Tiger Rags book – Features
Tiger Rags book – Primary kits
Tiger Rags book – Change kits (This page)
Tiger Rags book – Tertiary kits
1904-1972 Change kits
What we now refer to as ‘away kits’ didn’t exist when Hull City were founded in 1904, instead there was just ‘change shirts’, reflecting the convention of the time for the home side to change, with the guests invited to wear their primary kit. Even then, change shirts themselves were a relatively new addition to the game and not part of the thinking when the Football League kicked off in 1888/89.
For the first four seasons, each member club was expected to have a distinctive colourway registered with the League, with some sides turning out in shirts that would be unfamiliar if used today: Wolves in red and white stripes, Derby County in brown, light blue and gold and Burnley in navy and white.
When a Second Division was proposed and ratified though, the notion of each side having a kit unlike that of all other clubs became impractical, and instead clubs were expected to have a set of plain white shirts (or a contrasting colour if they usually wore white shirts, as did inaugural Football League champions Preston North End) to wear when the visiting sides colours caused a clash.
The first visitors to necessitate a change for Hull City, in an opening campaign of mostly friendlies, was the claret and amber striped shirted Bradford City in November 1904. The Hull Daily Mail, reporting on a first defeat at the Boulevard, noted: “City turned out in white shirts, the Bradford shirts being very similar to those of the home team.”
Changing shirts was considered enough to negate a colour clash, there was no compulsion to change the regular shorts and socks, and that thinking would remain unchallenged for decades to come.
Plain white shirts would become City’s ‘away shirts’ after the First World War, specifically 1921/22 after the Football League decided that the visitors should be the ones to change in the event of a colour clash.
Those shirts remained unadorned even when the blue primary shirts bore the ‘three crowns’ civic coat of arms for 1935/36, as they did when amber and black shirts returned for 1936/37, when ‘home shirts’ and ‘away shirts’ were worn by alternating players in the squad photograph. The previous seasons blue shirts were worn at Mansfield in November 1936, quite possibly the first use of a ‘third kit’ by Hull City.
The ravages of World War Two pushed football kit innovation down the list of priorities in Britain, even though it was a golden age for match attendance. When the Tigers visited Bradford in 1949, the white shirts worn with the primary black shorts and amber socks were essentially the same as those seen in pre-war photographs.
A curious custom in the FA Cup was for both sides to change kit in the event of a clash. This was notable in several cup finals, such as in 1948 when Manchester United wore blue shirts with white shorts and Blackpool wore white shirts and black shorts, and in 1956 when winners Manchester City wore claret shirts with white chalk-stripes while Birmingham City donned white shirts and black shorts. This practice ended after the 1982 final, when Tottenham wore all-yellow and QPR wore red shirts and black shorts in both the drawn first game and the replay.
Given the scarcity of sides favouring home shirts in tones that clash with amber and black, this convention rarely affected the Tigers, but in 1966 the visit of Southport for a 5th Round tie saw both sides in change kits at Boothferry Park. The Merseysiders, who usually wore all-amber, played in all-red, while City gave home fans a sighting of the all-white kit usually seen on the Tigers’ travels in a 2-0 win decided by a Chris Chilton brace.
Elements of the away kits could also be seen at Boothferry Park in close-season practice games that pitted team-mates against each other, with one side wearing primary shirts while the other XI played in change shirts, though these kits were often mashed-up using whatever shorts and socks were to hand.
The white away shirts worn in the mid-60s had self-coloured V-necks and no decoration save for the numbers on the back, in contrast to the primary shirts which have crew-necks that feature ‘twin trim’ in black.
Until the 1970s, when they began dealing with clubs directly, sportswear manufacturers supplied sports shops, who in turn supplied clubs, which means it is possible that home kits and away kits were made by different manufacturers at times. Local sports shop Asbestos (or the Asbestos and Rubber Company, to give the present day Arco their full former name) stocked both Umbro and Bukta, but since maker’s logos were confined to the inside of garments, such as on shirt neck tags, spectators would be none the wiser about who produced club kit.
For the first 64 years of the club’s existence, change shirts or away kits were largely functional rather than fashionable and tended to use the most basic of available templates, from the button-front garments that were indistinguishable from cricket whites to the ‘self-coloured’ interlock fabric shirts used before cotton was replaced by synthetic materials, which lent themselves to increased design diversity.
Although a move to bolder away kit design didn’t immediately follow the switch to Nylon shirts in 1969/70, that was the first season in which a tiger-head crest appeared on change shirts. Additionally, player numbers were sewn onto the shorts of an otherwise unembellished kit used until the end of 1971/72.
1972-1975 Change
Commercialisation was creeping into the game in the 1970s: at the 1971 FA Cup final, Liverpool’s shorts carried small sewn-on Umbro logos, and two years later when Leeds and Sunderland met at Wembley to contest the 1973 final, both sides had a double-diamond on their shirtfronts.
Once, kit manufacturers sold to sports shops, local distributors who in turn supplied clubs. That changed when Admiral supplied Leeds directly for 1973/74. Also in 1973, German side Eintracht Braunschweig put the logo of the potent liqueur Jägermeister on their shirts, introducing the notion of non-kit supplier shirt advertising, which arrived on these shores in 1976 when non-league Kettering Town emblazoned their shirts with ‘Kettering Tyres’.
Against this backdrop, the Tigers kits for 1972-75 were made by Bukta. The venerable kit supplier was founded as ER Buck & Sons in 1879 to make khaki drill shorts (for British soldiers fighting the First Boer War), but they turned their hands to sportswear early in their existence, supplying Nottingham Forest in 1884.
This would prove to be the last City kit made by Bukta and also the last to not carry a maker’s mark. Slow to the conspicuous branding party, Bukta had their logo on FA Cup final shirts for Newcastle in 1974 and West Ham in 1975, but none of the kits made by the Stockport based firm for the Tigers feature the stylised prancing deer trademark.
Made of ‘Bri-Nylon’, the proprietary fabric made by British Nylon Spinners, the white shirt is structurally identical to the amber and black primary shirt, with an inset triangular panel neckline, underneath a spread turn-over collar. The underfed tiger-head badge, first used in 1947, was centrally placed on these shirts, but a redrawn and more felinologically correct tiger was appearing in match programmes, so its days were numbered.
Besides the black embroidered crest, the only contrast on the white waffled fabric shirts is the chain-stitched black numbers on the reverse. Plain white shorts and socks completed the kit.
It was worn three times over the course of three seasons, at Oxford and once each at Luton, Norwich and Crystal Palace. The Tigers played at Blackpool three times in that period, mashing-up the change shirts with the primary socks. The Tigers finished the 1972/73 and 1973/74 Division Two campaigns 13th and 9th respectively under Terry Neill. His successor John Kaye went one better in 1974/75 with an 8th placed ranking.
1975-80 Change
New supplier Europa went with a vintage look in 1975, providing the Tigers with amber and black striped shirts with white shorts and socks for the primary kit. It didn’t spell the end of City wearing black shorts and socks however, as the Leicestershire firm made them part of the away kit.
Europa maintained the club custom of having white change shirts, adopting a ‘cut and shut’ approach, swapping components of City’s traditional amber and black home and all-white away kits.
The white shirt features a black wide-point polo collar over a white mitred V-neck, and across the shoulders and set-in sleeves ran two thin connected stripes, one amber, one black. As on the home shirt, the maker’s logo is placed opposite the diagonally embroidered club initials of H.C.A.F.C.
The black shorts have two thick amber side stripes, and black socks with white fold-over bands bearing one amber and one black stripe trim completed the kit. Parts of the Tigers’ two kit sets were used interchangeably on our travels though, with the black away shorts and socks being paired with the home jersey as necessary and the white home shorts and socks worn with the away shirt on occasion. The latter combination was used when the white shirt made a competitive debut at Luton on the first day of 1975/76, as an all-white clad City lost 2-0.
This change kit became synonymous with an aging Billy Bremner, signed from Leeds United in September 1976, as he appeared to wear it on a Topps trading card, though a photo from his Leeds days had obviously been doctored to look like he wore a Hull City shirt.
For two years running City finished 14th in Division Two, ending the second of those campaigns, 1976/77, at Stamford Bridge (where Chelsea won 4-0 to seal promotion) wearing the combination of white shirts, white shorts and black socks. A rock bottom 22nd place finish and relegation in 1977/78 prompted City to return to black shorts and socks at home for the 1978/79 Division Three campaign, restoring all-white to first choice away kit.
The shorts were amended slightly, removing the gap between amber and black and side stripes to match the shirt trim. All-white was most notably worn on the final day at Vicarage Road, where Watford avenged a 4-0 loss at Boothferry Park, winning by the same score-line to gain promotion while City finished 8th.
1980-82 Change
Rather than waiting until the summer of 1980 to make a complete brand change from Europa to German giants adidas, Hull City elected to transition gradually during the 1979/80 season, beginning the campaign in Europa shirts with adidas shorts and socks, and concluding the switch by the new year to begin the Eighties wearing only ‘Die Marke mit den Drei Streifen’.
The club also made a material change, ditching shirts made of Nylon and adopting polyester, which offered greater sweat-wicking and shape retention properties. Whereas Europa’s change shirts used both amber and black for trim, the new adidas away kit used only black, using the same template as Fulham’s home shirt.
As with the home shirt, the neckline is a contrast black mitred V-neck with a spread collar, and sewn-on taping with three stripes in black connected the body panels to set-in sleeves that ended with black cuffs.
The adidas trefoil, embroidered in black above the wordmark, is the ‘split leaves’ variant which would be replaced by the version with unbroken stripes in the negative space by the mid-80s. The only splash of colour on the otherwise two-tone shirt is the amber of the embroidered tiger-head crest, which had ‘HULL CITY’ curved underneath in black thread. White shorts with three black stripes on each side carried the trefoil sans-wordmark on the left side (as worn) but no tiger-head crest. Completing the kit are white socks with three black stripes on the fold-over bands.
Curiously the all-white kit was taken to Grimsby on Easter Monday 1980, causing a clash that necessitated borrowing Grimsby’s old red Umbro shirts from 1975, wearing them with our white shorts and socks. The full away kit was used at Newport and Oxford in the 1980/81 relegation season.
The white away shorts were paired with the home shirts in 1980/81 at Sheffield United (Anglo-Scottish Cup), Lincoln (League Cup), Fulham, Brentford, Colchester and at Tottenham (FA Cup) where City lost 2-0 but mostly held their own against the eventual trophy winners. The look was replicated in 1981/82 at Bury, Darlington and Stockport.
Two number styles were used during this kit’s lifespan: tri-line digits, popularised at the previous two World Cup finals in 1974 (Poland and Zaïre) and 1978 (France and Brazil), and a solid typeface with adidas trefoil logos cut out of the base of each number, a style used by 1983 FA Cup finalists Manchester United and Brighton.
1982-85 Change
Don Robinson was certainly a colourful figure: the Scarborough entrepreneur once wrestled professionally under the alias of Dr. Death, he chartered the first UK flights to Las Vegas, and was involved with Scarborough’s Zoo and Marine Land, Flamingo Land and London Dungeon.
He brought a sense of showmanship to his chairmanship of Hull City, inviting Soviet giants Dynamo Kiev to Boothferry Park, taking City to Florida to play Tampa Bay Rowdies and Fort Lauderdale Sun, and releasing the single ‘The Tigers Are Back’ on the ‘DON Records’ label. More importantly, from a kit standpoint, he introduced red to the colour palette, and this extended to the change kit as well as the primary.
The first Hull City away shirt by Admiral used the same basic design as the home, and the exact same ribbed V-neck and sleeve cuffs in black with one amber and one red stripe at the centre. The body panels and set-in sleeves were white with black pinstripes throughout.
The logo of Admiral, based on naval uniform cuff stripes, is a sewn-on patch, whereas the tiger-head crest is embroidered, with the club name and nickname in red thread. Early batches of player shirts had the maker mark and club crest in an irregular order, with the crest on right side (as worn), but later sets corrected this, placing the crest ‘over the heart’.
Though red was just a trim colour on the shirt, it is the main tone of the shorts, which had one black stripe inside thin amber taping on each side, and white socks had repeating Admiral logos on the fold-over bands. There was lots of mashing-up however, with the old adidas black socks (at Swindon, 1982/83), with the home red socks (such as at Oxford, 1983/84), with unbranded white shorts (at Leyton Orient, 1983/84) and with the black home shorts (such as at Bristol City, 1984/85).
City’s first shirt sponsorship deal with fitted kitchen brand Hygena in 1983/84 wasn’t acknowledged on the change shirts, though the 1984/85 deal with Miami International Airport based airline Arrow Air was, with individual letters applied with heavy overlock stitching.
Whereas the primary shirt was refreshed by Admiral for 1984/85, with a new material and two-tone amber, their first away shirt was retained for longer and so featured in two promotion campaigns across three seasons: Robinson’s Tigers were Division Four runners-up in 1982/83 and Division Three’s third placed side in 1984/85.
1985-88 Change
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” wrote the novelist L.P. Hartley. In which case, Hull City keeping a change kit for three years is as quaint as New Zealand. Retaining the same basic look for six years represents North Korea levels of strangeness, certainly in contrast to the revenue driven sensibilities of modern football.
A year after Admiral updated the primary shirts, swapping the material to a much glossier fabric, they did the same for the change shirt, but the overall look of the away kit, a white shirt with black pinstripes paired with red shorts, remained the same.
There were other subtle changes to the shirts though: the ribbed V-neck and sleeve cuffs were chunkier, with five stripes within (two red, two black and one white), while white taping with repeating red Admiral logos is added to the yoke. City were sponsor-less for 1985/86 but backed by Driffield based poultry firm Twydale Turkeys in 1986/87, but only home shirts carried TWYDALE lettering, whereas MANSFIELD BEERS was added in black letters to change shirts for 1987/88.
New red shorts had white taping with stacked red Admiral logos down the sides that corresponded to the shirt’s yoke tape. The most obvious change to the away ensemble however was the switch to red socks, which had white Admiral logos on the fold-over bands.
Mash-ups were legion. The red shorts were used with the home shirts and socks at Sunderland, Grimsby and Derby in 1986/87, and at Sheffield United and West Brom in 1987/88. Red shorts and red socks were used with primary shirts in the FA Cup at Swansea and Wigan in 1986/87. Black home shorts were used with the white shirts and red socks of the change kit at Shrewsbury in 1985/86.
It took three games for City and Watford to resolve an FA Cup Third Round tie in 1987/88. The Tigers borrowed Watford’s black Umbro away socks for a 1-1 stalemate at Vicarage Road, wearing them with their own white away shirts and black home shorts. After a 2-2 draw at Boothferry Park, Watford again hosted the Tigers, who this time wore white socks with three black stripes on the cuffs.
That’s a style associated with adidas, but three stripe cuff socks were part of Bukta, Scoreline and Spall kits in the 1980s. These three stripe white socks were used again at Bradford in April 1988.
1988-90 Change
Red continued to be part of the Tiger’s colour palette late into the Eighties and was evident on the first kits provided by Scottish brand Matchwinner, but with the Nineties coming into view, time was nearly up for the sanguine tone.
Following the same design as the primary kit, the 1988/89 away shirt features contrast yoke panels in amber and black, creating a two-tone chevron above the main front panel, which is white with a chequerboard Jacquard pattern throughout. Underneath a smart, overlapping red V-neck with black tipping sat the centrally placed club crest, with the arrowhead like Matchwinner logo adorning each sleeve.
Red shorts feature the same chequerboard shadow pattern as the shirts, and white socks with amber and black trim completed the set. The complete away kit was worn at Oxford, Oldham, Watford, Chelsea, and Bradford twice, most notably in a 2-1 FA Cup win that set up a plum Fifth Round tie against Liverpool. Amber socks were mashed-up with the white shirts and red shorts at Plymouth, and the red shorts were paired with the home shirts at West Brom to create an unfamiliar but interesting look in a 2-0 defeat at the Hawthorns.
This kit was used for a second season, but with different sponsorship in place. Mansfield Brewery promoted their Riding Bitter brand on City’s strip in 1988/89, but for the start of 1989/90 the name of the unloved and now defunct county of Humberside appeared on kits, including away shirts worn at Bradford and Oxford.
Northern Foods took over as sponsor in November 1989, putting the logo of subsidiary Dale Farm Dairy Group on Tigers shirts. This version of the away kit was used in complete form at Wolves, Brighton, Sunderland and Ipswich, and the white shirt was part of several mash-ups: worn with the black home shorts at Swindon and Oldham, and with amber home socks as well as black shorts at West Ham and Barnsley. On the final day of the campaign at Watford, City’s change shirts were coupled with white shorts borrowed from the hosts.
City jetted to Bulgaria for a pre-season tour in August 1990, a trip immortalised by the Yorkshire TV documentary “A kick in the Balkans”. The Humberside shirts were brought out of retirement, and the white shirts were used with white shorts in the 2-2 draw with FC Etar in the Medieval city of Veliko Tarnovo.
1990-92 Change
It isn’t always necessary for a kit be attractive for it to be popular. Take Matchwinner’s green and white away kit for example, which was a radical departure from tradition as previous City away kits had been predominantly white.
The Tiger Nation didn’t just tolerate the change however, they positively embraced it, even mentioning the kit in song: “We all follow a black and amber team, who sometimes play in green” went the chant, a terrace reworking of the Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’.
The shirts feature a deep green and white chequer pattern that is mildly hypnotic when viewed up close. Further away, the green and white blended together to form a light, minty shade of green. In common with the home jerseys, the sleeves were set-in, and the sharply cut turnover collar is attached to a three-button placket with contrast white back panel.
The player-issue shirts feature the wordmark of sponsor Bonus in quite heavy, leathery looking patches, whereas the replicas used much lighter appliqués. Felt was used initially, but the black letters tended to fade so later batches used vinyl patches.
Who wore short shorts? City wore short shorts, until May 1992 anyway, when we (and the rest of the league) followed the lead of Tottenham who had switched to longer shorts for the 1991 FA Cup final. The shorts to this kit, white with green and white chequered stripes on each side, showed a lot of thigh, though base-layer pioneer Dave Hockaday maintained his modesty with long black cycling shorts. Because the socks were solid green with white fold-over bands, the tone of green looked considerably darker than it did on the chequered shirts.
The Tigers wore green at Wolves (twice, once in the League Cup), Oxford and Newcastle in a disastrous 1990/91 campaign that ended in ignominious relegation from Division Two. It ended on a high note though, a 2-1 win over the Geordies at St. James’ Park in which City used the white with amber and black trim 1989/90 away socks with the green and white away kit.
The following season, 1991/92, was considerably less traumatic, except when City twice used black and amber home shorts with the green away shirts: at Bournemouth and Blackpool. Despite the popularity of the ‘tablecloth’ kit, green hasn’t been used as an away colour again, forcing an amendment to the last verse of a very catchy chant.
1992/93 Change
After two years experimenting with green as an alternative change kit colour, the club returned to a classic all-white look in 1992, providing a less conspicuous replica shirt option for fans who felt the tiger stripe home shirt was a bit too much.
The polo collared away shirt did share some features with the tiger stripe home: a placket with an angular cut black panel exposing part of the amber layer beneath, and arched panels containing Matchwinner’s logo on each arm. The wordmark of Bonus was applied in raised black felt for 1992/93, their last season as sponsor (though they’d be back ten years hence).
The shirt body feature an intriguing triskele – a triple spiral pattern – embossed into the fabric. This symbol represents motion towards understanding in Celtic culture but also appears in ancient Japanese iconography as the ‘mitsu-tomoe’. This pattern also appeared on Notts County, St. Mirren and Torquay kits by Matchwinner.
The white shorts carried the same triskele pattern and black arched sleeve panels as the shirts, and the kit is completed by white socks with black turnover bands decorated with amber hoops of varying widths.
The shirt was first worn at Leyton Orient as part a mash-up, paired with the black shorts of the home kit (a look replicated at Blackpool) while the full away kit was used at Mansfield, Bradford and Exeter in 1992/93. Matchwinner ended their relationship with Hull City quite sharply, leaving the Tigers in need of a new supplier for 1993/94. Melton Mowbray firm Pelada filled the breach but could provide only new socks for the start of the season, needing time to produce new shirts and shorts.
In the interim, patches were applied to the 1992/93 shirts and shorts to obscure the Matchwinner logos and update the sponsor, with nightclub Pepis replacing Bonus. The makeshift change kit was worn on the opening day of the Endsleigh League as City travelled to Barnet, and later used at Cambridge, Blackpool (with black shorts), Bournemouth and in three consecutive FA Cup ties, though one didn’t make the history books…
The First-Round game at Runcorn was abandoned when a perimeter wall collapsed as City fans celebrated a goal, necessitating a replay at Witton’s Wincham Park where the Tigers won 2-0. The Round Two defeat at Chester in December was the last appearance of the patched-up shirts and shorts, as Pelada revealed their replacements soon after.
1993-95 Change
The unexpected termination of the Matchwinner contract left City needing a new kit supplier in the summer of 1993. A deal was struck with Pelada, the Melton Mowbray-based firm who also supplied Blackpool, Mansfield, Reading and West Brom, but it was signed so late they could only provide new training gear and match socks for the start of the 1993/94 season.
While Pelada designed and produced the shirts and shorts to be worn with the new socks, the previous year’s Matchwinner gear was used as a stopgap, but with Pelada patches covering the previous supplier’s branding.
The updated home kit was ready by mid-November, and the new change kit followed in late-December. In the lowest of low-key kit launches, Terry Dolan stood in front of a photocopier wearing the new away shirt while holding up the shorts.
The new shirt is jade with thin white stripes, and features a black polo collar with jade trim, attached to a black asymmetrical blade-shaped placket. The serifed wordmark of sponsor Pepis is applied on the chest in black raised felt, as is Pelada’s combination mark beside the club crest. The fabric of the shirt is embellished by a pinstripe Jacquard weave, and the set-in sleeves were hemmed on short sleeve shirts but given a black ribbed cuff on long sleeve versions.
The accompanying white shorts had thick black side stripes, complementing the pre-existing socks that were black with white fold-over bands and white shin level hoops. The complete ensemble was worn at York, Exeter, Fulham and Brentford, and at Bradford the amber home socks were mashed-up with the change shirts and shorts.
A change in sponsor necessitated another cover-up patch in 1994/95, when local confectionery firm Needlers signed a one-year deal. The chain-stitched black felt patches featuring the Needlers’ sweet wrapper logo were MASSIVE and somewhat unsightly, making a first appearance in the 4-0 opening day defeat at Oxford. The full away kit was later used at Brentford, Bradford and Cambridge.
The jade shirts and white shorts were next worn at Bournemouth in February 1995 when they were paired with plain white socks. Those white socks were used again on the last day of the season, when the jade shirt was mashed-up with the black and amber home shorts at Blackpool in a game notable for goalkeeper Alan Fettis being deployed as a striker and scoring late in a 2-1 win.
1995-97 Change
After the animal print excesses of the previous three years, City unveiled a relatively sober set of kits in the summer of 1995. The Tigers had struck a deal with Lancashire based firm The Glory Years, who manufactured kits under the ‘Super League’ trademark, a brand also worn by Huddersfield, Brighton and Rochdale.
The away kit was, like the primary, used for two seasons and followed the same design. The baggy fitting shirt had a turnover collar attached to a placket fastened by three black ‘poppers’, it also carried a classy shadow pattern of repeated tiger-heads over a field of double pinstripes, the initials of a local haulage company IBC in raised felt, and the club crest on a shield contained within a larger shield.
Whereas the shorts of the home kit were in stark contrast to the shirt and socks, all elements of the change outfit were of the same main colour, an unfamiliar but nonetheless lovely deep red, similar to sponsor IBC’s main livery colour. The maroon is complemented by a very familiar contrast tone; the shirt’s turnover collar is amber, as is piping on the shirtsleeves and shorts, and the fold-over bands of the socks were amber with maroon hoops.
The Tigers got a lot of use out of this kit, first wearing it in competitive action at Highfield Road against then Premiership Coventry in a League Cup tie. It was also used at Bristol Rovers, Blackpool, Swansea, Oxford and Notts County in 1995/96, a disastrous season in which City were the first team in the land to be relegated.
The following season, 1996/97, the Tigers wore maroon in Third Division action at Hereford, Brighton, Mansfield, Cambridge, Torquay, Barnet and Fulham as well as in an FA Cup First Round tie against Whitby Town played at Scarborough’s McCain Stadium that ended 0-0 to set up a memorable replay at Boothferry Park.
Additionally, the maroon socks were used with the all-white third kit’s shirts and shorts for a game at Lincoln, a 1-0 win in which forward Andy Brown deputised for an injured Roy Carroll between the sticks.
The most notable appearances of this kit came not during Hull City games however, but on a Nickelodeon kids TV show; Renford Rejects, about a school five-a-side team, featured a character who wore an array of Tigers shirts during the series’ run, but it was the 1995-97 away shirt that was worn most often.
1997/1998 Change
All-white was a seldom used alternate tone between 1995-1997 but became the regular change kit again when Super League created a new set of kits for a new era.
Long serving boss Terry Dolan was gone, along with the Needler/Fish boardroom axis, replaced by new owner and tennis maven David Lloyd, who tempted former England forward Mark Hateley to Hull as player/manager of the Tigers.
The kit’s white shirt followed a template also used by Macclesfield and Torquay, featuring a V-neck in amber with a black central stripe. The set-in sleeves had amber cuffs with black tipping trim on short sleeved shirts, but long-sleeved versions had a white elasticated cuff. Replica shirts though had cuffs that matched the collar, amber with a black centre stripe.
That wasn’t the only difference between player issue and replica shirts: curiously player shirts had no maker’s mark on the chest, whereas replicas carried a Super League logo. All versions had a shadow pattern of interconnected diamonds that ran throughout the shirt and heat bonded black rectangular chest patches advertising the University of Hull.
The away shorts and socks were of the same design as those that formed part of the home kit, only rendered in white and amber. On each side of the shorts, an obliquely cut amber panel started midway down, contained within two lines of black piping. Super League’s stylised initials appeared only on the shorts, as SL appeared on the socks in block letters. The socks were white with amber fold-over bands.
The new away kit debuted in Hateley’s first competitive game as manager, on a swelteringly hot opening day in Mansfield. Thousands of Tiger Nationals descended upon Field Mill in expectant mood, but City started the season as they would go on, losing 2-0 in abject style. The Tigers finished the 1997/98 campaign 22nd in Division Three, two places (though 21 points) above the lone relegation spot.
After Mansfield, the away kit was worn at Cambridge, Barnet (with the black home socks) and Notts County in the league, and at Grimsby in the Auto Windscreens Shield, however its most notable use came in an October League Cup tie at Newcastle. Despite the Magpies playing in black and white, City wore white socks with black fold-over bands that were normally part of a white ‘keeper kit favoured by Steve Wilson. City put in a creditable performance at St. James Park but lost 2-0.
1998/99 Change
Most deals to supply kits last for several years, but Olympic Sportswear hold the unique distinction of supplying Hull City for just one season. The firm, founded in 1995, are best known for their work in Portugal where they supplied Benfica and the national side, though they operated in the United Kingdom too, supplying Leyton Orient, Southend, Dundee United and Northern Ireland.
While their home shirt was a little experimental, featuring as much white as amber, the away kit was a traditional affair in all-white. Both Olympic kits were launched on 17th July 1998, with Gregor Rioch modelling the change kit, though it would undergo several changes by the time it saw match action.
The launch shirt had the same black wrap-over V-neck with trimmed polo collar as the home shirt, but match shirts and replicas featured a thicker wrap-over V-neck to contain amber and white bands like those of the polo collar. A fully embroidered badge appeared on the launch shirt, but the production version used a sewn-on patch. In each instance, the tiger-head used had previously appeared in programmes, but never before on match kit (and never again).
Whereas the home shirt had set-in sleeves, the away had Raglan sleeves to accommodate a wide amber stripe and parallel thin black band printed obliquely on each sleeve. The University of Hull were sponsors for a second successive year, but their serifed wordmark was arranged differently this time, with all words rendered the same size on a wide black felt patch.
The shorts were plain white except for the maker’s mark and club badge, and completing the kit were white socks with a thick black band at shin level containing Olympic’s logo, and a thinner back band on the cuffs.
After mashing-up at Barnet with plain black socks, City wore all-white at Mansfield, Torquay, Brentford, Rochdale and Cambridge. The Brentford game was a significant match in City’s survival story, now known as the ‘Great Escape’.
The Tigers looked relegation certainties under Mark Hateley and were the lowliest placed League club at the start of 1999, by which point Warren Joyce had replaced Hateley as player/manager. Joyce added the cult figures of Gary Brabin, Jon Whitney and Justin Whittle to a side that became hard to beat. The 2-0 win at Griffin Park took City off the foot of the table, and ultimately relegation to the Conference was avoided.
1999/00 change
Purple was a popular choice of away kit colour throughout the English leagues in the late 1990s, and City followed the trend when new kit supplier Avec provided them with a mostly purple change kit for the 1999/00 season.
The regal tone’s prevalence at that time was highlighted when City travelled to Exeter on opening day with only their first-choice kit, which had black shorts and socks, creating a clash with the home side. City were permitted to use their new Avec black and amber striped home shirts but were forced to wear parts of Exeter’s away kit in the 1-0 defeat. The colour of those borrowed shorts and socks? Purple.
City’s kitman had little choice but to take only the home kit on opening day as delays in the production of City’s own purple away kit meant it was not available to them in August. Replicas didn’t go on sale until September, the month the change kit was first used in a 1-0 win at Torquay.
The shirt features an overlapping V-neck with white tipping trim, a subtle waffle-like pattern woven throughout, and raglan sleeves that were separated from the body panels by red piping that matched the sponsor’s wordmark. The style of sleeves encouraged radial arching of surnames when applied above the numbers (1999/00 was the first season squad numbers and player names were used in the Football League) on the back of the away shirt, though the surname of Jamaican international Ian Goodison was applied straight, pushing both name and numbers very low.
The shirts (and shorts) also featured a new club crest, one that contained a depiction of the Humber Bridge and three coronet crowns representing the city of Hull (though they were placed side by side, not stacked as on the civic coat of arms). This crest did not prove popular, and it lasted just two seasons before being abandoned.
This away kit’s shorts were white with thick purple side stripes flanked by red piping and had red squad numbers applied above Avec’s wordmark on the left side (as worn). Completing the kit were purple socks that had white and red stripes on the turnover bands and the manufacturer’s stylised A logo at shin level.
After Torquay, this kit was used at Barnet, Hayes (in the FA Cup), Shrewsbury, Lincoln and Mansfield in a disappointing campaign that ended with City 14th in Division Three.
2000/01 Change
For both of their two seasons as Hull City supplier, County Durham based Avec eschewed traditional white as a change kit tone. Only one-season-wonders Pelada before them had not produced a white shirted away kit, though even they had their name on white shirts in the form of patches that obscured Matchwinner branding on kit recycled during the 1993/94 campaign.
After their avant-garde purple, white and red debut change kit, Avec followed up with the equally unfamiliar colourway of navy, maroon and yellow. The navy shirt shared some build traits with the home shirt, such as a rib-knit construction and contrast bands across the shoulders and under the arms, this time in maroon, separated from the other pieces by piping, yellow in this case. The main difference is a trimmed, mitred V-neck instead of a polo collar.
Avec’s wordmark is embroidered in yellow, a tone also used for trim on the patch containing the club crest and the sponsor. The initials of hauliers IBC were applied in raised felt when the campaign began, but a second batch used brighter looking vinyl letters. Yellow tipping trim ended the navy ribbed sleeve cuffs. Though match shirts were personalised with surnames and squad numbers, all players wore size XL, whether Gary Brabin hefty or Clint Marcelle tiny.
The shorts were maroon with contrast navy hems underneath yellow piping and feature white waistband drawstrings. Maroon socks with thick navy bands outlined by thin yellow bands at shin level completed the kit.
The fixture computer determined that City would start the season at Blackpool, meaning an opening day debut for the new change kit. Brian Little’s Tigers looked set to take a point away from Bloomfield Road but conceded two late goals to go down 3-1.
Navy and maroon was worn in back-to-back away games in September, when the trips to Mansfield and Barnet both ended 1-1. It was February 2001 the next time the away kit was seen again, in a fine 2-0 win at Shrewsbury, and the kit made a final appearance at Torquay in late March, when an Andy Holt goal earned a 1-1 draw.
2000/01 was a season scarred by off-field drama: an insolvent club called in administrators leading to a change of ownership, but on the pitch City defied expectation by qualifying for the Play-Offs. Aggregate defeat to Leyton Orient scuppered promotion hopes, but the Tigers future looked bright.
2001/02 Change
After two years with Avec, Hull City turned to a local firm for their kits: Driffield based Dewhirst held licenses for several brands, and for three seasons starting with 2001/02 the Tigers’ garb would bear the stylised P of French mark Patrick.
Mock-ups of shirts seen on the club’s official website suggested that white, light-blue and dark-blue change shirts were under consideration, but ultimately new owner Adam Pearson decided he wanted a silver away shirt to contrast the gold-like amber of the home.
The silver shirts followed the same basic construction as the home, with a contrast mitred V-neck, set-in sleeves and underarm panels split from the front and back panels by piping. The differences were a looser fitting fabric, and the underarm panels were in a contrast tone. Navy shorts had thick silver side panels, and navy socks had Patrick’s two stripes and wordmark in silver on the fold-over band.
Like the away kit it replaced, the silver and navy garb was given a debut on the opening day of the season, as City began their Division Three campaign at Exeter – winning 3-1. Before it was next used in the League at Mansfield, City visited Derby for a League Cup game, in which referee Graham Laws had no issue with both sides wearing light shirts and dark shorts – silver and navy against white and black.
Such tonal similarities were an issue in late October though, when a kit debacle at Darlington led to a rethink, and the commissioning of two sets of alternate shorts. The Tigers took only the away kit to Feethams, to the displeasure of match official Michael Jones, who ordered City to wear the Quakers’ white away shorts made by Xara.
Six minutes into the game, however, and the ref mandated another change, this time for the home side, and the game was held up for several minutes by the bizarre spectacle of players changing shirts on the pitch, as Darlington swapped primary shirts for their red away jerseys.
To prevent a recurrence, City ordered amber alternate shorts to be worn with the home shirt, and silver shorts for use with the change shirt. These alternates were pressed into use just once, at Oxford in March 2002, though a mash-up with amber home socks spoiled the look somewhat in a game played a month after the full change kit’s final appearance, at Torquay.
2002/03 Change (2003/04 third)
Traditional all-white returned as our change look after three years experimenting with unfamiliar tones such as purple, navy-blue, maroon and silver. There was still some variation however, as navy was used as the main contrast colour instead of black, which barely featured, and amber which appeared only as trim separating white from navy.
The 2002/03 home kit was released early enough to be used in the final game of 2001/02, so the Patrick branded away strip was the only kit launched in the close-season and went on sale at an early-August open day.
The mostly white shirt took design cues from its home counterpart, such as an overlapping V-neck and turn-over collar, but added contrast shoulder panels. Thick navy-blue panels of breathable mesh fabric – book-ended by amber piping – tapered away from the neck, extending across the shoulders to the sleeve ends, which were finished with amber-tipped navy-blue ribbed cuffs. Two more amber-trimmed ventilated navy panels sewn together offered increased air permeation to the underarms and the sides of the shirt.
The wordmark of sponsor Bonus Electrical and the stylised P logo of the Patrick brand are added in navy embossed felt, and as on the home shirt the club crest appears within a larger sewn-on shield, only this time the field is white, bordered by navy stitching.
The shorts also carried an amber-trimmed navy stripe, though it is thinner than the side-stripe of the shirts, and on the socks a thin navy band tipped with amber decorated the fold-over band. Dark blue letters were used for player names on the back of shirts, and both shirts and shorts used the dark blue numbers with silver outlines supplied to Football League clubs by Sporting i-D.
First worn at home against Bradford City in Boothferry Park’s penultimate pre-season game, it made a competitive debut at Cambridge United’s Abbey Stadium in September. Further appearances came away to Oxford, Torquay, Lincoln and Boston. 2002/03 was most notable for Peter Taylor replacing Jan Molby as manager and a mid-season move from Boothferry Park to the gleaming new KC Stadium. A 13th placed Third Division finish did not reflect the club’s evident ambitions.
The all-white ensemble became the third kit for 2003/04 after an all-black away strip was introduced, and it featured in games at Oxford, Cambridge, Boston and Southend in a promotion campaign as the Tigers escaped Division Three at the eighth attempt.
2003/04 Change
Once the preserve of match officials, all black kits became an option for clubs in 1992, when the Football Association loosened restrictions on the palette of referee apparel. The newly formed Premier League, seeking to appear visually unique, dressed its officials in green shirts with black pinstripes.
A year later Manchester United unveiled an all-black away kit, starting the engines of a bandwagon that was hopped on by many teams, soon it seemed like everyone had a kit that is black just for the sake of it. Well, almost everyone.
The Tigers didn’t go achromatic until over a decade later, but when they did in 2003/04, French brand Patrick had their logo on a kit that would become iconic, forever associated with a rainy but momentous day in Somerset.
The shirt features an amber trimmed overlapping V-neck, and amber piping that ran from sleeve to sleeve, forming a U-shape on both front and back body panels, separating the main fabric from lighter mesh sections added for underarm ventilation. The piping matched trim used on the shorts, and unbroken lines were formed when the shirt was tucked in.
Both shirt and shorts carried the club crest contained within a larger amber shield. Patrick’s stylised P logo and name, as well as sponsor Bonus Electrical’s slightly italicised wordmark were applied in raised amber felt. Black socks completed the kit, they had amber turn-over bands with a single black stripe, though at Cheltenham in the First Round of the FA Cup, black socks from one of the ‘keeper kits were worn by the outfield players.
First used in a pre-season fixture at Harrogate, City got plenty of use out of this kit, even wearing it at home in a friendly against Middlesbrough. It was worn in the league at Rochdale, Scunthorpe, Cheltenham, Carlisle, Mansfield, Kidderminster, Swansea, York (with red socks borrowed from the Minstermen for the Boxing Day clash at Bootham Crescent), Macclesfield and most famously at Yeovil, where we secured our first promotion in nearly two decades with a 2-1 win at Huish Park.
The enduring image of the 2003/04 campaign is of skipper Ian Ashbee wearing this kit, pursued by delighted teammates and exulting after his spectacular winning goal sealed a first promotion in 19 years and an overdue escape from the basement division.
Though the Tigers have had black away kits since, this one remains the most memorable.
2004/05 Change
For the club’s centenary year, the Tigers looked to their past for kit design inspiration, and not just for the home kit. Bold amber and black striped home shirts very loosely corresponded to those worn in the club’s formative years, but for the away kit, the first league season after World War Two was referenced for City’s 100th anniversary.
Before the resumption of Division Three (North) games in 1946/47, local construction magnate Harold Needler brought the club out of hibernation. Though City had played regional wartime games between 1939 and 1945, the club was mothballed for the 1945/46 campaign on cost grounds.
Austerity measures were still biting deep in peacetime and necessitated a change of colours for City when they returned to league action. Certain dyes were still being rationed by the Board of Trade, but blue pigment made locally by Reckitts was in abundant supply. So, for the first season at Boothferry Park, the Tigers home kit consisted of light blue shirts, white shorts and black socks.
Taking cues from that kit, the 2004/05 away shirt is light blue with a black V-neck trimmed with white piping. The shirt was paired with white shorts that had wavy, tapering blue side stripes, though a black alternate set was used on occasion. The light blue socks had black fold-over bands with white ‘featheredge’ trim and thin black calf stripes containing the club’s HCAFC initials in white. City’s crest was modified slightly on 2004/05 kits to mark the centenary, with ‘1904-2004’ replacing ‘The Tigers’ on the scroll banner.
This kit was worn in some momentous games, such as wins at Torquay, Barnsley, Blackpool and Bournemouth. Far more momentous though was the 2-0 win over Bradford at Valley Parade that effectively (though not mathematically) assured the Tigers of a second successive promotion.
It was the second time we’d worn the blue shirts against Bradford that season, the Bantams turned up for the game at the KC Stadium with only black shirts with amber trim. Rather than make Bradford wear our away kit, Tigers boss Peter Taylor opted to dress his players in light blue and black, 57 years after the Tigers last wore blue at home.
A newly made batch of this design (with conventional club crests) became a third kit for two more seasons and was used in 2005/06 at Wolves and Blackpool (League Cup) and in 2006/07 at Southampton, Southend and Norwich.
2005-07 Change
City were back in black on their travels in 2005, two years on from the release of their immensely popular first black change kit. While the 2003/04 away kit was all-black with amber trim, white was added to the mix this time round, on a kit designed with interchangeability in mind.
The mostly black shirt features a white tipped amber V-neck with black insert. A black yoke panel widened as it extended to the sleeves, intersecting white panels that were ventilated for breathability. Amber mesh underarm panels curved round to the back of the shirt where they framed the main black panel, which is cut straight, in contrast to the front black panel, which curved to accommodate the flaring white mesh side panel.
The woven crest was stitched on whereas the Diadora wordmark and sponsor text were applied as flat thermoplastic transfers. The Bonus Electrical logotype was no longer italicised as it was between 2002/03 and 2004/05 and there was now a significant gap between ‘Bonus’ (rendered in the Antique Olive Nord D Regular typeface) and ‘Electrical’ (in Gill Sans Heavy).
The kit-set had two pairs of shorts and two pairs of socks, giving City four black-shirt kit combinations, and sympathetic design with the home shirt allowed for aesthetically considerate mash-ups.
The default white shorts had a broad black, curved mesh panel above the gluteal muscles that joined up with a curved amber panel on the sides, and the alternate black shorts replicated the design but with white curved mesh panels. First choice black socks had white cuffs with a single amber vertical stripe, and a white set had an amber stripe on black fold-over bands.
The black shirts were worn a remarkable 16 times (out of 24 away games) in 2005/06 in the following combinations: Black/White/Black was used at Southampton, Preston, Cardiff and Derby whereas Black/White/White was worn at Millwall, Sheffield United and Watford. All-black was seen most, at Plymouth, Coventry, Norwich, Burnley, Reading, QPR, Brighton, Stoke and Leicester.
The black shirts had a two-season lifespan, and for 2006/07, a back of shirt sponsor was added, with the wordmark of Hessle-based printer/copier distributor Gemtec added below the numbers. They were worn eight times that season, with white shorts and black socks at Colchester and Derby, with white shorts and socks at Watford (League Cup), Sunderland and Wolves, and with black shorts and socks at Leicester, QPR and Burnley.
2007/08 Change (2008-09 third)
White had been Hull City’s default change colour for over 80 years when the club went with green in 1990. Since then, all-white has been an away style used on rotation, in between experimentation with tones such as jade, maroon, purple, silver, various blues and black.
When Umbro became City’s technical sponsor in 2007 however, they evoked memories of classic away kits from City’s past, supplying a traditional and utterly lovely all-white change look for the Tigers
The shirt followed a template (also used by Rangers and Nottingham Forest) which had many similarities to the home shirt; asymmetric placing of the maker’s mark and club crest, solid diamonds motifs on the shoulders, mesh underarm panels featuring an abstract double diamond pattern that vaguely resembled tiger stripes, and an embossed Morse code message on the sleeves.
What differed was a two striped bar that formed a V-shape underneath the collar before extending from shoulder to shoulder. Whereas the home shirts advertised local ISP Karoo, parent company Kingston Communications had their logo on the white shirts. The accompanying shorts and socks were of the same design as those for the home kit, with solid black connected diamonds appearing on both.
First worn for a half in the 2007 Billy Bly Memorial Trophy match at North Ferriby, the all-white kit made a competitive debut in a 1-1 draw at Coventry. City wore the home kit’s black shorts with the white shirts and socks at Blackpool, where million-pound man Caleb Folan made his debut live on Sky.
All-white was subsequently worn at Wolves, Norwich, Crystal Palace, Watford (in a 1-0 defeat), Scunthorpe, Sheffield United and most notably at Watford again in a Play-Offs Semi-Final first leg. A triumphant 2-0 win in the sunshine at Vicarage Road put City well on the way to a first trip to Wembley.
This gorgeous kit made an encore appearance in 2008/09 for an FA Cup Third Round replay at Newcastle. Earlier that season, City had been reduced to borrowing shorts and socks from the Geordies as our flint coloured away kit failed to provide sufficient contrast to the black and white garb of the hosts. This time, the 2007/08 away kit was brought out of mothballs and used as a third kit (featuring Premier League sleeve patches, numbers and letters) as City advanced to the Fourth-Round courtesy of a 1-0 win at St. James’ Park.
2008/09 Change
As the Tigers stepped up their bid for promotion in late 2007/08, the club’s kit supplier stepped up their involvement with Hull City by marketing the following season’s away kit. Umbro, long-time England national team supplier and experienced in slick launch campaigns, began showing glimpses of the new change kit in a series of ‘teaser’ ads in April 2008.
Though campaign poster-boy Caleb Folan held a detail obscuring placard (bearing the kit’s launch date of 11/04/08), it was clear that the 2008/09 away kit was dark grey, or in Umbro’s chromatic nomenclature, flint, with black and amber trim.
The shirt features a simple V-shaped collar finished with thin half amber, half black trim. Stacked underneath the collar were Umbro’s double diamond logo and the Tigers’ crest, centrally placed. A thick black curved line flanked by amber piping ran from the shoulders to mid-chest, bracketing the logo of sponsor Kingston Communications.
An oblique pinstripe pattern of ventilation pores detailed the front panel, and on the back thinner mesh areas formed an elaborate ‘zonal bodymap’ pattern to assist sweat wicking. As on the home shirt, pinstriped connected diamonds embellished the sleeves which had black cuffs with amber piping.
The shorts and socks were flint coloured versions of those used at home, featuring the same amber detailing, though the shorts had an additional black line attached to the curved amber ‘slashes’ on the side seams to correspond with the panels on the shirts.
The kit was first worn in pre-season at Winterton, making a competitive debut in August 2008 at Swansea in the League Cup. In late September, a somewhat embarrassing episode at Newcastle saw us wearing the Magpies’ white away shorts and socks, after referee Andre Marriner deemed that only our away kit’s grey shirts were sufficiently distinguishable from the home side’s black and white kit. The combination of Umbro and adidas garb looked rather disjointed, but that could not be said of City who beat the Geordies 2-1 to record a first Premier League away win.
The away greys were also worn at Stoke, Sheffield United (FA Cup Fifth Round), Fulham and Sunderland. The Fulham game, in early March, was the only time City won in competitive action wearing the full change kit and represented a first away victory since late October. Portuguese striker Manucho’s late strike in a 1-0 win went a long way towards securing Premier League status.
2009/10 Change
The centenary season away shirts – throwbacks to the home shirts worn when City first moved to Boothferry Park – normalised the use of blue as a change kit colour. Though made for 2004/05, those pale blue shirts were retained for the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons, and blue soon made a return when, for the club’s second Premier League campaign, Umbro supplied the Tigers with a change kit in ‘Fusion Blue’, a shade comparable to the Azure blue of Hull’s civic coat of arms.
Ahead of the launch of both 2009/10 kits, the club’s official website featured a teaser image showing Jimmy Bullard wearing the away shirt alongside Geovanni in the home, but with most of the shirts hidden by shadow. Nick Barmby wore the full away kit when both were revealed on 30th June 2009, the day a new sponsorship deal with Totesport was announced.
The shirt had an overlapping rib-knit V-neck in navy, joined to a Fusion blue panel on the back of the neck which carried a sign-off of ‘THE TIGERS’ on the outside. On the inside, a graphic of the club crest backed by a heraldic-looking floral pattern noted the lifespan of the shirt: ‘KICK OFF 2009, FULL TIME 2010’.
The body of the shirt had repeated twin shadow stripes de-bossed into the fabric, a performance polyester with Umbro’s Climate Control moisture-wicking technology. On the front panel, Umbro’s double-diamond logo is embroidered in white opposite the sewn-on club crest, above the sponsor wordmark heat-applied in white-outlined green and red (though missing the .com suffix which appeared on the home shirts). Set-in sleeves were split from the shirt’s front panel by navy-blue underarm and shoulder ventilation panels.
The Fusion blue shorts had mesh-panel stripes in navy starting halfway down the thigh on each side, and the socks were Fusion blue but for navy and white hoops on the cuffs and white double-diamonds woven in at shin level.
First worn at North Ferriby in the second half of the annual Billy Bly Trophy game, the change kit made a competitive debut at Wolves’ Molineux ground in late August. It was later used in the Premier League at Sunderland, Fulham, Bolton and Tottenham, and for a match played during the November international break in Bergamo, Italy. Contesting the Trofeo Achille e Cesare Bortolotti, City drew 2-2 with Atalanta but were denied silverware by shoot-out defeat.
2010/11 Change
It had been 28 years since City had last worn adidas kits, but the German firm picked up right where they’d let off in 2010, supplying the Tigers with a follow up to the all-white 1980-82 away kit.
Whereas that kit used black for contrast trim (almost exclusively, only the embroidered tiger-head crest provided a splash of real colour), this all-white kit used amber as the trim tone. The shade of amber, ‘Collegiate Gold’ in adidas colourway parlance, is slightly deeper than that used on the home kit (‘Sonic Gold’) for increased contrast against white.
The shirt was a ‘Regista’ template (as used by Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup) and feature a simple amber trimmed, rounded neckline and raglan sleeves. The three amber stripes on the shoulders were stitched on, interrupted by flatlock stitched panels for competition patches, flatlock stitching also bound tapering underarm panels.
The adidas performance logo is embroidered centrally, and the two-layered club crest is heat bonded over the heart. The logo of Totesport is applied in the main sponsor’s livery of green and red on the chest, and on the back, above the numbers, Neil Hudgell Law is advertised in blue and red.
The shirts were paired with white ‘Equipo’ shorts, which utilised the ‘FORMOTION’ concept of sculpted fabric cuts, such as the curved front hem lines for enhanced freedom of movement. Amber flatlock stitching ran the length of a curved panel from waistband to hem, which truncated the three amber stripes on each side. The club’s first ever third sponsor, SLS, had their logo on the back. The ensemble is completed by white socks with adidas performance logos on the shins and three stripes on the fold-over bands in amber.
Elements of the away kit were used in three league games before the full change strip was first worn in competitive action at Norwich in September, as the Tigers recorded their first away win of the campaign. All white was later used at Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Watford.
The white shirts were used with both the black home shorts and socks at Cardiff, Portsmouth and Scunthorpe, and with the black home shorts and white away socks at Burnley, Barnsley, Ipswich and Middlesbrough. The game on Teesside, a 2-2 draw, was played on a snow-covered pitch and intermittently hampered by heavy snowfall, which made City’s effectively camouflaged players hard to make out.
2011/12 Change (2020/13 third)
When City released a light blue away shirt in the summer of 2011 (the third use of that colour in eight seasons), it effectively confirmed that blue had become part of the club’s change kit style rotation, alongside all-white and all-black.
The tone is termed ‘Argentina blue’ by adidas, who supplied the Tigers with ‘Tabela 11’ template shirts (a design also used by Derby, Hamburger SV and the Moroccan national team). They feature a tapering collar band that formed a soft V-shaped neckline, and alternating matte and shiny tonal hoops on the front and sleeve panels. The set-in sleeves were partially separated from the body panels by white piping, halting three white stitched on adidas stripes.
A somewhat bizarre launch day had two full kit wearers wandering around Hull city centre, so that people might distribute phone camera pictures on social media. Many photographs taken by fans were accompanied by negative feedback about the sponsor patch, which was the same style that blighted the striped home shirt. That at least could be justified on legibility grounds, but on a plain light blue shirt, it just looked ugly and oversized.
Creditably, both club and sponsor listened, ditching the patch and going with a simpler wordmark appliqué. On the back of player shirts, the logo of laboratory equipment supplier SLS is contained within a black rectangle applied under squad numbers.
The shirts came with two sets of shorts: The default choice was white ‘Condivo’ shorts with FORMOTION curved seams partly embellished, front and back, with blue piping starting at quadriceps level. Navy shorts, the same ‘Tiro 11’ style that was part of the home kit were an alternative. The kit is completed by Argentina blue socks with white fold-over band stripes.
The shirts were first used at Bristol City in September with the navy-blue shorts, a look later replicated at Nottingham Forest, Barnsley and Blackpool. The away kit was first worn with white shorts at Doncaster in September, and later at Middlesbrough and Watford.
The set was retained as a third kit for 2012/13 and again saw use at Bristol City though with an amended sponsor, ‘Tash Converters’ appeared within a moustache appliqué in support of the ‘Movember’ charity drive. Only the white shorts were used in the promotion season, when the kit was also used at Cardiff (with remembrance poppies on the shirts), Watford, Leyton Orient (FA Cup) and Wolves.
2012/13 Change
During their second spell as supplier to the Tigers, four seasons spanning 2010-14, adidas arguably provided better change kits than homes. Their 2012/13 away kit is arguably the best of the bunch, as the brand with the three stripes had City back in black on their travels.
They issued City with Regista 12 template shirts and shorts, also used by Swindon (home) and Bolton (third). The black shirt with amber trim features an overlapping round neck and two-piece raglan sleeves. The amber sleeve stripes were truncated to make space for competition patches, applied above amber piping.
Under each arm, amber mesh sections formed the top part of two-piece tapered side panels, the lower black piece had amber piping above the hem. As on the home shirts, Cash Converters had their logo on the chest and on the back, a black patch advertising Scientific Laboratory Supplies was applied underneath the numbers,
The matching black shorts had amber trimmed hems with curious raised cutaways revealing black mesh inserts. Just as there were two distinct sets of black shorts, one set for the home kit and one for away, adidas provided two sets of amber alternate shorts.
Amber Regista 12 shorts were pressed into service just once in a League Cup defeat at Doncaster, creating a black over amber look never before seen. Regardless of what shorts were used, black socks with three amber cuff stripes and the adidas Performance logo in amber at shin level completed the kit.
All black was first worn in late August at a rain-lashed Valley for a goalless draw at Charlton. It later featured in a 3-2 win at Leeds in September, a 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough in October and a 2-1 December victory over Nottingham Forest decided by a controversial goal from Paul McShane, who’s shrugging celebration tacitly acknowledged he’d handled the ball to score. The City Ground win was the last time the designated away kit shorts were used.
A back of shorts sponsorship deal saw the Parma II template home set carry advertisements for Burflex Scaffolding from Boxing Day. Those black home shorts were paired with the away shirts at Blackpool on New Year’s Day and at Barnsley in late April. The Oakwell game could have sealed promotion for the Tigers, but a 2-0 loss set up a nerve shredding final day of the season when City clinched runners-up spot.
2013/14 Change
Hull City’s deal with ‘the brand with the three stripes’ adidas entered its fourth and final year in 2013. Though there is cachet in being outfitted by a sportswear giant, it can come at the expense of individuality, as evidenced by the change kit template issued for the Tigers most successful season to date being shared with five other British clubs, namely Bolton (home), Bristol City, Sunderland and Hearts (away) and West Ham (third).
City were no strangers to mostly blue change kits, having worn three of them across six of the previous nine seasons, but those kits, with shirts described as ‘Sky’, ‘Fusion’ and ‘Argentina’ blues were in pale shades. For 2013/14, a more vivid Royal blue was the main tone.
The shirt features a self-coloured crew-neck, and Raglan sleeves carrying the adidas three stripes on one panel, leaving the end panel free for competition patches. White mesh underarm panels curved from the side seams, edged at the top by a thin red stripe that angled across into the sleeve.
The embroidered club crest on 2013/14 shirts was smaller than usual, a scale generally reserved for use on shorts, meaning the tiger-head looked squashed and fuzzy. The adidas logo is embroidered in white, and the heat-applied sponsor logotype had white text with a red orbiting arrow. On the back of the shirt, oblique red seam stripes began under the white mesh panel and ran down to the tail hem.
The shorts conformed to the Tiro 13 template, blue with a tapered white panel on the back hem, and curved side seams that truncated the white adidas stripes. Red socks with blue cuff stripes were the default, but there was a white set with blue bands for clash avoidance.
Blue socks were used the first time the change kit was used however, in a pre-season friendly against Portuguese side Braga in Albufeira. The red socks were used in two August friendlies in Germany, the first a 1-0 win at Dynamo Dresden, the second a 2-0 defeat to Eintracht Braunschweig.
Competitively the change kit with red socks was worn at Newcastle, Tottenham (twice, once in the League Cup), Norwich, Sunderland, Fulham and Manchester United. The white socks were used at Southampton (when poppy appliqués adorned the shirts), Cardiff and Stoke in the Premier League, and at Middlesbrough to begin City’s FA Cup run that would culminate in a first final appearance.
2014/15 Change
City changed ‘technical partner’ in the summer of 2014, rejoining the Umbro stable after a four-year break. The brand with the diamond logo became the fourth company to have their mark on a predominantly black away kit, after Patrick (2003/04), Diadora (2005-07) and adidas (2012/13).
The new kit was revealed just five days before its first use, on the opening day of the 2014/15 Premier League campaign. The shirt features a two layered crew-neck, with a ribbed amber inner panel. The set-in sleeves each had an Umbro wordmark near the hem, underneath the space reserved for a competition patch.
Just like the home shirt, the back panel had eight laser cut ventilation holes inside white eyelets, four on each side, and under the arms mesh panels with Elastane increased breathability and ease of movement. Unlike the home shirt, the individual characters of sponsor 12BET’s logo were heat applied to the chest, rather than contained within one appliqué.
Instead of creating a second, distinct pair of black shorts, Umbro deemed the home kit’s black shorts with amber side stripes to be interchangeable. Though the away kit had its own socks, they too were made with interchangeability in mind, being a colour-way flip of the home stockings (though there was never any call to use the away socks with the home shirt).
The Tigers dressed in all-black seven times this campaign, each time in the Premier League (UEFA kit regulations for 2014/15 stated that “a team’s first-choice and second-choice kit must differ visibly and contrast with each other“, and included an illustration of a first-choice kit with a shirt with black stripes and a second-choice kit with a solid black shirt crossed out, so all-black was never an option for Europa League games).
The only wins came in London: A James Chester goal gave the kit a winning debut at Loftus Road as City beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0, they later bested Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park. The other games were a 2-1 loss at Aston Villa, a 2-2 draw versus Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, a 1-1 tie with Manchester City, a 1-0 defeat to Stoke and a second successive loss at St. Marys, with Southampton winning 2-0.
Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy declared City “as safe as houses” in the November, but subsidence set in and an 18th place finish meant relegation in May.
2015/16 Change
Though the Tigers had a white shirt as part of their 2014/15 ensemble, they hadn’t sported a classic all-white change kit in five years. What was once the club’s default look when a change was needed had become merely a recurring option, part of a loose rotation along with all-black and light blue in the era of one-year kit cycles. For 2015/16 though, Umbro brought us back-to-basics, giving Hull City a style that is almost as traditional as amber and black.
The shirt was unveiled by the 2012 Olympics gold medal winning boxer Luke Campbell and worn during his ring-walk for a fight dubbed the “Rumble on the Humber”, against fellow Hullensian Tommy Coyle at Craven Park. Marketing images for the away kit showed it modelled by Andy Robertson and Michael Dawson.
The shirt features a wrap-over crew-neck, with a longer black rib-knit band overlapping a shorter amber band. Like the home shirt the away features pinstripes, though only on the front body panel, and instead of being printed in a contrast tone these are de-bossed into the fabric.
On the chest the Umbro double-diamond and wordmark are embroidered in black, opposite the sewn-on club crest and above the heat-applied Flamingo Land logo-mark in amber outlined with yellow. The set-in sleeves end with an amber cuff that is broken by a white mesh panel that runs from the armpit. Umbro’s lower case logo-type is applied onto each sleeve underneath the space for a competition patch.
The shorts share a design with those of the primary kit and are white with amber tipping trim on both the waistband and hems. White socks with amber fold-over bands and the Umbro logo in black at shin level complete the outfit.
First worn in competitive action at Molineux in a televised 1-1 draw with Wolves on the new season’s second weekend, it was later used in full at Cardiff (September) and Middlesbrough (March). Twice City mashed-up, pairing the black shorts of the primary kit at Charlton (with the white change shorts) and at Nottingham Forest (with the amber primary kit socks).
The change kit’s white shorts and socks were paired with the primary shirts in a 4-0 loss at Derby, after stocks of 2014/15 amber alternate shorts dwindled, but there was no repeat when City returned to Derby in the Play-Offs, instead wearing new amber shorts from the 2016/17 kit-set in a 3-0 win.
2016/17 Change
When American sportswear giant Nike announced plans to sell subsidiary Umbro in 2012, there were fears that the venerable double-diamond brand could become just a low-rent supplier of template teamwear. Though the sale to licensing firm Iconix (who also held the Pony and Starter labels) meant a repositioning of the Umbro brand, its home market output was in safe hands when Perthshire firm GL Dameck acquired the UK licence.
Though unable to offer truly bespoke kits to clubs, their modular approach to design offered far more choice than simply changing the colours of a pre-existing template. Perhaps the only Hull City kit that strongly resembled the garb of another Umbro side during the first four years of the deal was the 2016/17 change kit, which utilised the same dual-layer shirt fabric used on Everton’s navy and salmon pink away kit that same campaign.
The ostensibly black shirt features a ‘lightweight polyester diamond mesh’ over an internal amber layer that showed through the ventilation holes. This looked smart up close, although from a distance the tones merged, giving the shirt a brown sheen. The neckline is dual-layered too, with a mitred V-neck in black rib trimmed by a perforated amber insert. The sleeve cuffs also used this perforated amber fabric, split by a black rib segment.
Features shared with the home shirt are the Umbro logo in white embroidery opposite the crest, white Umbro wordmark transfers on the sleeves, coordinates of the KCOM stadium underneath a transfer band of tiger stripes on the inside neckline and a ‘TIGERS’ sign-off on the back of the shirt.
The black shorts of the primary kit were used with the change strip also, but there were distinct socks, black with an amber stripe at shin level that contained the Umbro logo in white.
First worn in a friendly at Grimsby, the pre-season shirts carried the marks of charity partner Tigers Trust. Later worn against North Ferriby, Mansfield and Scunthorpe, they were auctioned to raise funds for the charity, which began life as the club’s Football in the Community project 25 years previous.
The regular change kit, featuring SportPesa’s wordmark and globe device, debuted at Anfield in September 2016 in a 5-1 thumping by Liverpool. It subsequently appeared at Bristol City (League Cup), Middlesbrough, Arsenal, Manchester City, Stoke City and Southampton as the Tigers returned whence they came, relegated from the top flight for a third time.
2017/18 Change
Umbro leaned into their own rich visual heritage in 2017/18, including a retro ‘Diamond stripe’ motif on most of the kits supplied by the much-celebrated brand, such as those made for West Ham, RC Lens, PSV Eindhoven and 1. FC Nürnberg, echoing designs from the 1970s.
Back when conspicuous branding was a new concept in football, the major brands were seeing how far they could go: adidas had their three stripes across the shoulders as well as the trefoil logo on the chest, and the response was sewn-on sleeve taping containing repeated logos from Admiral and Bukta.
Umbro got in on the act too, supplying shirts with ‘running diamonds’ sleeve taping to Everton, Derby and Bristol City for 1976/77, before refining the look of the taping for 1977/78, rolling it out for all their teams. The ‘Diamond stripe’ also appeared in the late 1990s, conspicuously on Manchester United’s 1998/99 home strip, and with tonal subtlety for the 1999-01 Chelsea and England primary kits.
Subtle was also the approach in 2017/18, when the Tigers had a traditional all-white change kit. The shirt features the running diamonds motif as a lightweight Jacquard weave on wide amber shoulder striping that intersected the body and mesh articulated sleeve panels. A self-coloured crew-neckline with a pentagonal insert formed a V-shape under the round neck-hole.
As on the home shirt, the crest’s amber field had a ‘herringbone’ texture. Unique to the change shirt though was the use of navy-blue for the wordmark of sponsor SportPesa. On the back of the shirt, ‘TIGERS’ is applied under the collar in a distressed, vaguely animalistic typeface, and under the numbers a green rectangular patch contained the marks of Burflex Scaffolding.
The white shorts carried the same amber stripe with running diamonds weave as the shirt, and on the back a roundel appliqué contained the logo of conservation organisation WWF, highlighting a campaign to double the number of wild tigers. White socks with a thick amber hoop on the cuffs and the Umbro logo in black on the shins completed a kit worn at Norwich in October 2017, then at Sheffield United, Cardiff, Wolves, Burton and Brentford.
City began the season with affable Russian coach and occasional rapper Leonid Slutsky in charge, but he was gone by early December and replaced by Nigel Adkins, the physio who became a coach. The Tigers finished 18th in the Championship.
2018/19 Change
In the 15 years since the first all-black City playing kit, the darkest of tones had become firmly established as part of the change kit rotation. Indeed, the 2018/19 away was the third all-black kit supplied by Umbro since they replaced adidas in the summer of 2014, and they’d got it down to a fine art.
The shirt was unveiled on 20th July 2018, with photographs showing Jon Toral, Stephen Kingsley and Daniel Batty wearing it with track pants while hanging about near the derelict Lord Line building (overlooking the old St. Andrew’s Dock) like a gang of trespassing ASBO scamps.
Early design drafts included an amber diagonal sash, but this was removed at the behest of the Vice-Chairman. What remained looked like a negative image of the 1965-69 primary shirt, on account of the round, black neck with an amber stripe. The shirt had a different construction to the primary shirt, which had true Raglan sleeves. Instead, Raglan sleeves of a sort were made up of three interlocking panels, offering a smart fit across the shoulders.
Umbro’s branding, subtle in 2017/18, became more overt, with the diamond stripe given the contrast colour treatment instead of being tonal, and migrating from across the shoulders to the cuffs of the sleeves. This threw back to the late 1990s when the shirts of Celtic, Everton, FC København and others carried connected diamonds cuff taping.
The wordmark of main sponsor SportPesa is applied in amber on the chest, and the by now standard TIGERS sign-off on the back of the neck is applied as an amber rectangle with black text.
The black away shorts were a distinct set from those of the primary kit (not the first time we’d had two sets of black shorts in a season, having done that in 2003/04 and 2012/13 too) with double-diamond ‘taping’ to match the trim of the shirt sleeves. Black socks with the Umbro logo and TIGERS woven in completed the kit and offered interchangeability with the primary kit’s set, though the need never arose.
First worn at Reading in September, it was later used in December at QPR and Leeds (the latter game a fine 2-0 win with Jarrod Bowen scoring both goals), then not until March 2019 at Nottingham Forest and Norwich. Injuries derailed a Play-Offs challenge, and after a 13th placed Championship finish, head coach Nigel Adkin declined the offer of a new contract.
2019/20 Change
Umbro delivered a nostalgic one-two punch in 2019, with both primary and change kits throwing back to 1992. The retro influence was easy to see on the home shirt with it’s tiger stripe print, but the away built on the club’s rich sartorial heritage too, by adding a complex Jacquard weave to an understated but classic all-white kit.
Launched on 9th July, the shirt was shown hanging from the Londesborough Street footbridge near the stadium, placed in front of temporary graffiti depicting Umbro’s double-diamond logo shattered to pieces. It was also photographed being worn at that location by players Kevin Stewart, Eric Lichaj and acclaimed Aussie hipster Jackson Irvine.
The shirt’s black rib-knit collar is truncated by connected white triangular inserts, creating a squared-off neckline, and amber piping separated black cuffs from the sleeve panels on short-sleeved shirts, a feature not replicated on long-sleeve versions which had thicker black cuffs. The shattered diamonds graphic decorated the full front panel as a striking Jacquard weave only visible up close. Finishing the ensemble, white shorts had black bands trimmed by amber piping at the base of side panels, and white socks had black fold-over cuffs with an amber rectangle.
This was the first change kit to feature a redesigned crest launched in February 2019 following supporter consultation, though that was limited to selecting pre-designed elements including an amended tiger-head with abstracted stripes. Regardless of aesthetic concerns, the club name returning to the crest was universally welcomed.
The kit was worn twice in pre-season at Mansfield and Doncaster, debuting in the league at Luton in September, though the host’s curious mix of orange, navy and white necessitated a mash-up, with amber primary socks matched with white shirts and shorts. The white shorts and socks were worn with the ‘home’ shirt at Sheffield Wednesday on New Year’s Day.
The season was interrupted for three months by the Covid-19 pandemic, and when football restarted it was played behind closed doors. City joined other EFL clubs in adding blue patches to shirts featuring a rainbow arching over the text NHS – THANK YOU for the remainder of a season that stretched to late July.
The patches were only seen on the white kits once, in an 8-0 humiliation at Wigan which was the Tigers worst loss since 1911. Belief that relegation could be avoided ebbed away, and defeats in the final two games confirmed a descent to League One.
2020/21 Change
They say there’s no place like home, and Umbro evidently agreed with that sentiment as the 2010s gave way to the 2020s, supplying the Tigers with kits that visually referenced stadia for two successive seasons.
In 2019/20, the third kit’s colourway was inspired by the one-time paint job and upholstery of our former home Boothferry Park, but for 2020/21 it was the turn of our current home to be celebrated through the medium of polyester, in this case with the change shirt. Unveiled on September 17th, 2020, the shirt was given a relatively low-key launch, with just images of the shirt hung up against a wall shown on the club website.
There were no players modelling it, as the photo-shoot took place when non-essential contact and travel was limited as a measure to prevent the spread of Coronavirus during a pandemic. It was more visible on its televised debut at Fleetwood in October, where viewers got to see not just the shirt but the full kit, which was Carbon grey and black with amber trim.
The shirt had multi-seam Raglan sleeves, with wide black shoulder stripes that had amber piping (only on the front) running from the simple black crew-neck to just beyond the seams that curved underarm. The front body panel carried a graphic print of rough-edged and angular black lines that together depicted the roof support stanchions of the KCOM Stadium’s West Stand.
Complementing the piping, both the embroidered Umbro logotype and heat-bonded wordmark of sponsor Giacom were applied in amber. The ‘TIGERS’ sign-off under the collar was the only amber detail on the back of the shirt, as the squad numbers, player names and marks of back of shirt sponsor On Line Group were applied in white. Finishing the kit, the black shorts had amber piping down each side, and the black socks had thin amber bands above the woven-in Umbro marks.
The kit looked great at Fleetwood, although our second half performance in a 4-1 defeat did not. Worn four times in total, it was worn for a second time in October at Swindon, but then wasn’t used again until 2021, in February at Doncaster and in March at Shrewsbury.
Although City didn’t win a game while wearing Carbon grey and black, they won enough in other kits to claim not only promotion, but also a first divisional title since 1966, finishing the season as League One champions.
2021/22 Change (2022/23 third)
It’s not often that a Hull City shirt penetrates the wider footballing consciousness and proves desirable to those who are not paid-up members of the ‘Tiger Nation’, and historically such instances have involved animal print patterns. Not so with the 2021/22 away shirt, which exploited the trend for monochromatic kits and sold out several times.
Swedish side AIK were the trendsetters, releasing a special edition ‘blackout’ kit used in friendly games in 2018. Two Bundesliga sides boarded the hype train, Borussias Dortmund and Mönchengladbach, and in England Liverpool and Torquay released black versions of their home kits, though these were just leisurewear garments, not match kits.
Hull City however went all in, launching a blackout kit on 9th July 2021 that would be used on the pitch. Modelled by Greg Docherty, Mallik Wilks and George Honeyman, all detail on the crew-neck shirt is tonal: 35mm front stripes, embroidered Umbro logo, woven club crest, sewn-in stripe panels above the cuffs, heat applied ‘TIGERS’ sign-off under the collar on the back, even the wordmark of main sponsor Giacom who were fully on-board with the aesthetic.
Similarly, the matching shorts had a monochromatic crest, Umbro diamonds and a stripe at the bottom of each side panel, and each of the socks had a tonal cuff stripe. Naturally, EFL sanctioned appliqués, the numbers, letters and sleeve patches were not sympathetic to the stealthy aesthetic on match kits, and the marks of associate sponsors OLG (back of shirt) and East Riding College (shorts) were also in contrast white.
Demand for replica shirts was unprecedented, selling out soon after pre-orders were taken, and a second batch available only to members also sold out. First worn against Luton in October, the blackout kit was also used away at Nottingham Forest, Blackpool, Peterborough, Coventry, Middlesbrough and Bristol City.
Tigers boss Shota Arveladze sacrificed tradition for superstition when he asked for the away kit to be worn at home in April, hoping to halt a run of six successive defeats before it became an unwanted club record. Whether by coincidence or not, the change up worked, and City beat Cardiff 2-1, a win that secured mathematical safety from relegation.
The popular kit had its lifespan extended when redesignated as the following season’s third kit, though a change in sponsorship necessitated new batches of replicas. The version sponsored by Corendon Airlines was worn at Swansea, Blackpool, Rotherham, Stoke and Norwich in 2022/23.
2022/23 Change
While the previous year’s away kit was achingly modern in its ‘blackout’ styling, the 2022/23 change kit acted as a call-back to another time when the club were backed by an airline, used red in the kits and had an entrepreneurial owner who aimed to unite a previously fractured fanbase.
Umbro gave us a modern interpretation of away kits worn in the 1980s, when Don Robinson added red to the club’s colour palette. On change kits this mostly took the form of red shorts worn paired with the traditional predominantly white shirts and socks.
Recalling those away kits, the white change shirt features a V-neck with self-coloured insert, above the body panels with thin grey stripes nodding to the mid-80s black pinstripes. The Raglan sleeves were plain white and bookended by a back of neck panel and cuffs in black with one red and one amber stripe. The familiar under collar TIGERS sign-off on the back is in black.
Red shorts were the same design as those used at home, solid in tone but for a contrast rectangle low down on the sides, black in this case. White socks with self-coloured cuffs had four thin hoops, one red, one amber in between two black bands at shin level. Further down, the Umbro logotype is woven on the front in black, with TIGERS woven on the reverse.
The ownership of broadcast mogul Acun Ilicali led to a raft of Turkish sponsorships, starting with main sponsor Corendon Airlines who had their logotype applied in red on the chest. From mid-September the brewer Efes had their pilsener lager advertised on the back of shirts under the red names and numbers, and the logo of cryptocurrency exchange Tomya features on the back of the shorts.
The new away kit was given a home debut in a friendly contest with Leicester for the ‘Corendon Cup’, and it featured in other pre-season games at Cambridge and Peterborough. A first competitive use came in a League Cup tie at Bradford, and in the Championship it was worn at Millwall and Watford. The final uses of the white shirts and socks saw them paired with black ‘home’ shorts, as we mashed-up at Middlesbrough and Luton.
Shota Arveladze began the season as Head Coach, but the Georgian was gone by mid-September. Andy Dawson filled in until Liam Rosenior’s appointment in the November. City finished the campaign 15th in the Championship.
2023/24 Change
The rationale behind the darkest primary kit in club history was tacitly explained when the Tigers revealed the accompanying change kit on 29th July 2023. New outfitters Kappa supplied an away kit that permitted City to still wear their regular colours when changing on the road, while offering the option of an alternate ‘home’ kit.
When the EFL relaxed their stance on shorts clashes, they also limited clubs to three distinct kits, effectively outlawing additional shorts. Amber alternate shorts worn with home shirts had been City’s chosen way to resolve dark shorts clashes when away for two decades, but now if they wanted an amber set, they must be part of the registered kit trio.
The solution was to have both the primary and change kits in black and amber, but to polarise the proportions, with the change kit all-amber but for contrast trim. Kappa went with a deeper shade of amber than we’d been used to with Umbro, Pantone colour 15-1153, termed ‘Apricot’.
Player shirts had a higher percentage of Elastane than club-shop replicas for a ‘skin-fit’, a signature look of Kappa kits since they launched their ‘Kombat’ range in 2000. Worn by Italy in that year’s European Championship, the figure-hugging shirts revolutionised kit design, signalling the slow demise of the baggy fit, a style staple since the early 1990s.
The shirt had an overlapping V-neckline with a thin black band on the left side (as worn), an asymmetric collar style also seen on Genoa and Cercle Brugge shirts. The front body panel had tonal stripes made up of printed ‘UP THE TIGERS’ lettering and contained a two-tone club crest (removing white), with the Kappa ‘Omini’ and Corendon Airlines marks applied in black. The shorts and socks were colour-reversed versions of those worn with the primary kit.
First worn in pre-season v. French side Nantes, this kit was used LOTS. It saw action at Blackburn and Leicester before back of shirt advertisements for biscuiteers McVitie’s were added for Stoke away. Those patches were made bigger and sleeve appliqués bearing the logo of tour operator Anex were added for the trip to Ipswich.
All-amber was later used at Millwall, Birmingham, West Brom, QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Huddersfield, Southampton, Preston, Leeds, Cardiff, Coventry and Plymouth, as well as in the home game v. Ipswich. Boss Liam Rosenior explained “we needed a vibrant performance and under the lights, that kit stands out.”
2024-25 Change kit
Looking to demonstrate that a traditionally styled all-white change kit doesn’t have to be simple or uninspired, the club turned to a creator of concept kits, imaginative illustrations by football fans that aren’t textile designers by trade. The core look of the kit was the work of Barry Wilson, a Falkirk fan and concept kit artist who shares his designs on Instagram.
Among his creations was a white Hull City away kit with a shirt that featured a loose tiger stripe pattern on the sleeves. This pattern was adapted to be more implied than explicit on the ‘2025 Kombat Pro’ shirts, with a vibrant Jackson Pollock-esque paint splatter pattern in amber, black and white enhancing the Raglan sleeves.
The concept also featured repeating black ‘Omini’ logos on a white band on the shoulders, though the final version had just three Kappa logos on each arm, leaving space for the competition patch and sleeve sponsor. Launched on the 8th of August, the kit was modelled principally by new signings Marvin Mehlem and Cody Drameh.
There was much excitement that the shirt featured a polo-collar, given it had been 20 years since a Tigers shirt last incorporated a turn-over collar. This polo was white with two thin stripes, one black and one amber, that trimmed the Jacquard ribbing, and this styling was replicated on the sleeve cuffs.
The crest was heat-bonded silicone on player-spec shirts while replicas carried sewn-on woven patches. Black appliqués were used for the Kappa, Corendon Airlines and Anex marks, and for the 120 years transfer on the back, standing out on the herringbone pattern embossed fabric.
The ‘Ryder’ template shorts had heat-transferred black ‘Omini’ logos stacked within thin border lines on each side, and finishing the ensemble are black cuffed white socks that had HULL CITY woven in black at shin level.
Debuted in the first away game of the season at Plymouth, all-white was later worn at Norwich, Oxford, Luton and Middlesbrough. Some quality control issues blighted the Oxford game: Kasey Palmer’s shorts had the Kappa logos applied upside down, whereas the ‘Omini’ were missing on the shorts of Mohamed Belloumi.
Tempestuous German coach Tim Walter was replaced by the composed Spaniard Rubén Sellés in early December, and that coincided with a move to using the all-amber third kit more on our travels, though one last use of the away kit came at Watford in the April.
HULL CITY KITS 
