corendon Airlines, who gave a Boeing 737-800 a fetching Hull City livery. Their combined logo and wordmark is applied in white.

Though undoubtedly referencing the ‘Great Escape’ kit, there was a Brazilian club side feel to the shirt: two coloured stripes separated by thinner white stripes is a look popularised by the home kits of Gremio and Fluminense, both Umbro supplied teams.

Curiously unused in pre-season, the kit was given a first run-out on opening day against Bristol City. Poppy appliqués were added for the Reading home game, and for the visit of Preston, “Together with Türkiye” patches showed support for those affected by an earthquake, with the shirts auctioned to raise funds.

The black shorts (with the logo of cryptocurrency exchange Tomya applied on the back) have a rectangle of amber on each side mid-way down, analogous to the sleeve band of the shirts, and a thick amber band at mid-calf level decorated each of the black socks. Our customary mash-up at Sheffield United took the form of the change kit white socks worn with the primary shirt and shorts.

Shota Arveladze only made it to late September, with Andy Dawson filling in until Liam Rosenior was named Head Coach in November. The Tigers finished 15th in the Championship.

2023/24 Primary

“There is nothing permanent except change” said the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who likely didn’t have kit deals in mind when he said it, though it did foretell the inevitable end of Hull City’s nine season association with Umbro.

In their stead came Kappa, the venerable Italian brand who’s ‘Omini’ mark of a man and woman leaning against each another, has appeared on the kits of Barcelona, Juventus and Ajax. This deal though, was specifically with Kappa Türkiye, since Tigers owner Acun Ilıcalı owned that licence.

Revealed on June 3rd, 2023, the new kit put a strong emphasis on the black half of our traditional colourway and darkened the shade of amber (‘Apricot’ by Pantone standards). Utilising Kappa’s form-fitting ‘Kombat Pro’ chassis, the shirt features a two-tone crew-neck, and ‘THE TIGERS’ added in amber silicone on the back of the neck. Designers of shirts with stripes should consider how the garment scales to maintain uniformity across various sizes. Players tended to wear Small or Medium, so had only three full amber stripes on their shirtfronts (the reverse is all-black), but larger sizes have more amber stripes.

The club crest is placed high on an amber stripe in heat-bonded silicone, across from Kappa’s ‘Omini’ logo in black outlined with amber. Two more ‘Omini’ marks appeared in amber on the black sleeves, which have thin amber cuff inserts to match amber binding on the front hem. Sponsor Corendon has their marks applied to the chest in black-outlined white. The ensemble is finished off with black shorts with amber hems at the front, and black socks with amber cuffs and HULL CITY woven in amber at shin level.

Debuted in a 4-3 friendly win over Galatasaray, white numbers were used in pre-season, replaced by amber numbers and lettering on opening day. Additional sponsorship appeared in September, with biscuit-makers McVitie’s logo appearing on the back of shirts while travel firm Anex became sleeve sponsor.

The Tigers transfer business over two windows was eye-catching, but their form was inconsistent: formidable away but lacking ideas and intensity at the MKM Stadium. City remained in Play-Off contention until the last day though, ending the season three points shy of a top-six finish.

Surprisingly, owner Ilıcalı relieved Championship manager of the season nominee Liam Rosenior of his duties, reasoning he expected more adventurous football: “I want an entertaining team. I would rather lose 3-2 than have a boring 0-0.”

2024/25 Primary

The Tigers turned 120 in June 2024, though truly they didn’t look a day over 80. Maybe it was all those recent trips to Türkiye, not for hair plugs and dental implants, but to sign sponsorship deals and play pre-season friendlies.

A few hours before a behind-closed-doors friendly with Süper Lig side Kasımpaşa on Saturday 13^th July, City revealed the primary kit to be used in the anniversary year. Built around Kappa’s Kombat Pro 2025 ‘chassis’, the shirt is traditionally styled with thin amber and black stripes.

Whereas the first Kappa home shirt had stripes only on the shirt-front, here they are present on the Raglan sleeves and on the back. The black wrap-over V-neck is squared off where it meets the amber central stripe, and it features a Jacquard rib like the matching sleeve cuffs. A signature Kappa move is placing their ‘Omini’ logo high up, presumably to ‘gets the badge in’ on closely framed player interviews, it appeared once on the front of the shirt and twice on each sleeve in white.

The club crest is also placed high up, and though ‘skin-fit’ player shirts used heat applied silicone patches, the club acted upon fan feedback by going with sewn-on woven crests on replicas. The fabric of the shirt carries subtle texturing in the form of an embossed herringbone pattern, and acknowledgement of the club’s anniversary comes from a heat applied transfer on the back of the shirt, with 120 in white numerals overlaid by cursive ‘years’ text. The logo of Corenden Airlines is applied to the chest in black-outlined white.

For the Kasımpaşa friendly, McVities appliqués were placed under the numbers, but in a surprising move, City announced a new back of shirt sponsor before playing José Mourinho’s Fenerbahçe, with port management firm Safiport paying extra to have their logo placed above the player names.

Plain black shorts conformed to the ‘Ryder’ template, which carried the same herringbone pattern as the shirts, while the previous season’s sock design, black with HULL CITY lettering woven at shin level and amber fold-over cuffs, was retained. The kit was given a competitive debut in the Championship season opener at home to Bristol City.

German head coach Tim Walter was brought into deliver “heart-attack football”, but a relegation scrap was not the desired excitement, so City turned to Spanish boss Rubén Sellés to defibrillate the season. The Tigers finished 21st in the Championship.

2024/25 Anniversary

For the 2004/05 centenary season, the club marked 100 years of the Tigers with a slightly amended crest on kits. Twenty years later, City really pushed the boat out for the 120^th anniversary, taking advantage of close links with Kappa Türkiye to produce a bespoke, limited edition kit and matching walkout jacket.

The intention was for the anniversary gear to be used in pre-season when hosting Italian giants Fiorentina, however delays in production led to a hasty rethink. Saving it for an FA Cup tie was fraught with danger, as there is no guarantee of being handed a home game in the draw.

Section 39.4 of the EFL regulations states “Each Club is authorised on one occasion per Season to play a Home Match in an alternative kit.” so the Championship fixture against Cardiff in September was designated the anniversary game and the commemorative kit was announced.

It was given a lavish and truly epic launch, with club legends from multiple generations including Ken Wagstaff, Garreth Roberts and Brian Marwood modelling the kit and jacket in the oak-panelled and stained-glass windowed Banquet Hall of the city’s Guildhall. The sleek black shirt utilised the same wrap-over neckline and sleeve cuff styling as that of the home kit, but here the Jacquard ribbed fabric is metallic gold with black trim.

The gilt-edged theme is continued on the shirt body, with gold used for Kappa ‘Omini’ on the upper arms and chest and for sponsor Corendon’s marks. Uniquely across the four 2024/25 shirts, this one had the tiger-head freed from the trappings of the plectrum shaped crest, fully embroidered in metallic gold thread with 120 YEARS spelt out underneath. The kit was completed by black shorts with a metallic gold waistband, and black socks with gold fold-over cuffs. The demand for anniversary gear was massive, and the club shops quickly sold out, prompting a re-order.

The walls near the dressing rooms of the MKM Stadium were embellished with a graphic detailing “heritage numbers” for the 1,162 players to have featured in competitive action for the Tigers from 1904 to date. One shirt of each player named in the match-day squad had their heritage number applied in gold digits, and a gold letterset was used for player names and squad numbers.

The Tigers triumphed 4-1 against Cardiff, it was a rare win for German coach Tim Walter, who would be gone less than two months later.

Tiger Rags book – Features
Tiger Rags book – Primary kits (This page)
Tiger Rags book – Change kits
Tiger Rags book – Third kits