10 of the Weirdest Football Kit Mashups in History - By Phil Delves

There are two kinds of people in the world; those who didn’t bat an eyelid at Real Madrid wearing white shirts with navy shorts and those who were fascinated by the combination.

Ok, fascinated might be too strong a phrase, but regardless the unexpected mashup we saw last month was an enjoyable one for those of us who spend far too much time thinking about kits. We’re all so used to seeing teams in certain kit colours that the rare mix ups offer up something fresh, a peek into a sort of alternate dimension removed from reality.

Real Madrid Forced Into Kit Mix

Kit mashups are nothing new, and if anything, the frequency with which mashups were seen has reduced from the heydays of the late 80s and early 90s when third kits were less common and teams were more relaxed when it came to bringing the correct kits for an away trip.

Here are 10 of my favourite examples from history, some premeditated and others the results of an unfortunate mishap.

Bayern Munich, 1986

Bayern Munich fans are notoriously precious when it comes to the colours of their team’s home kits, and their patience was tested in the late 80s as Die Roten paired their home shirts and socks with unusual blue and yellow shorts. The clashing shorts were a holdover from an experiment from superstitious coach Udo Lattek, who had the team wearing a Brazil style kit for a match against Kaiserslautern in 1983.

Bayern would exhibit the red/blue/red mashup in just about the most high profile way possible, sporting the look in a 5-2 victory against Stuttgart in 1986 DFB Pokal final. The look would be seen again in a league game against Hamburg the following season.

Leeds United, 1987

Of all the categories of mashups, arguably the most enjoyable are the ones when the kitman simply forgot to pack the shirts or shorts for an away trip, only to then be forced to borrow the missing portion of the kit from the home side.

This unfortunate fate would befall Leeds United as they travelled down to the South Coast to face Brighton. The team’s usual blue shorts were left in Yorkshire, and as a result Brighton’s adidas red away shorts were used in tandem with Leeds’s Umbro white shirts and yellow socks producing a clash not only in colour but also in manufacturer.

Manchester City, 1990

Third shirts are often seen as something of an excess; an excuse for teams to make more money for a kit that will rarely be used on the pitch, if at all. At their core however third shirts can serve an important purpose, providing an option if a team’s home and away kits clash with whatever their opponents are wearing.

For the 1989/90 season Manchester City’s sky blue home shirts and maroon away shirts made things tricky when they faced Aston Villa. With no third shirt at the time, the decision was made to pair the home shirts with the maroon shorts and socks of the away. When played off against the maroon/sky blue shirts and white/blue shorts and socks of Villa, it made for a bit of a mess.

Arsenal, 1991

Even the most iconic kits of all time can get wrapped up in the mashup game. Arsenal’s legendary bruised banana shirt was typically worn with navy shorts, but a couple of fixtures in the 1991/92 season facilitated the use of yellow shorts producing an overall look that was even more ‘banana’ than usual.

Bulgaria, 1994

World Cups are great places to find a mashup, and Bulgaria served up a treat for the 1994 World Cup. As the team prepared to do battle against Mexico, they were told to wear the white/red shorts of their away kit with their white/green home shirt, even though Mexico also wore white shorts.

The resulting mashup firmly fell into the category of aesthetic curiosity rather than a hideous clash, with the popular adidas template of the tournament given another opportunity to shine in the rarely seen combination.

Chelsea, 1997

It’s one thing to borrow another team’s shorts, but to borrow another team’s shirts is something else entirely. That idea wasn’t initially on the cards as Chelsea travelled to play Coventry in 1997, but despite bringing their blue home strip for the fixture the referee deemed the kit to be too similar to the light blue and navy home kit of Coventry (a somewhat reasonable conclusion, given how navy the Sky Blues home shirt was at the time).

Despite appeals from Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit for Coventry to switch shirts and avoid a clash, Chelsea were forced to wear the incredible red and black checkered away kits of Coventry, in turn producing perhaps the most bizarre kit mashup of all time. There were even attempts to cover the Coventry crest, though many of these patches fell off during the game.

Birmingham City, 2007

Blue, white and red are common colours in the football kit world, but the specific combination of blue and white shirts with red shorts is relatively rare with Hamburg being the only team who play in a similar combo off the top of my head (answers in the comments please for other teams I’ve missed).

Birmingham City’s unexpected mashup in 2007 only served to highlight just how strange the mixture was. Legend has it that staff actually had to buy Birmingham home shirts from a local sports shop in Bolton after the red third shirts had been left back at base.

Liverpool, 2008

We’re seeing a lot of love for 00s kits at the moment, but adidas are unlikely to nod to the grey shirt, red shorts/socks ensemble that Liverpool wore in an away trip to Arsenal in 2008.

An absolute screamer from Robbie Keane in the game only helped to preserve the mashup in the collective consciousness, for better or for worse, and subsequent mashups involving either side have done little to erase the memories.

Mexico, 2014

In another enjoyable World Cup mashup for kit enthusiasts, Mexico paired their green home shirt with the black/red shorts and socks of their away kit in a match against Croatia. The strange aesthetic didn’t hamper the team as they ran out 3-1 winners.

PSG, 2022

There have been dozens of PSG x Jordan kits since the debut of the partnership in 2018, but across the extensive and growing collection the 2021/22 designs are some of the most memorable. The key feature of 21/22 was not the shirts but rather the shorts, which carried a clear nod to the Chicago Bulls in the form of the trim of the shorts which framed both the PSG and Jordan logos in diamonds.

The novelty factor of these shorts was elevated even further when PSG wore the blue shorts and socks of their home kit with the white shirt of their away for a game against Nice in 2022, breaking up the typically monochrome look of the team. The shared base design of the home and away helped tie the elements together, unfamiliar as the visuals were.

This article has been written by Phil Delves, football shirt connoisseur and Head of Content of Cult Kits, seller of fanous classic shirts.