Historical Football Kits

After seven years in partnership with Diadora, the SFA turned to Adidas and launched their new home strip in March 2010 ahead of its first outing against the Czech Republic. Overall, the strip returned to the traditional theme of navy shirts, white shorts and red socks that was popular in the Seventies, with Adidas' iconic three-stripe trim. The Scottish lion rampant crest appeared as a jaquard print on the chest, a distinguishing feature in what was otherwise a straightforward design. "Alba" appears on the socks. It made its final appearance (with navy socks) in the 1-3 defeat in Spain that Scotland eliminated from the Euro 2012 qualifiers.

The yellow and navy change strip was launched in late July 2010.

Fans disappointed by Scotland's failure to qualify for Euro 2012 was tempered somewhat by the launch of an attractive new home strip. Announced on the eve of the decisive match against Spain, it was originally going to be worn in that game but, perhaps sensibly in view of the difficulty of getting a result against the European and World champions on their home turf, it was held back. Interesting features included a revival of the old shield and garter crest, suitably updated, and a complicated jaquard print based on the flag of St Andrew.

The new away strip, launched in February 2012, had the advantage of simplicity although the combination of white shirts with navy (sorry - "dark indigo") shorts was rather too close to an England strip for some.

In November 2013, the new "home" kit was launched, which, in common with many other national strips that year provided by Adidas, featured matching shirts and shorts. Cardinal red featured in the collar trim and socks while tartan tape was added at the cuffs, side seam and shorts. A spider motif was added to the reverse, inspired by the legend of Robert the Bruce. Given that it was now 16 years since the team had qualified for the finals of a major tournament, the moral of Bruce watching a spider endlessly attempting to complete her web would not have been lost on supporters. The change strip, launched in March 2014, is based on the colours of Lord Rosebery, originally worn by the Scottish team in 1881, and did not go down well. While HFK is all in favour of modern designs that take their inspiration from historical strips, this is an example of what can go wrong.

The sad state of Scottish football was brought into high relief in 2015 when the national team became the only one of the home nations to fail to qualify for the expanded Euro 2016. The new kits, commissioned in the expectation that they would be worn in France over the following summer, were now marketed as designs for the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign. The pattern on the first choice shirt resembles a tartan but is in fact a feature of the new Adidas template and also featured on shirts worn by Bosnia & Herzegovina and Ukraine. There is no established colour pallette for Scottish change strips so we should not be surprised that pink and black has made an appearance.

After Scotland yet again failed to qualify for the World Cup finals, head coach Gordon Strachan, who had been appointed in January 2013, left his post by mutual consent. The new first choice strip was launched in November 2017 and represented a return to tradition with a smart V neck and red socks. Curiously, the SFA described the new outfit as "a modern take on a classic adidas print used in the 1990s." This refers to a geometric pattern woven into the fabric that formed part of one of Adidas' flamboyant designs from the period 1988-90. These were never, in fact, worn by the Scots who were kitted out by Umbro at the time but never mind.

The new change strip was launched in early 2018 and marked a return to the yellow and navy colours worn eight years previously.