Six of the Best: Retro-Fuelled Umbro Shirts for 2019-20

Everyone’s raving about Umbro this season.

The key to Umbro’s tone for the 2019-20 season has been to take classic kits of the past and re-work them with modern technique.

More confident to experiment, a feature of Umbro’s recent work has been the bold colourful patterns across the sleeves and chest of their shirts.

Umbro always seem to find a way to produce refined designs without being dull or accepting temptation to go over the top.

Even in their 95th year, they have shown they can still produce football kits for fans and players to be proud of.

So ladies and gentlemen, pray silence please for Six of the Best 2019-20 retro-themed Umbro shirts!

Hammers Shirts Nailed

West Ham United, 2019-2020, Umbro, Home
West Ham’s 2019-20 home kit

OK, let’s start with a bonus for Hammers fans and bring two shirts for the price of one.

West Ham’s home and away kits take their cue from Admiral designs worn in their FA Cup winning 1979-80 season and that famous Wembley victory over Arsenal nearly 40 years ago.

Umbro have absolutely nailed the difficult task of updating two legendary shirts for a modern era.

West Ham United, 2019-2020, Umbro, Away
The Hammers’ clean and classy away kit

Perhaps the most pleasing development from West Ham and Umbro is that this year’s shirts are available without sponsor Betway’s logo in adult sizes, which has only added to their popularity among the Irons’ faithful.

Cocu’s County Home Shirts

Derby County, home, Kit, Umbro
The Rams’ 2019-20 home shirt

The Rams have disguised themselves as Zebras for the 2019-20 season as Umbro’s design team pay tribute to the 1995-96 Puma shirts that saw the club promoted to the Premier League under Jim Smith.

Derby County, Puma,
The inspiration for this season’s kit comes from this fans’ favourite Puma shirt

Bringing a little of the Baseball Ground back to new boss Phillip Cocu’s men, this retro rework shows Umbro at their very best.

We get the feeling that 90s heroes Dean Sturridge and Igor Stimac would approve.

Marvellous.

Hull’s Tiger Stripes Tamed

Hull City, Umbro, 2019-2020
Here’s how you update a club classic

Taking their cue from Matchwinner’s novelty Tiger striped kit of the early 1990s, this is the first shirt to feature Hull City’s updated club crest, which we’re not sure has really changed that much or if it even features a tiger.

Matchwinner, Hull City, Tiger, kit
Matchwinner’s tiger striped shirt of the 90s

By toning down the animal print, Umbro have neatly incorporated a tigerish pattern into Hull’s amber and black colourway without making City look like a barmaid from the Rovers Return.

Altogether now . . .

. . . They’re Grrrrrrrr-eat!

Those Terrific Toffees Tops

Everton, Umbro, home, 2019-2020
Everton’s 2019-20 home kit

Umbro’s theme of a bold graphic across the chest continues with these exceptional Everton shirts.

OK, there are those who may unfairly compare the design to a bus seat, but the inspiration comes from Goodison Park and the architectural work of Archibald Leitch.

It would have been so easy for Umbro to have played it safe and altered the shade of blue and collar and still produced a perfectly acceptable kit. What they’ve done is take the fabric of the Toffees’ home and woven it into something truly memorable.

Wonderful.

Joyous Jambos’ Away Kits

Umbro, Hearts, 2019-2020, away
Hearts’ new away kit by Umbro

The pattern across the chest of this Heart of Midlothian away kit magnifies that of their 1990-91 change strip by Bukta and prints it large across a light grey shirt.

Hearts, Bukta, Miller Homes,
Bukta’s old away shirt supplies inspiration for Umbro’

Umbro have been especially kind to the Jam Tarts with their blacked-out third top being very well received by the Tynecastle faithful, but this slightly Bavarian looking brilliance gets our vote as one of the SPL’s shirts of the summer.

What’s been your favourite of this year’s Umbro shirts?

Please let us know in the comments section below!

1 thought on “Six of the Best: Retro-Fuelled Umbro Shirts for 2019-20

  1. Rovers home kit this season is a throwback & is delightful. However, the grey away kit is a monstrosity. So you win some, you lose some.

    Like

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