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Neilwell86
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I had such a good time following the team in that Adidas kit - the length and breadth of the country, to lots of old grounds that don't exist any more - it will always be my favourite. 

It was at times, one of the worst teams I've seen, but the build-up to the games at school all week and then meeting up with my mates on the terrace on a Saturday for terrible banter was what we lived for.  Couldn't beat it for entertainment value.

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31 minutes ago, weeyin said:

I had such a good time following the team in that Adidas kit - the length and breadth of the country, to lots of old grounds that don't exist any more - it will always be my favourite. 

It was at times, one of the worst teams I've seen, but the build-up to the games at school all week and then meeting up with my mates on the terrace on a Saturday for terrible banter was what we lived for.  Couldn't beat it for entertainment value.

It was the worst time for me as my dad died suddenly in December 1979, and it left a huge void in my life. As well as being my dad he was my football buddy and it’s funny how day to day  life intervenes when you least expect it. So that ‘yellow’ strip coincided with a bad time in my life.

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15 minutes ago, underboyleheating said:

It was the worst time for me as my dad died suddenly in December 1979, and it left a huge void in my life. As well as being my dad he was my football buddy and it’s funny how day to day  life intervenes when you least expect it. So that ‘yellow’ strip coincided with a bad time in my life.

Sorry to hear that.

But you're right, it just goes to show how much bigger the impact of football can be than 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

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17 minutes ago, weeyin said:

Sorry to hear that.

But you're right, it just goes to show how much bigger the impact of football can be than 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

I had just turned 16 and he was the main person who I went to the games with. He introduced me to Motherwell and the reason why I still support them to this day. I was in a daze for months/years after his death. Consequently,  the whole 79/80 + 80/81 seasons were a bit of a blur for me. So perhaps my personal trauma had some impact on my opinion of that kit. Although, I do remember hearing some criticism of the colour among the purists in our supporters bus at the time who weren’t happy that our traditional amber was now yellow.

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2 hours ago, weeyin said:

I don't think the colour was that much different from the 76 - 78 Admiral effort. 

Correct. We were sadly victims of a certain laziness within our club who failed to insist that our chosen kit manufacturers used our correct colour. Instead we appeared to just accept what we were given. Umbro were are hit or a miss and appeared to lose their way with our colour in the 70s, and Admiral only started to get it together with the short lived fan designed 1978-Jan 79 kit. Happily we now appear to have settled on what our official claret and amber colours should be and we should see a more consistent tone throughout our future kits. The next step is to reinstate the traditional full hoop which I view as just as important to our kit history as the shade of claret and amber.

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A couple of questions for those in the know.

The first is straight forward. I hadn’t realised that we had a kit that went 1978 to Jan 79. Why did it change mid season?

The second is a bit long winded, a little more controversial but genuine none the less. Indulge me.

My first Well game was 1984 so have seldom  seen the hoop. In fact, I can recall more non band/hoop shirts than hoops.

A quick look on historical kits shows the hoop being in use continuously from 1928 and to 1969 and only used once again since (Hummel 1994-96).

So, of our 133 years of existence, the hoop has been in use for less than a third of this time. The white shorts have featured more in the past 50 years than the hoop.

Why is the absence of the hoop considered to be a break from tradition?

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3 hours ago, Gadgey said:

A couple of questions for those in the know.

The first is straight forward. I hadn’t realised that we had a kit that went 1978 to Jan 79. Why did it change mid season?

The second is a bit long winded, a little more controversial but genuine none the less. Indulge me.

My first Well game was 1984 so have seldom  seen the hoop. In fact, I can recall more non band/hoop shirts than hoops.

A quick look on historical kits shows the band being in use continuously from 1928 and to 1969 and only used once again since (Hummel 1994-96).

So, of our 133 years of existence, the hoop has only been in use for only a third of this time. The white shorts have featured more in the past 50 years than the hoop.

Why is the absence of the hoop considered to be a break from tradition?

I have a yearbook in which our then manager Roger Hynd asked the fans to submit designs for our new kit (I’ll try and find it, but it may take sometime). I entered the competition representing our supporters bus, but sadly I didn’t win. Years on my unique 78-79 lightening bolt sash design was resurrected by Roma for their new away top, I’m claiming to be a design visionary.  :ph34r: If you haven’t seen the new Roma sash shirt I suggest you take a look.  It’s about as controversial as my 1978 effort.  Anyway,  Admiral duly went away and manufactured the new fan designed two vertical striped kit, although, there is still a mystery surrounding how it was selected. I’m currently doing some research into that and if I find the answer I will let you know. 
By January of 79 it became apparent that the new look wasn’t proving to be that popular and the club decided to revert back to the previous design, before switching to adidas in season 79-80. The adidas deal was arranged through a Scottish kit rep. I remember reading an interview with the guy a while back and he mentioned that he handled quite a few Scottish teams back in the day, including Motherwell. 

With regard to our ‘traditional’ claret hoop.

It’s generally accepted when a side first establishes a signature look, (in our case, a full claret hoop) that particular design/colour will be forever linked to the club. It took us until 1928 to establish our own kit identity which remained unsullied until 1969. However, it’s up to the custodians of a club to protect that identity, but sadly the people in charge opted to neglect it. Most notably in the 1970s. Some clubs like Celtic (hoops) or Boca (bold hoop) Airdrie (Diamond) appear to be more protective of their kit identity and in my opinion this has to be applauded, especially, for home kits.

Our penchant for white shorts are much easier to explain. For quite sometime shorts were only available in a few colours, mainly white or black! Motherwell usually opted for white or occasionally black as an away option. It wasn’t till much later that other colours became more readily available, however, Motherwell decided to stick with the white as it seemed to compliment our bright amber shirts. 

Of course new traditions will evolve as a club moves forward, however, it’s the first ones that usually become entrenched in a club’s identity. 
 

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10 hours ago, underboyleheating said:

I have a yearbook in which our then manager Roger Hynd asked the fans to submit designs for our new kit (I’ll try and find it, but it may take sometime). I entered the competition representing our supporters bus, but sadly I didn’t win. Years on my unique 78-79 lightening bolt sash design was resurrected by Roma for their new away top, I’m claiming to be a design visionary.  :ph34r: If you haven’t seen the new Roma sash shirt I suggest you take a look.  It’s about as controversial as my 1978 effort.  Anyway,  Admiral duly went away and manufactured the new fan designed two vertical striped kit, although, there is still a mystery surrounding how it was selected. I’m currently doing some research into that and if I find the answer I will let you know. 
By January of 79 it became apparent that the new look wasn’t proving to be that popular and the club decided to revert back to the previous design, before switching to adidas in season 79-80. The adidas deal was arranged through a Scottish kit rep. I remember reading an interview with the guy a while back and he mentioned that he handled quite a few Scottish teams back in the day, including Motherwell. 

With regard to our ‘traditional’ claret hoop.

It’s generally accepted when a side first establishes a signature look, (in our case, a full claret hoop) that particular design/colour will be forever linked to the club. It took us until 1928 to establish our own kit identity which remained unsullied until 1969. However, it’s up to the custodians of a club to protect that identity, but sadly the people in charge opted to neglect it. Most notably in the 1970s. Some clubs like Celtic (hoops) or Boca (bold hoop) Airdrie (Diamond) appear to be more protective of their kit identity and in my opinion this has to be applauded, especially, for home kits.

Our penchant for white shorts are much easier to explain. For quite sometime shorts were only available in a few colours, mainly white or black! Motherwell usually opted for white or occasionally black as an away option. It wasn’t till much later that other colours became more readily available, however, Motherwell decided to stick with the white as it seemed to compliment our bright amber shirts. 

Of course new traditions will evolve as a club moves forward, however, it’s the first ones that usually become entrenched in a club’s identity. 
 

The club's attitude to the hoop has been strange. Both it and the club colours are almost unique in football (only Bradford City sport the latter and we copied them to avoid colour clashes) and yet there seems a reluctance to give it its  place and develop it as a strong brand among the boring blues and reds many teams wear.

I understand completely that the first strip you saw MFC play in will probably  be the one you identify with most strongly. For me, you won't be surprised to hear my childhood team was the Ancell Babes, who played football on another level from the likes of Rangers and "Captain Cutlass" Shearer.

However, if your first memory was hoopless Motherwell beating Spurs or Pettigrew and Graham playing in the sash strip and disposing of Celtic regularly home and away in the 70s, then you may not feel so strongly about the older jersey. There may even be some who get multiplied organisms remembering our (infamous or was it just me?) jester's strip but I would doubt it.

Yet the club did produce a 125 anniversary jersey with full hoop (and white shorts) which we wore in a pre-season friendly against Everton and which there was talk of using as our strip that season, so maybe it hasn't quite given up on tradition yet.

The longer the team goes without wearing it means of course it could fade from the memory, particularly as every year more and more auld yins fall off their perches, and in the end, many fans maybe don't give a flying fruit bat about what we wear as long as we win something.

It's a funny old game, Saint.

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In more recent decades I don't the impact of commercialisation can be understated in terms of the band/hoop's usage.  I remember Alan Dick being quite open  that the club weren't unhappy with the variation of a band/hoop design and non-band/hoop design because they knew the majority of people who buy replica kits want to have the most up to date shirt.  And more shirt sales = more money.  It's the same reason you barely have a kit these that lasts for more than twelve months before being updated.

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1 hour ago, Happy Dosser said:

The club's attitude to the hoop has been strange. Both it and the club colours are almost unique in football (only Bradford City sport the latter and we copied them to avoid colour clashes) and yet there seems a reluctance to give it its  place and develop it as a strong brand among the boring blues and reds many teams wear.

I understand completely that the first strip you saw MFC play in will probably  be the one you identify with most strongly. For me, you won't be surprised to hear my childhood team was the Ancell Babes, who played football on another level from the likes of Rangers and "Captain Cutlass" Shearer.

However, if your first memory was hoopless Motherwell beating Spurs or Pettigrew and Graham playing in the sash strip and disposing of Celtic regularly home and away in the 70s, then you may not feel so strongly about the older jersey. There may even be some who get multiplied organisms remembering our (infamous or was it just me?) jester's strip but I would doubt it.

Yet the club did produce a 125 anniversary jersey with full hoop (and white shorts) which we wore in a pre-season friendly against Everton and which there was talk of using as our strip that season, so maybe it hasn't quite given up on tradition yet.

The longer the team goes without wearing it means of course it could fade from the memory, particularly as every year more and more auld yins fall off their perches, and in the end, many fans maybe don't give a flying fruit bat about what we wear as long as we win something.

It's a funny old game, Saint.

Correct. No matter which era you grew up in, history is still history. If we play fast and loose with our original hoop heritage it will slowly disappear from memory. Celtic, Boca and Airdrie fans young or old are still as passionate about their kit heritage today, as they were when it was first adopted many years ago. Okay, you do need to go the extra mile with your kit manufacturer to make it happen year in, and year out. And be prepared to alter it occasionally to adhere to those stupid UEFA Euro competition rules. But it will be  all worth it in the end to uphold a clubs heritage.

Motherwell could learn a thing or two from the diamonds of Airdrie, and it’s not often you will hear me say that in a football context. However, in an upholding of a kit tradition contest they are miles ahead. There is still time to change, many clubs larger or smaller than us still manage it successfully. Lets start now and make sure that next seasons home kit properly reflects our kit heritage and save our hoop for future generations. #SaveOurHoop 

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8 minutes ago, underboyleheating said:

Correct. No matter which era you grew up in, history is still history. If we play fast and loose with our original hoop heritage it will slowly disappear from memory. Celtic, Boca and Airdrie fans young or old are still as passionate about their kit heritage today, as they were when it was first adopted many years ago. Okay, you do need to go the extra mile with your kit manufacturer to make it happen year in, and year out. And be prepared to alter it occasionally to adhere to those stupid UEFA Euro competition rules. But it will be  all worth it in the end to uphold a clubs heritage.

Motherwell could learn a thing or two from the diamonds of Airdrie, and it’s not often you will hear me say that in a football context. However, in an upholding of a kit tradition contest they are miles ahead. There is still time to change, many clubs larger or smaller than us still manage it successfully. Lets start now and make sure that next seasons home kit properly reflects our kit heritage and save our hoop for future generations. #SaveOurHoop 

You expressed my feelings better than I did there: spot on as far as I'm concerned. You also composed the first sentence in English which has included the words "Airdrie" and "Boca". 

Andy_P is right about the pressures of commercialism but many clubs just make minimal changes to classic designs to give a fresh look each season. I remember the outrage when Hearts attempted an Ajax-style maroon central stripe on a white background. They reverted to solid maroon after that.

Thanks for reminding me of the Zoom jersey, Katie: not popular with me because of the use of blue and the voided band which just looked naff imo.

My simple plan to #SaveOurHoop is 1. Win Euro lottery 2. Swack £25 million into the FP coffers on condition MFC wears the hoop and white shorts until I peg out. Problem solved: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Sorry, I've taken that too far.

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17 hours ago, Gadgey said:

A couple of questions for those in the know.

The first is straight forward. I hadn’t realised that we had a kit that went 1978 to Jan 79. Why did it change mid season?

The second is a bit long winded, a little more controversial but genuine none the less. Indulge me.

My first Well game was 1984 so have seldom  seen the hoop. In fact, I can recall more non band/hoop shirts than hoops.

A quick look on historical kits shows the hoop being in use continuously from 1928 and to 1969 and only used once again since (Hummel 1994-96).

So, of our 133 years of existence, the hoop has been in use for less than a third of this time. The white shorts have featured more in the past 50 years than the hoop.

Why is the absence of the hoop considered to be a break from tradition?

Two good questions. I had a look at our strip history and

 

Patrickmotherwell_1984-1985-early-k.gif

1984-1985 early k

Patrick
motherwell 1984

1984-1985 f i j k

Umbro
motherwell_1985-1987-fgij.gif

1985-1987 f g i j k

Matchwinner
motherwell 1987

1987-1989 f g i k

Matchwinner
motherwell_1989-1990-fgi.gif

1989-1990 f g i k

Admiral
motherwell 1990

1990-1991 f g i k

Admiral
motherwell 1991

1991-1992 f i k

Hummel
motherwell_1992-1994-fi.gif

1992-1994 f i

buy classic retro & matchworn shirts from vintage football shirts

Pony
motherwell 1994

1994-1996 f i k

Pony
motherwell 1996

1996-1998 f i

Xara
motherwell 1998

1998-2000 f g i

Xara
motherwell_2000-2002-fg.gif

2000-2002 f g o

buy classic retro & matchworn shirts from vintage football shirts

Xara
motherwell 2002

2002-2004 f g h k

buy classic retro & matchworn shirts from vintage football shirts

Xara
motherwell 2004

2004-2006 f g h

Xara
motherwell 2006

2006-2007 f g h o

Bukta
motherwell 2007

2007-Jan 2008 b o

Bukta
motherwell_2007-2008-jan07-bk.gif

Jan-May 2008 b k

Tribute to the late Phil O'Donnell

Bukta
motherwell_2008-2010-b.gif

2008-2009 b o

Canterbury
motherwell 2009

2009-2010 b

Puma
motherwell 2010-11 home kit

2010-2011 b

Puma
motherwell fc 2011-12 home kit

2011-2013 b

Puma
motherwell fc 2013-14 home kit

2013-2014 b

Macron
motherwell 2014-15  kit

2014-2015 b

Macron
motherwell 2015-16 kit

2015-2016 b

Macron
motherwell 2016-17 1st kit

2016-2017 b

Macron
motherwell fc 2017-18 1st kit

2017-2018 b

Macron
motherwell 2018-19

2018-2019 b

uksoccershop

Macron
motherwell 2019-20 1st kit

2019-2020 b

 

 

Surely the majority of them have the band/hoop? Unless you mean the band/hoop all the way around as I know some of them didn't go round the back

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5 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

Surely the majority of them have the band/hoop? Unless you mean the band/hoop all the way around as I know some of them didn't go round the back

I think  apart from the 1994-96 Pony and 2009-10 Canterbury tops they all have a front only band, or it’s ignored completely. Note, I designed the 2006-07 top with a proper front to back hoop, but the club/Xara decided to change it. 

It’s the equivalent to Airdrie settling for a red V rather than their traditional red diamond, or Celtic not continuing the green hoops onto the back of their shirts. Basically it would never happen, unless they are playing in Europe. 

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2 hours ago, weeyin said:

Although, to be fair, Airdrie did play fast and loose with their entire club given that they pulled an even slicker move than Sevco to pretend they are the same club now.

One consolation is that the Historical Kits website doesn’t recognise the current Airdrie as the same club, so they have separate kit sections. Pity they didn’t do the same with Rangers.

Airdrieonians - Formed 1878. Wound up in 2002

Airdrie United - Formed 2002. Rebranded Airdrie in 2012

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22 minutes ago, underboyleheating said:

One consolation is that the Historical Kits website doesn’t recognise the current Airdrie as the same club, so they have separate kit sections. Pity they didn’t do the same with Rangers.

Airdrieonians - Formed 1878. Wound up in 2002

Airdrie United - Formed 2002. Rebranded Airdrie in 2012

Which is mostly accurate - except the new team is technically Clydebank. (I miss my trips out to the "first all seater stadium in the UK")

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As a fan owned club tradition should be important in the decisions we make as a club going forward.

#saveourhoop

Experiment with 2nd or 3rd kits if you like (although white is best)

Simples

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