'Get Shirty'

[littlewiggy]

Did anybody watch the ITV documentary on Admiral last Weds night?

I was about 12 or 13 when they originally went bust and can still remember it.
Sadly it seems they had the vision that should have made them world leaders in the market today, but unfortunately neither the means nor nous.

I had forgotten it was on initially so only watched it last night on the i-player.
Not only a very interesting way to while away an hour, but also a wonderfully nostalgic wallow.


"One-off documentary examining how a small underwear company from Leicester turned the football world upside down when it invented the replica club kit - and inadvertantly established an industry now worth billions of pounds"


http://www.itv.com/hub/get-shirty/2a4732a0001

[NWM Football]

Being in that "uncomfortably-near-50" age group who started getting into football properly from the mid-1970's onwards, I loved every minute of that programme. Was such a shame that it all got too much for Admiral to handle.
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[Five and In]

I watched it on catch up today Wiggy.
What a great reminder of the old kits etc.
I have never noticed the badges all over the place on the 1982 England World Cup shirts before, but always will in future.
Admiral made my all time favourite Spurs kit. 1977/78 Away.

[littlewiggy]

That is a brilliant shirt Five.

I think their England shirt (the one with the badges all over the place lol) was voted the best ever England kit too a few years back.

I really like that Spurs badge as well, I hated the 90s "beer mat" trend of "busy" crests on shirts.

Less is most certainly more in that regard, and both the Spurs & Liverpool kits look so much better since they returned to their traditional, simple crests.

[Five and In]

I agree Wiggy.
So many clubs have experimented with their badges in recent years and got it wrong, Spurs being one of them, but normal service has now been resumed.

[derby1884]

Anyone know where I could get a replica San Marino shirt?

Latest design (ie dark blue, not light blue) - nothing too extortionate in price.

Wouldn't think there'd be much (if any) demand but you never know.
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[AJLFC85]

It's a shame they didn't have the resources to stand there ground and still be the number one in the market of replica kit. Anyone got any old admiral catalogues?

[Jim LFC]

Managed to watch it the other night, thanks for the heads up Wiggy!

Fascinating programme with some interesting facts - £500 for a brown Coventry shirt!! I suppose the only way you'll get one of these originals is from an ex player who wore one in the handful of games they were featured. I can't imagine many supporters buying one back in the day although 1125 replicas were produced by the club in 2009.

[Tynie Topics]

Five and In wrote:

I watched it on catch up today Wiggy. What a great reminder of the old kits etc. I have never noticed the badges all over the place on the 1982 England World Cup shirts before, but always will in future. Admiral made my all time favourite Spurs kit. 1977/78 Away.

A vaguely interesting story relating to this kit.

My local non-league (Junior) team here in Scotland started in 1980, Blackburn United. Their first home kit was this Spurs away kit. The committee of the time liked it so much from seeing it on MOTD that they contacted Admiral and asked for them to make the kit for them minus the Spurs badge which they did, and they sewed on the Blackburn Utd badge themselves. We have a colour teamgroup and I’ll post up a pic later.

Sadly, none of this kit survives to the best of my knowledge and in 1985 our home colours changed to black & white, although this season the change kit reverted to yellow and blue to mark the fact this was our original colours.
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[cardiff55]

I saw the programme and was unaware that there were shirt collectors out there, who specifically collect Admiral shirts and the like. Very interesting.

Just like our hobby the thrill seems to be locating that rare item at a car boot sale, like a chap said on the programme he saw the cuff of a West Ham shirt sticking out of a pile of clothes and it was a car 1970s kit.


It seems that my days of going to programme fairs and finding a rare item in a box of progs are long gone.

[littlewiggy]

Tynie Topics wrote:

[quote=A vaguely interesting story relating to this kit. My local non-league (Junior) team here in Scotland started in 1980, Blackburn United. Their first home kit was this Spurs away kit. The committee of the time liked it so much from seeing it on MOTD that they contacted Admiral and asked for them to make the kit for them minus the Spurs badge which they did, and they sewed on the Blackburn Utd badge themselves. We have a colour teamgroup and I’ll post up a pic later. Sadly, none of this kit survives to the best of my knowledge and in 1985 our home colours changed to black & white, although this season the change kit reverted to yellow and blue to mark the fact this was our original colours.

Love this story, it sums up the era so perfectly.

[Tynie Topics]

Here it is, although I notice the v neck is a different colour from the Spurs shirt and there's no Admiral logo on the blue stripe. We were robbed!


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[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Some good teams wore that Admiral away kit in 78/9. One good team, anyway....

Brighton v Palace (Lawrenson v Swindlehurst) Feb 79

[littlewiggy]

Pete’s Picture Palace wrote:

Some good teams wore that Admiral away kit in 78/9. One good team, anyway.... Brighton v Palace (Lawrenson v Swindlehurst) Feb 79

Great picture Pete.

[Five and In]

Another reminder of Admiral turned up in a lot of Press Photos I just picked up and am listing for this weekend on Ebay.
Ian McShane and Adam Faith in Yesterday's Hero from 1979.
Poor film with lazy script as I recall, but great kit!!

[NWM Football]

They used masses of footage from the '79 League Cup Final, and set it up as "Leicester Forest v. The Saints" !

Opening scene in that when he's playing non-league was shot at Windsor & Eton. Probably on a par with 'When Saturday Comes' as the worst footy film of all time.
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Visit http://nwmfootball.com/ for programmes, books, DVDs, shirts & sportswear and other football collectables. Click here http://nwmfootball.com/nwm-diary/ to see which Programme Fairs and Antiques & Collectors' Fairs we will be attending.

[Jim LFC]

On a long haul flight in the summer I watched the new film about Pele which was also dreadful! Good for insomnia though.....

I'm racking my brains for a good football film and all I can come up with is the German produced "The Miracle of Bern"

[SeasideMark]

The Damned United wasn't bad Jim. I agree Yesterday's Hero was rubbish though - and WSC. That 70s drama with Dennis Waterman about West Auckland winning the 'World Cup' was alright too (the name of it escapes me).

[MINSTERMAN]

AJLFC85 wrote:

It's a shame they didn't have the resources to stand there ground and still be the number one in the market of replica kit. Anyone got any old admiral catalogues?

I loved the Admiral kits, and remember vividly my parents buying me the England kit when it was released in 1974. Looking back, I now appreciate what a huge financial outlay it was for them.

I don’t have any old catalogues, but seem to think they did a fold out poster, but I nostalgically recall that they brought an annual out for a few years called “the Admiral Book of Football”. It was choc-a-bloc of features and pictures, but only of players and clubs who played in the Admiral brand. It was also full of typos, even on the opening page the headline proclaimed “Welcome Aboarb” !! My youthfulness recollection is that the Admiral designs were miles better than the diamond-piped Umbro ones from the time.

I entered competitions in the book, winning a mega-expensive nylon England tracksuit in the first year, and a short-sleeved England team kit in the second. I’ve never won a thing since.

A couple of years ago I bought a book called “Kit Man – For the Shirt” by Bert Patrick. Despite having a surname of a competitor in the shirt business (!), Patrick worked on many of the deals brokered as Admiral kits dominated the late 1970s.The book is a good read. I think it cost me about £13 with postage but if anyone wants to buy it at £7 inc postage, just drop me a PM. It’s in pretty good nick.

I am now going to the ITV hub – fantastic !

[littlewiggy]

I always liked the York City kits from the 70s with the massive "Y" on the front mate.