Photographs from the late 19th century show how players dressed for matches in the early days of football. For most teams, the kit consisted of long-sleeved, cotton, flannelette (roughly woven cotton) or woollen shirts, long flannel (roughly woven wool) trousers, woollen socks, heavy ankle boots and, sometimes, coloured caps. It wasn’t particularly easy for fans, match officials, and even players themselves to differentiate between teams on the field.
It was suggested, in the 1867 game handbook, that opposing teams should have colour variations in their kit. However, it wasn’t until the 1870s that standard strips were organised. From this point onwards, coloured and patterned flannelette shirts became the norm – teams generally chose their colours to reflect the town, school, association they were affiliated to. The Football League ruled in 1890, two years after its formation, that each member club had to register the colour and pattern of their shirts, to avoid clashes. Presumably, this resulted in arguments between clubs and was later abandoned. Instead, teams had ensure that a second shirt of shirts in a different colour was available for all games. In the event of a colour clash, the home team was initially required to change colours. By this time football shirt designs had settled into a few standardised alternatives. Thee included plain, stripes, hoops and halves, with any clubs adopting ‘exotic’ colour combinations. Shirts were normally flannelette with laced collars. Aston Villa were fairly unique by preferring woollen jerseys with round necks.
Clubs also began to abandon trousers in favour of knickerbockers – loose trousers made from serge, swansdown or lambskin gathered at or just below the knee. Charlie Roberts of Manchester United upset the Football Association by starting the fashion of wearing very short knickers. In 1904 the FA took action by passing a regulation that stipulated that football knickers covered the knees. Roberts and some other players ignored this regulation and knickerbockers were eventually called shorts. However, many players continued to wear long baggy shorts.
Almost all teams wore shirts of a contrasting colour or design to their knickerbockers. Loughborough wore black and white striped shirts and either white or dark blue knickerbockers. The Fosse meanwhile adopted a range of short designs from black with a blue sash across the chest and blue and marron quarters before finally settling on the colours of blue and white.
In the early days clubs did not have to wear the same colour stockings. It was only in 1937 that the Football League required clubs to register the colour and design of their stockings. Numbered shirts first appeared in English games in 1928. However it was not until the 1938-39 season that all clubs in the Football League were forced to wear numbers.