Away Kits

The following is a history of Fulham's away/change kits over the years.

The early history of Fulham's change strip is a fairly incomplete one, certainly regarding the first few decades of the clubs existance. Most teams from the 1890's to the 1910's would wear white shirts when their home colours clashed with an oppositions, however, as Fulham's colour of choice was white from 1903-04, this meant that their choice of change colours would have to deviate from these standards.

In the early days, the standard was that the home team change their kit should there be a clash (the Football League later ruled in 1921 that the away team must change, as they still do today). Prior to their choice of white shirts in 1903, Fulham had previously played in red, and it is a possibility that they continued to wear this colour when they were required to change in the 1903-04 season and the following years.



The earliest information uncovered of any change strip worn can be found in the above excerpt of a programme in 1908, of the match against Derby County at Craven Cottage which states that Fulham were to line up in black and white striped shirts, black shorts and black socks. The clash of plain white shirts and black-and-white striped shirts would be far too similar for today's standards, but back then it was commonplace for this to be an acceptable jersey replacement for any team wearing white.



The earliest known photograph of any change strip worn is in a team photo from the 1914-15 season. The shirts had what seems to be three inch black and white vertical stripes.

The photograph showing the 1930-31 squad has hooped shirts, wearing black and white hoops. A following photo from 1936-37 also shows a different style hooped change shirt, with the addition of the club's second badge. During this era, the club wore blue and white hoops for their away kit.





The photo below right, of Johnny Haynes shaking hands with Danny Blanchflower of Tottenham Hotspur after a 5-1 loss on 5 November 1960, shows an all blue kit with white sleeves. This was a rather short-lived away kit and was replaced with an all-blue shirt with white trim around the collar and on the sleeve hem until 1965.



From 1965 until 1974, Fulham usually used either an all red or blue away kit, with the exception of the 1970-71 season in which they would use a light and dark blue vertical striped shirt.

In 1974, Fulham took up the famous red and black vertical striped away shirt, now synonymous with the FA Cup run in 1975. This was last used in 1977, before the club went back to using all red shirts. These appeared under several different guises but remained largely the same through to the early 1990's, where the kit manufacturing boom was in full swing.



From the 1990's onwards, Fulham along with nearly all other clubs, have changed their home, away and sometimes third choice kit very regularly. The one thing that has stayed fairly consistant in the club's choice of away kits is the use of the colour red - largely again due to the historic 1975 FA Cup run to the Final.