The great deckchair kit mystery

[Boro]

Just thinking... Why is it in the UK that red and white deckchair shirt clubs always have black shorts? The only one I could find with matching red or white shorts was Stevenage of all places. Even Doncaster with red & white hoops has black shorts. What's that all about?
On the other hand clubs with blue and white stripes match up using blue or white shorts. Much more logical. Notable exception is Sheff Wed. Hudds also occasionally stray from white into the black shorts thing but the rest keep their colour co-ordination on track. Even QPR & Reading with blue and white hoops or WBA with navy stripes use white shorts.
So, not one of the world's biggest problems I know, but why does this strange phenomena exist?

(PS. Not sure which category you'd put them here but just noting that black and white deckchairs always match with black shorts but that's enough about St Mirren).

 

[Hap]

Stoke traditionally wear white shorts, don't they?

Notts county too, maybe?

(Edit: You're right about Notts County - I wonder why Juve opted for white shorts, given their kit history. Early Subbuteo sets had Sheffield Utd and Sunderland in white shorts, so something changed there...)

 

[newusername]

Atlético Madrid, founded by the Spanish, blue shorts.
Athletic Bilbao, founded by the English, black shorts.

Checks out.

 

[newusername]

Edit: You're right about Notts County - I wonder why Juve opted for white shorts, given their kit history.

Because they are foreigners.

 

[Boro]

Stoke traditionally wear white shorts, don't they?

Notts county too, maybe?

(Edit: You're right about Notts County - I wonder why Juve opted for white shorts, given their kit history. Early Subbuteo sets had Sheffield Utd and Sunderland in white shorts, so something changed there...)

Ah yes missed Stoke - the only ones (in UK) without black shorts?

 

[newusername]

Great observation and made me rediscover the fantastic resource that is http://www.historicalkits.co.uk to have a look back at teams various kits through the seasons.

Look at this beauty from Sunderland:


Mid-1960s Californian psychedelic fashion, road tested at Roker Park ten years earlier. Fantastic.

 

[Hap]

I, for one, am glad the early Polka Dot pattern kits didn't survive.

 

[Hap]

Great observation and made me rediscover the fantastic resource that is http://www.historicalkits.co.uk to have a look back at teams various kits through the seasons.

Look at this beauty from Sunderland:
View attachment 54614

Mid-1960s Californian psychedelic fashion, road tested at Roker Park ten years earlier. Fantastic.

That is shocking!

 

[American_Mary]

I read a book about the history of kits and why certain teams wear certain colours and from that my ad hoc understanding is that teams that originally played in white shorts were formed as part of or alongside cricket clubs, the players would use their white cricketing trousers for both sports, and that teams that played in black were linked with clubs formed by works teams where they would play in their work trousers, in those days the game was very different to the football we would recognise today with very little passing and dribbling akin to the mauls and rucks you'd see in rugby.

I'm sure there are plenty of examples that contradict this but as a rough rule of thumb it's why teams traditionally wear either white or black shorts.

 

[LaPennaBianca]

I read a book about the history of kits and why certain teams wear certain colours and from that my understanding ad hoc understanding was that teams that originally played in white shorts were in part formed as part of or alongside cricket clubs, the players would use their white cricketing trousers for both sports, and that teams that played in black were linked with clubs formed by works teams where they would play in their work trousers, in those days the game was very different to the football we recognise today with very little passing and dribbling akin to the mauls and rucks you'd see in rugby.

I'm sure there are plenty of examples that contradict this but as a rough rule of thumb it's why teams traditionally wear either white or black shorts.

That is fascinating

 

[Malaguena]

Ah yes missed Stoke - the only ones (in UK) without black shorts?

Exeter City - red shorts this season (but traditionally black, I'll grant you)

 

[fmttmadmin]

I read a book about the history of kits and why certain teams wear certain colours and from that my understanding ad hoc understanding was that teams that originally played in white shorts were in part formed as part of or alongside cricket clubs, the players would use their white cricketing trousers for both sports, and that teams that played in black were linked with clubs formed by works teams where they would play in their work trousers, in those days the game was very different to the football we recognise today with very little passing and dribbling akin to the mauls and rucks you'd see in rugby.

I'm sure there are plenty of examples that contradict this but as a rough rule of thumb it's why teams traditionally wear either white or black shorts.

I never that. Amazing to have that link in kits right back to the origin of clubs.

 

[Norman_Conquest]

I've mentioned here before that Sunderland only wears the red & white stripes and black shorts after South Bank United gave them a kit when Sunderland had fallen on hard times. Sunderland even had to raffle a canary to survive.

How the Black Cats earned their stripes

FIRSTLY today, the mystery of the Cats and the canary, and of why Sunderland play in red and white stripes.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

 

[Glover_elbow]

If Brighton had stripes continued to thier shorts they would look like 1970s tesco carrier

 

[Jedi boro]

I've mentioned here before that Sunderland only wears the red & white stripes and black shorts after South Bank United gave them a kit when Sunderland had fallen on hard times. Sunderland even had to raffle a canary to survive.

How the Black Cats earned their stripes

FIRSTLY today, the mystery of the Cats and the canary, and of why Sunderland play in red and white stripes.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

So that in turn then means South bank founded atletico Bilbaos strip then.

 

[Andy_W]

I would have said for the contrast, so players can be picked out against varying backdrops, but there's no way this was being considered when all the clubs were being formed.

I bet it's a consideration now though, and a few teams have abandoned kits and colours which are poor contrast against pitches or backdrops etc.

 

[sambaDTR]

I've mentioned here before that Sunderland only wears the red & white stripes and black shorts after South Bank United gave them a kit when Sunderland had fallen on hard times. Sunderland even had to raffle a canary to survive.

How the Black Cats earned their stripes

FIRSTLY today, the mystery of the Cats and the canary, and of why Sunderland play in red and white stripes.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

Was it Teemu Pukki?

 

[newusername]

... teams that originally played in white shorts were formed as part of or alongside cricket clubs, the players would use their white cricketing trousers for both sports, and that teams that played in black were linked with clubs formed by works teams where they would play in their work trousers

How the Black Cats earned their stripes

FIRSTLY today, the mystery of the Cats and the canary, and of why Sunderland play in red and white stripes.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

The article linked by Norman provides some support to that:

If the club aren't providing matching 'shorts' you wear what you've got to hand.

 

[newyddion]

So, we wear white shorts because we’re the posh lot..

 

[Boro]

I read a book about the history of kits and why certain teams wear certain colours and from that my ad hoc understanding is that teams that originally played in white shorts were formed as part of or alongside cricket clubs, the players would use their white cricketing trousers for both sports, and that teams that played in black were linked with clubs formed by works teams where they would play in their work trousers, in those days the game was very different to the football we would recognise today with very little passing and dribbling akin to the mauls and rucks you'd see in rugby.

I'm sure there are plenty of examples that contradict this but as a rough rule of thumb it's why teams traditionally wear either white or black shorts.

Interesting. Makes a lot of sense, thanks for that…