The Kitbliss Podcast

After four years and fifty episodes of different kinds, The Kitbliss Podcast has finally reached the end of the line. We've almost run out of words on the subject of football design, but we're taking this one last opportunity to give you the benefit of our wisdom. You lucky people... 

It's the return of the classic line-up with Chris Oakley being joined by Jay (from DesignFootball.com), John Devlin and Rich Johnson for the first time in two years! Together, they look at some of the topics that continue to get everyone talking and generally getting under everyone's skin. Will there ever be an end to the tidal wave of retro shirt designs? Will we ever see the return of two-year kit cycles? Would baselayers have been quite as well known if it wasn't for Jay? 

There's also time for one last (better) attempt at a football kit quiz, a tying-up of many outstanding subjects and a look at the best of the templates mentioned so far in the 100 Greatest Football Shirt Templates series. No end to the amount of content crammed in, and hopefully a fitting end to The Kitbliss Podcast itself.

It's often been noted on The Kitbliss Podcast that certain teams in England and Wales can't help but turn their backs on tradition. Take those clubs that usually wear striped home shirts. Why do some of them switch to a plain shirt every few years, or wear a diagonal sash or something completely different? In this episode, Rich Johnson joins Chris Oakley to look at those teams who can't resist an occasional change, looking at the best striped shirts and the most interesting 'break with tradition' shirts.

In this, our third special episode that was originally recorded for Patreon followers only, Les Motherby is the guest to discuss his lifelong love of Hull City Football Club and their kit history.

There are few people who know as much as Les when it comes to Hull's kits, which means he's just the right person to ask about *that* tiger print shirt from 1993-94, as well as the lesser-discussed follow-up from 1994-95. Is the 'Worst Shirt Ever' brigade focusing on the wrong target for their ire? Les gives his views...

We also discuss Hull City Kits, the website Les has carefully and diligently put together over many years, and his exhibition of Hull shirts that formed part of the 2017 UK City of Culture celebrations. There's even time to put one vital matter to bed once and for all: Should Hull City wear striped shirts or plain shirts? Once again, Les tells it like it is...

If you enjoy listening to this interview with Les Motherby, you'll be interested to know that he's gone on to create a podcast of his own with Denis Hurley and Gav Hope called The Football Kit Podcast. It's well worth a listen for news and opinion on all that's happening in the world of football kit design.

If you're a regular visitor to the Kitbliss website, you'll know that a major new project has recently started that looks at the 100 Greatest Football Shirt Templates. Well we couldn't pass up an opportunity to talk in greater depth about that, so here's the first episode of many in which we check out the templates in positions 100 up to 96 in our countdown.

Once again, Jay from DesignFootball.com is the guest and joins Chris to provide a scatologically avine angle on great shirt designs, starting off with Tottenham's away shirt from the early 1990's. Along the way there's a chance to consider what sort of shorts Danny Dyer wears to the gym, which Mr Men character may have inspired a well known shirt template and conduct a psychological assessment on Jay to see if he can re-evaluate some of the football kits he saw as a child. We also ask the important question: When you think of a specific football shirt design, which football player springs immediately to mind?

To find out more about the 100 Greatest Football Shirt Templates project, get along to our website to explore the entries we've discussed so far, and as ever, please do get in touch with us to give us your feedback on our podcast or indeed the kits we've discussed within it.

(P.S. Excuse any roughness in the sound quality. The audio is provided courtesy of Zoom, and you can make of that what you will.)

In this, our second special episode that was originally recorded for Patreon followers only, Denis Hurley is the guest to discuss his lifelong love of football kit design, his kit illustrations and numerous website projects including Museum of Jerseys.

As many people will know by now, Denis is a prolific graphic artist, and one that has carved out a niche for himself by focusing on rare and overlooked kits from the past, as well as fantasy designs that are much admired online.

Our conversation covered these and other topics including rugby shirts, Gaelic games, mashup kits, as well as a look at how Denis got into football kit illustration around the time of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. So if you're a fan of Museum of Jerseys and want to know more about the man behind the project, have a listen to this podcast, after which you might want to listen in to The Football Kit Podcast, co-presented by Denis and Les Motherby.

It's the Kitbliss Christmas episode for 2021, and some of you have been kind enough to 'give' us football shirts as presents. How kind!

But as we all know, Christmas can be a perilous time when loved ones gift us an item of clothing which is, shall we say, 'unwanted.' The job for Chris and Jay on this episode is therefore to say thanks for the football shirts you've nominated in a delicate way that doesn't sound too disingenuous.

That said, not all the shirts were akin to the sort of garish jumpers your auntie knitted you for the festive season. Some of them were rather nice, and you can see what they all looked like by checking out our Kitbliss Crib Sheet here.

As well as our valiant attempts to sound grateful for your shirts, we've also got a review of the main kit news stories from recent weeks, plus memories of Robbie Fowler - The Overweight Years, discussions about UK retail uniforms and an appeal for someone to start up the first blog site all about shirts and socks. It's a 2-hour bumper episode, but what the heck - it is Christmas after all...

Can it really be 15 years ago since John Devlin's second book, True Colours 2, was released? For those of us that own a copy, time has certainly flown since we got our hands on another bumper batch of John's kit illustrations.

And what a great book it was. Featuring 19 teams - five of which were national teams for the first time - and well over 700 kit images, it more than provided the sort of knowledge craved for by football fans across the UK and beyond.

So what better than to catch up with John to find out what he thought about the book and how he went about researching so much wonderful content? Recorded via Zoom, we find out which team's chapter John particularly liked working on, which British club foolishly decided not to be a part of the project and what connects all of the photographs used throughout.

There's also ample opportunity to remind John of his cheeky comments about Coventry City's relegation woes, the kits we didn't realise we hadn't seen before and much, much more besides.

In this first special episode, originally recorded for Patreon followers only, Andy Rockall is the guest to discuss the finer points of Tottenham Hotspur's kit history.

As a contributor to the 2019 book release The Spurs Shirt, Andy knows more than most about the kits Tottenham have worn down the years, so who better to give us his views on the best and worst from the last half-century or so?

Among the many topics covered are Tottenham's crest, Spurs' ever-changing change kit colours and those classic long shorts worn during the 1991 FA Cup Final. Listen in to find out Andy's views on those and discover things you never knew you didn't know about the kit worn by the team from N17...

For further information, visit kitbliss.co.nz/podcast.html

How often have you ever thought a football shirt would be much better if one thing about it was different? Here on The Kitbliss Podcast, we're thinking that all the time (don't judge us). To see if our instincts are right, we decided to put our theory to the test...

We've taken some examples of great and not-so-great football shirt designs and tried to improve them by suggesting one simple change. It might sound easy, but it turns out some shirts are seemingly unimprovable - even those that are regularly voted among the worst ever made.

Did we succeed in proving our superiority to all those highly-paid shirt designers, or did we regret even thinking the whole idea up in the first place? Download Episode 34 (with special guest Rich Johnson) to find out...

Crib Sheet available here

The Kitbliss Podcast returns with a look at some of the most controversial football kit designs of the last few years.

Puma's latest offerings for some of its biggest partners have raised a few eyebrows, to say the least. With no club badge on show in the traditional manner and only a large rendition of the team name dominating the shirt, fans have been piling in to pour consternation on Puma's new look.

But are these new shirt designs really as bad as they seem? Don't most football fans want to see innovation and fresh ideas these days, and do modern players really have to kiss the badge to show their commitment to the cause?

On this episode, Chris and Jay examine the detail of the design and try to provide some much needed balance in their assessment.

You can download Extra Episode 6 of The Kitbliss Podcast via the Podcast section at www.kitbliss.co.nz.

Presented by: Chris Oakley. Guest: Jay (DesignFootball.com).

Music: PremiumBeat.com.