A second season in the Premier League for Hull City, who’d have thunk it?

The Tigers’ first top flight campaign had been somewhat Icarus like, we flew close to the sun (third in the league table if you’ll indulge the metaphor) early on and our wings made of wax melted, leaving us plummeting towards the ground (the relegation spots). However, we would narrowly avoid impact with the floor and defy all expectations by retaining top flight status at Newcastle’s expense, meaning the Geordies and not us would trade triangular Premier League sleeve patches for rectangular Football League appliqués for their 2009-2010 kits.

The club’s deal with Umbro was entering its third and final year, but their new offerings would not bear the brand marks of the KCOM group as the last two years Umbro City shirts had. The  Karoo / Kingston Communications shirt deal had expired and in the midst of an economic slump they elected not to renew, though their stadium naming rights deal would continue.

Sports360, an agency specialising in brokering pitchside advertising deals for professional sports clubs, were tasked with finding a suitably high profile company to sponsor the still Premier League Tigers.

Our new main sponsor would be ToteSport, the high street and internet trading arm of the Horseracing Totalisator Board, the state controlled bookmakers. The two year deal was announced on June 30th 2009, the same day the new playing kits (the home kit is seen on Kamil Zayatte, above) were unveiled.   (more…)

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.

The new home kit would see active service for two full seasons (as Patrick’s first design was intended to) though it appeared in three distinct league campaigns having been unveiled and used at the end of 2001-2002. While not the most memorable of outfits from an aesthetic point of view, this kit has the unique distinction of being worn in competition at both Boothferry Park and the newly built Kingston Communications Stadium as well as being the primary uniform for our first promotion season in 19 years.  The new strip kept with the amber shirts/black shorts/ amber socks combination while adding a small amount of white trim.   (more…)

After narrowly missing out on the play offs for two seasons running, the Tiger Nation hoped it would be a case of third time lucky for City in 1995-1996.

Ditching kit maker Pelada and their vile interpretation of tiger striped shirts, the club changed manufacturers, inviting Burnley based sportswear firm The Glory Years, who made Rochdale, Brighton, and Chesterfield’s kits as part of their ‘Super League’ brand, to design and make the Tigers attire for the next two somewhat eventful seasons.

Our new togs were throwbacks of sorts, visually similar to the to the heavy cotton drill garb worn by City in the late 1940’s , The Tigers wore sky blue and white as a post-war austerity measure as amber dye was deemed too expensive, the club returned to wearing amber and black in 1947.

Like that post-war kit the new strip was made up of plain amber shirts, black shorts and amber socks. Jerseys were not used to advertise the wares and services of sponsors back then of course, but compared to the tiger-skin shirted excesses of the previous four years, the new kit was a much more traditional effort.  (more…)

In the annals of English sport, Hull City were a mere footnote until 2008. The sum of 104 years of professional football in Hull was seemingly just the answer to a pub quiz question, that being ‘which is the largest city in Europe to have never had a top flight football club?’ All that, however, changed on May 24th 2008, when the Tigers made the ascent to the Premier League.

Overnight, the club’s profile increased exponentially to hitherto unseen levels. City, who once only made national headlines for narrowly staving off bankruptcy, were now being touted as a ’global brand’ that could shift a glut of replica shirts in the Far East. Blimey.

With the eyes of the world now supposedly upon us, breath was bated in anticipation of a high profile kit launch.

In the past, the release of a new home kit may have warranted a photograph on the back page of the Hull Daily Mail at the most, not any more. A ‘global brand’ has teaser campaigns, pre ordering and press conferences to mark the arrival of new polyester garments.  During the summer, Umbro ran a series of ‘teaser’ adverts on both the club’s official website and Tiger Leisure webstore. (more…)

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

Adam Pearson swept away the last vestiges of the previous kleptocratic regime and stamped his own identity on the club in the summer of 2001, when Hull City unveiled a new crest and announced deals with a new kit manufacturer and a new main sponsor.

The reviled ‘Hinchliffe crest’ that blighted the previous two season’s kits was unceremoniously dumped and the much loved side on tigers head, used on City shirts from the mid 1970s until 1999, made a welcome return.

The tigers head now featured inside a black bordered amber escutcheon with ‘Hull City A.F.C.’ written in a black bar at the top and ‘The Tigers’ displayed in a banner near the bottom.

Gone too were Avec, the kit company formed by Sunderland AFC and Claremont Holdings, a Marks and Spencer clothing supplier who after a takeover by Courtaults Textiles had 8 of their UK factories closed.

After considering Puma and Nike, Chairman Adam Pearson instead plumped for Patrick, evidently the preferred boot manufacturer of choice for Football League linesmen, to produce two new strips for The Tigers.

Peo instructed the French company to come up with classic looking design for the home shirt, and they came back with images of three jerseys, all featuring a black v-neck collar, but each with varying amounts of black on them. The first had black arms and underarms, the second was nearly all amber but for the collar and some trim, and the third was a striped affair. The chairman’s preference was for the all amber shirt, he’d seen pictures of City in a plain amber shirt with a black v-neck from the 1950s and he wanted an updated version of that look. Users of the club’s new official website were polled and though the striped shirts garnered many votes, more people concurred with the chairman, and plain amber shirts it would be.

Patrick's three designs as shown on the clubs official website

Patrick didn’t disappoint, their kit (as seen above left on  Nicky Mohan) was beautiful, and certainly classic looking. The shirt featured a needle cord effect with alternating amber/gold weaves that made the shirt glisten in the sun or under floodlights and a thick, black v-neck collar. Under the arms an amber side panel was book-ended by thin black piping. The shirts short sleeves were ended with a near atom thin rigid ring of black whereas the the long sleeved versions had thick black elasticated cuffs.

This kit’s shorts were black with two amber piping lines on each side, set at the same width as the black piping on the shirt underarms, though the pre-season campaign was played with City wearing plain black shorts with a white Patrick logo on the right side (as seen above right on whale slaying Faroe Islander Julian Johnsson) until the proper shorts were produced. The accompanying socks were amber with two thin black hoops below the word ‘Patrick’ on the foldover bands. This was a lovely kit, one that should be associated with a promotion season, instead it evokes memories of a year where we blew it after looking dead certs to go up.

Lacking the contrast that black shorts provided, the all amber kit looked a bit washed out, the shirt certainly didn’t stand out as much as when worn at home.

It’s odd that the ref at Darlo found the silver and navy away kit (worn, below left, by Theo Whitmore) unacceptable when at Derby County two months prior, the ref was happy for us to play out our Worthington Cup tie at Pride Park in that kit despite both Darlo and Derby both wearing white and black kits.

The away shirt was effectively the same design as the home jersey, but was less structured and looser fitting and didn’t feature the needle cord weave. The matte silver shirt had a navy v-neck and the side panel under the arms was dark blue too. The shorts were navy with thick silver bands on both sides contrasting the shirts underarm panels and the kit was finished off with navy socks with silver hoops and the ‘Patrick’ logotype.

A silver set of shorts (evidently ordered at the same time as the amber pants) were used once only, at Oxford when the silver shirts and shorts were allied to amber socks. Not pretty (as Neil Mann, above right, playing for Hull City Staff v. a fans XI illustrates).

The rather chunky Sportcard logo was italicised on the City shirts to make it fit better. The updated City crest appeared on the shirts and shorts inside a larger shield, the colour around the City crest inside the outer shield mimicked that of the shirt itself, so amber for the home shirts, silver for away and green for the keeper jersey.

Les Motherby

Change was the only constant in the summer of 2007, a period that saw a change in Hull City’s ownership, kit supplier and main sponsor ahead of a season that would prove to be the most momentous and joyous in club history, culminating in a trip to Wembley and promotion to the Premier League.

Benevolent autocrat Adam Pearson, architect and chief financier of the clubs transformation from laughable basement division scuffers to respectable second tier denizens,  sold his ownership of the club and stadium management company to a south-east based consortium headed by Paul Duffen, the new man in the chairman’s hotseat.

Two of Pearson’s last acts as Tigers’ owner was to sign long term deals with a new sportswear manufacturer and shirt sponsor.

Umbro, long-term suppliers for England, signed a three year deal to design and produce City’s kits, which would feature the service marks of the KCOM group, who’s subsidiary Kingston Communications already sponsored the eponymous KC Stadium.  (more…)

Not since the late 1970’s had City played in unique, striped shirt kits three times in a row, but the release of the Diadora 2006-2007 kit saw a repeat of that sequence. In terms of club shop sales, the thin striped 2005-2006 shirt proved unpopular compared to the thick, bold striped 2004-2005 release that preceded it, so for City’s second season in the Championship, thick stripes returned. This shirt (seen on Craig Fagan) had a black central stripe, giving the shirt front three black stripes and four amber stripes, the two outside amber stripes tapered at the bottom due to a piped seam on the bias. Previously Diadora had outsourced the design of City’s kits to other companies, but this one was designed by them at their base in Giavera del Montello in north-east Italy, and it showed. Raglan sleeves ensured a neat fit on the shoulders, but the narrow, tapering cut meant it clung to the less than athletic looking physiques of Jon Parkin and Dean Windass as well as those fans who are unashamed heavy consumers of pies and ale. Because of this, many chose to go one up from their usual replica shirt size.

(more…)