Nike’s ‘legendary’ attempt to change England’s Euro 2024 shirt by changing the color of St. George’s Cross promises to ‘disrupt history’… but what’s the real story about the England kit?

Nike’s ‘legendary’ England kit promises to ‘disrupt history’. That may not be saying much, as for most of England’s 152-year history they have had similarly decent, plain white kits.

When England met Scotland in Glasgow in 1872, they wore a white shirt with the Three Lions shield and a diamond pattern and long white knickers. Although the players’ shorts today are, well, shorter, a tradition and iconic kit was established.

England stuck to this formula until the 1950s, the decade in which they first teamed up with a major designer to produce the kits (Umbro, in 1952).

They experimented with a blue alternative strip but dropped it after using it in their shock defeat to the USA at the 1950 World Cup. A year later they first had the famous red colors we now associate with Bobby Moore and 1966.

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Either side of a very short stint with Bukta, Umbro made England’s kits for more than 20 years. Admiral took over these duties in 1974, mass-produced replica kits for sale for the first time and added their logo to the shirt.

That move proved highly controversial – as did the Admirals’ now iconic 1980 World Cup shirt, which for the first time splashed color on the home kit with large horizontal blue and red stripes.

‘Strip off’, joked the Daily Mirror headline at the set’s launch, arguing that Admiral ‘took commercialism too far’.

Apparently not far enough, as Admiral went bankrupt in 1982 and Umbro resumed duty as England’s kit supplier.

They introduced a thicker collar for Italia 90, the players’ names on the back of shirts two years later and an indigo alternative for Euro 96 which was actually gray – worn in the semi-final shootout defeat to Germany.

Umbro added the St George’s flag to the kit collar a year later – a red cross on a white background. In 2002, the flag adorned the team’s shirt, shorts and socks.

Some fans were angered in 2010 when Umbro switched the conventional St. George cross out with a range of multi-coloured crosses to reflect ‘an increasingly diverse England’.

In 2012, Umbro was sold by their parent company, Nike, who took over as England’s kit partner in a £100m deal and haven’t left since.

They’ve played it pretty safe on the design front – until this week, that is – but have raised the price of replica shirts into three figures.