Sartorial Soccer: The First Year

On June 30th 2018, we launched Sartorial.Soccer to celebrate the world of football shirts and the memories and emotions they stir in us.

We’ve now published more than 100 articles on the good, the bad and the downright ugly of football shirts past and present.

As we blow out that candle on our first birthday cake, we invite you to join us for a rundown of the first season at Sartorial.Soccer:

June 2018

World Cup fever was all around us with the early shock from Russia being the exit of defending champions Germany in the first round.

That meant a sad goodbye to what would normally have been one of the shirts of the tournament.

Every cloud eh?

World Cup 2018: The Schadenfreude Shirts

July 2018

As Gareth Southgate reclaimed the waistcoat from the world of snooker, our most popular post from July 2018 was this nostalgic trip back to Italia ’90 and an absolute treasure of an England shirt.

Vintage England: World in Motion Blue

Sadly England were Beaten Black & Blue by Croatia, and rather than coming home, football took up a better offer with a French bloke.

August 2018

With the post-World Cup blues setting in we covered a range of new shirts from that washed-out pink Manchester United thing to this quality Leeds United away kit which became our 1st Kit of the Week, as well as some classic retro-kits which always give us a chance to meander down memory lane.

An early request to cover a favourite kit came from our Facebook friend Nigel Johnston and developed into a compilation of kits which resulted in one of our most popular early posts.

Six of the Best: Northern Ireland Shirts.

September 2018

With the football season back in full swing we saw a mixed bag of new kit releases from PSG’s Champions League shirts by Jordan to the novelty Oktoberfest shirts of 1860 Munich.

Perhaps our favourite shirt of the month was Lazio’s re-boot of a club classic kit by Macron.

October 2018

Our best stories come from suggestions from supporters, but when that recommendation comes from a football shirt collector sharing a story of an item so rare it surprises die-hard fans of the club who wore it, you have something truly special.

There’s always going to be a special place in the world of kit design for Luton Town’s 1980s Adidas association but rather than go for the obvious in orange or white, Andrew Kingston told us we simply had to go for the ultra-rare red.

Vintage Luton: The Holy Grail of Hatters Shirts

November 2018

Another suggestion for a club classic shirt, this time from Wigan Athletic fan Steve Halliwell and one of Puma’s first entries into English football.

So good, the staff at JJB Sports wore it as uniform (without the tree and crown crest of course).

Club Classics: The Wigan Athletic Three Amigos Shirt

December 2018

It might not be the most memorable shirt from the last year but the message behind this kit is one of the most important we will ever cover.

Designed by a local schoolboy, this Doncaster Rovers 3rd shirt was released to raise awareness of mental health issues and prevent male suicide.

Kit of the Week? Kit of the Season perhaps.

January 2019

We’re always interested in the social significance behind football shirts and this Heart of Midlothian shirt is the perfect demonstration of how a kit that captures a key moment in a club’s history can really resonate with fans.

Here we tell the story of the sacrifice made by McCrae’s Battalion and the tribute Hearts and Adidas made to those brave men 100 years later.

Club Classics: Jambos’ Hearts in the Right Place

February 2019

Romance was in the air in February but we spoiled that St Valentine’s Day vibe by breaking many football fans’ belief in what was on Dutch club SC Heerenveen’s unique shirts.

Love Heerenveen, Don’t Call Them Hearts

March 2019

Our friends at Footballkitbox.com sent us one of their parcels of joy and each of the shirts in that box had an incredible story behind it.

We had a shirt from football’s first Wanderers, the Blue Eagles of Gbagada FC and this beautiful green and gold St Anthony’s away shirt from the Glasgow junior side:

From Govan to Paradise: A Prayer to St Anthony’s

To give you a taste of what it’s like to open a footballkitbox, have a little look at this film here:

April 2019

The first Canadian Premier League season began in April with seven new clubs, launching 7 brand new sets of home and away kits by your heroes and ours, Macron.

We also found time to pen tributes to classic Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland and Fulham shirts of the 1990s and early 2000s.

May 2019

Sartorial Soccer is all about sharing our memories and passion for football through the colours that define our identities.

The big teams launch their new kits earlier each year and there have been gasps this summer as clubs like Juventus and Barcelona released kits not entirely in keeping with their established traditions.

On the flip-side we saw Milan and Ajax release fresh interpretations of a pair of their most celebrated looks.

June 2019

With the Women’s World Cup in France continuing the renaissance in football shirt design we have seen over the past year, the future looks bright for kit connoisseurs.

As we close the first season at Sartorial.Soccer and prepare for the adventures that await in 2019-20, we’d just like to offer a very big thank you to all of our followers, contributors, supporters and anyone who’s ever visited our site and shared one of our stories with a friend.

Here’s to the years ahead!