Roughly a decade ago, Vision Sports Publishing (VSP) delivered The Arsenal Shirt by James Elkin and Simon “Shakey” Shakeshaft, a smash-hit book chronicling the history of the shirt designs worn by the north London club.
Now, after similar tomes dedicated to Arsenal’s rivals Spurs, Celtic, Rangers and the England national team, it’s Chelsea Football Club’s turn.
Blue Is The Colour - “The Official History of the Chelsea Shirt” - sees words being expertly handled by Nik Yeomans and certainly adds further weight to the idea, once trailblazed by the popularity of Les Motherby’s Hull City Kits website, that a specific football team’s unique kit story, notwithstanding the idiosyncrasies, can be enjoyed and extrapolated from by the general football kit enthusiast.
It may be that the target audience’s hearts are in the English capital’s SW6 postcode, and for now the Blues’ club shop - physical and online - and VSP are the only places to head to purchase this substantial product, but its reach goes far beyond the references to legends such as Bobby Tambling, Peter Osgood, Gianfranco Zola and, we may be there already, Cole Palmer.
Indeed, Frank Lampard’s foreword - a wise choice, considering Lampard having intimate knowledge of so many shirts through his kissing of crests - reveals a personal favourite release that will be a surprise to most, whatever their affiliation.
The communication of the evolution of the garments is neither hyperbolic nor at any point stale, which is no mean feat considering the repetition involved in describing the three-figure worth of shirts, and the gorgeous photography of the collection used to illustrate the timeline - including a match-worn or -prepared example of almost all shirts since the early 1960s - will have plenty of readers reverse-pinching prior to an embarrassed reach for a magnifying glass to investigate detail.
A TikTok unboxing video this is not. While classic rather than old-fashioned in format, Blue Is The Colour is a coffee table book that requires, from chapter-cum-category to chapter-cum-category, an investment of time from the owner, even if its price tag indicates good value post the inflation surge of recent years.
It’s a purchase that rewards by delivering the story behind the wares and supply contracts of the likes of Bukta, Umbro, Le Coq Sportif, the in-house Chelsea Collection, adidas and Nike, and it even includes a beautiful rendering of the full history courtesy of Denis Hurley (Museum of Jerseys. Football Type 2 and The Football Kit Podcast).
Whatever the subjective persuasion, there are things to be learnt and marvelled at, including the number of recent designs that specifically reference predecessors - it's not all about that yellow trim from that FA Cup Final Replay, although few clubs can better that sartorial tale and all it spawned.
Other glorious moments are all covered too, in the context of what those playing wore - and, sometimes, what those sidelined wore, even if the phrase “including shinpads” is conspicuous by its absence - and the importance of shades of blue, crests the colour of the Home kit socks and the fill choices for the Aways and Thirds are all explored comprehensively thanks to the meticulous research that underpins writing of this kind.
The variations between replicas and match shirts and men’s and women’s teams, the match embroidery, the customisation and the sponsorship anomalies all feature. If it relates to Chelsea shirts, right up to the 2024-25 season, it’s in there. It’s not perfect - nothing of this breadth ever could be - but spotting an error is a sport for nerds and it’s definitely a challenging bonus here.
And if anything relating to Chelsea is unpalatable, the current available editions of the similar Three Lions on a Shirt (and its Sir Geoff Hurst Collectors’ Edition), The Spurs Shirt, The Celtic Jersey (also with a Collectors’ Edition) and The Rangers Shirt are nigh-on up to date, so options abound.
VSP have done it again. The joy that The Arsenal Shirt brought has once more been replicated, and another club’s fanbase have something to covet, buy or add to a Christmas list. As do all us football kit geeks.
6.5/7
