With City’s Football League membership secured, for another year at least, courtesy of the Warren Joyce inspired ‘Great Escape’, a huge wave of possibly unfounded optimism washed over East Yorkshire as attention turned to the 1999-2000 season.
The club’s fairly new owners declared that the team’s performances as they staved off relegation in the latter half of 1998-1999 were ‘promotion form’ and that if replicated we could be leaving the basement division via the promotion hatch, rather than the relegation trapdoor, putting somewhat unfair pressure on the rookie manager.
The club ditched Olympic and their vile ‘spilt Tango’ shirt and installed Avec as the new kit manufacturer. Avec had previously made shirts for Sheffield United, and since City’s new commercial manager had held the same role at Bramall Lane, it was perhaps inevitable he would use a company he was familiar with to produce playing and training wear for the next two seasons.
For the first time, the design of the Tigers’ on-field apparel was decided by a supporter ballot. A matchday programme late in the 1998-1999 season featured images of four kits, three designed by Avec, and one by the nepotistically appointed nephew of crooked (and convicted company law criminal) Vice President, Stephen Leonard Hinchliffe.
That design (choice D) was tremendously naff, featuring childish spiky tiger stripes randomly scattered across a plain round necked amber shirt.
Alleged graphic design student James Hinchliffe’s reviled club crest was also present, featuring a tiger’s head seemingly comprised of a clipart crab with a circumcised penis for a nose. That logo also blemished the three Avec designs, all of which were neat and aesthetically pleasing, club crest notwithstanding.
The four kit vote choices as they appeared in the matchday programme
The four kit vote choices as they appeared in the matchday programme. The shirt of kit choice A was mostly amber, with a black stripe running along the shoulder yoke, and a black V-neck collar with white and amber trim. Kit B’s jersey was also plain amber, with black ‘shard’ shapes on the arms, and a curvy, tapering stripe on the left side of the chest.
The winner though was Kit C, a lovely, bold striped affair (as worn by Gary Brabin, top left). The conceptual drawing featured a raglan sleeved, black V-necked shirt with amber and white trim, and the inner stripes were cut off mid-chest so the sponsor’s typeface sat on a plain amber section. Other details included the Avec logo printed into the material (though the club crest patch was sewn on), a stitched on rectangular ‘authentic merchandise’ tag at the bottom left of the front panel (which termed us Hull City FC rather than AFC), and a small red ‘Avec sport’ tag on the right side seams.
Kit C won with 34% of votes, we used this plain 'amber' strip till it was ready
Kit C won with 34% of votes, we used this plain ‘amber’ strip till it was ready Though the initial designs had the wordmark of the University of Hull within a black box on the chest, the esteemed house of learning decided in the summer that their sponsorship deal had ran its course and they’d not be renewing, so IBC took their place, becoming main club sponsor for a second time, having had their logo on City’s jerseys between 1995 and 1997. You would have thought the haulage firm’s initials in red would have looked out of place and sullied the black and amber striped jersey, but not so, it looked fine and rather striking.
The name of the club’s principal commercial partner was not the only change from the original design evident on the shirts that went on sale at that summer’s open day, these were crew necked, and not as originally advertised, V-necked. A new element, unable to be shown on the crude, original rendering was a discreet plaid weave pattern that ran throughout both the jersey and shorts, though it was more pronounced on the pants. The shorts and socks, completing the home kit ensemble, were both black and trimmed with one white and one amber stripe matching the design on the shirts’ collar.
Close-ups of the maker's logo, Hinchliffe crest, sponsor, sewn hem patch and seam tag
Close-ups of the maker’s logo, Hinchliffe crest, sponsor, sewn hem patch and seam tag The full, first choice kit was not worn until 10th August in a League Cup first round, first leg tie away to Rotherham. The new strip was not available to wear in pre-season (due to the late sponsor change), instead we faced Bradford City, North Ferriby, Winsford, Bury and Scarborough wearing an odd all amber (though it was a very pale, washed out amber) pyjama resembling outfit that bore no club crest or sponsors logo, and the only distinguishing marks were Avec’s name on the jerseys and their stylised letter A (which looks like it was designed by Klingon calligraphers) on each sock at shin level.
Not the start of a purple patch
Though the Tigers sported their new striped shirts at Exeter on the first day of the new League campaign, our kit man evidently hadn’t realised that the Grecians wear black shorts and socks, so City were compelled to wear the Exe-Men’s away pants and legwear (as seen on Colin Alcide, right).
On a brilliantly sunny day, those hardy Tiger Nationals who’d ventured South-Westwards looked on aghast, as their team, looking foolish in amber and black shirts paired with deep purple shorts and socks, succumbed to a 1-0 defeat.
The season’s opening day wasn’t the only time City played away wearing purple socks in 1999-2000, though thankfully the other occasions didn’t necessitate us going on the scrounge, as the regal tone was the primary colour of that season’s change kit.
This strip (as seen on Mark Greaves, below left) was lovely, and ranks among the most visually pleasant away kits that the Tigers have ever worn.
The purple jersey featured an overlapping V-neck collar with white stripe trim, and the shirt’s raglan sleeves had red piping stitched in between the body and arm panels. Whereas the home shirt had the red IBC logotype woven into the fabric, the away top had each letter separately heat bonded onto the chest in felt.
Another difference was Avec’s logo, embroidered in white cotton here rather than woven in as on the first choice jersey. As on the home kit there was a black and amber ‘authentic merchandise’ tag at the base of the shirt (right side) that wasn’t seen if the player tucked his shirt into his shorts, and a small red ‘Avec sport’ tag on the left side seam.
The away shorts were white with a thick purple stripe, flanked by red piping, on each side. Red drawstrings were visible as they exited the elasticated waistband on the outside of the shorts rather than the inside.
The plaid weave shadow pattern of the home shirt and shorts was also evident on those of the change kit. The socks were purple with one white and one red stripe on the turnover band and at shin level was Avec’s ‘Klingon A’ symbol, woven in. First worn mid September at Torquay, the delicious change strip was later used at Barnet, Hayes (F.A. Cup), Shrewsbury and Mansfield.
The two keeper jerseys, one green and one blue, were identical in design, each with lighter shaded bands across the chest in which sat the sponsor’s logo, and a grid design across the shoulders and upper chest. Steve Wilson (seen right) preferred the green version, while red card collector Lee Bracey favoured the blue effort.
1999-2000 saw the introduction of squad numbers and player’s names on the back of shirts for Football League teams. The Premier League had adopted the practice back in its second season, 1993-1994, initially allowing teams to choose their own number and lettering styles before introducing a homogenised typeface (a stylised, squished version of Optima Black, font fans) for the 1997-1998 season that was used for ten years.
The Football League was, for many years resistant to the idea of squad numbers and player names on the shirts, implying that players would become egotistical should they suddenly have their surnames displayed on their backs.
They had a volte face change of heart in 1999 though, and cited one of the reasons as an attempt to create ‘local heroes’. Hmm.
The typeface, design ed by Sportin g i-D (formerly Chris Kay International, suppliers of garment appliques to FIFA, UEFA, the FA, adidas, Nike and, ahem, the SPL) was a bold, clean and easy to read font, certainly compared to the deformed looking Premier League letters and numbers. At the base of each number was the Football League’s logo.
White letters and numbers were used on both the home and away shirts and the home shorts had smaller white numbers on the left side above the manufacturer’s mark, though the corresponding numbers on the white away shorts were red, to match the sponsors patch and trim of the purple and white strip.
Because both home and away shirts featured raglan sleeves, the letters making up player surnames were usually applied radially arched on both kits, though mid-season signing Ian Goodison’s away shirt had horizontally placed letters that, because of surname length, began underneath the arms, midway down the shirt. Misapplied lettering aside, the Avec kits provided an aesthetic return to form for City after the previous years gradiating orange/white home shirt shocker, and the mark II Hinchliffe crest (not Avec’s doing) was the only blemish on an otherwise lovely uniform set.
Les Motherby
A premature end to the Sportscard deal left Hull City searching for a new main sponsor, and with a new sponsor comes a new set of kits. It was a shame to see the classy V-neck shirt of 2001-2002 dispensed with after just one season, but Patrick were obliged to design a replacement to carry the logotype of local electrical component suppliers Bonus, who reprised main sponsorship of the Tigers having had their name splashed on the Matchwinner made shirts of the early 1990′s, including the legendary/infamous ‘tiger skin’ jersey.
