Cultured Football's Gift Guide 2024: Kits

Show your cool.

For the past year, Cultured Football has been picking the best football articles for you to read. This week, we're continuing doing that but in a slightly different manner: every day in this first week of December we're going to provide you with a guide to gifts that we feel you (or any football lover in your life) will enjoy.

There was a time when people were shunned for wearing a football shirt outside a football stadium (and sometime even in it) but that’s no longer the case. In fact, there is now a whole sub-culture of people who seek out the best football kits out there.

To be clear, I don’t necessarily consider myself part of that scene (although I do try to buy a shirt from the local team every time I travel abroad) but that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate kits of beauty when I see them. Here are some of this year’s favourites.

FC Versailles (Kappa)

FC Versailles are a semi-professional side that have very little going for them. Except a beautiful set of kits.

Augsburg (Mizuno)

There’s something about the green of Augsburg’s third kit which hits just right.

Bohemians FC (O’Neills)

100% fan-owned, Bohemians FC have been producing some fantastic kits with a music twist. Their most famous one is this with Thin Lizzy which features tiny purple roses (taken from the cover of Thin Lizzy’s album Black Rose that was designed by Jim Fitzpatrick, the same man who designed the famous graphic image of Che Guevara) as well as a quote from Thin Lizzy’s famous song The Boys Are Back In Town featuring on the shirt neck. Superb.

Cambridge United (Umbro)

Is with all the bigger brands, Umbro tend to be very safe in their choice of kits. Yet that hasn’t been the route taken at Cambridge. Whilst the first kits are familiar enough, they’ve gone for a really bold choice as a second kit; one that people are likely to either love or hate. Personally, I’m in the former category.

Juventus (Adidas)

Juventus’s first and second kits are pretty bland affairs but this third one is a thing of beauty. Not only is the contrast between the blue and gold a striking one but it sees the return of Juventus’ old symbol of the zebra rearing on its hind legs. Stylish.

Latina Calcio (Ezeta)

The design of the Latina Calcio 1932 home and away shirts by Ezeta draws inspiration from Greek mythology, particularly the story of Ulysses (Odysseus) and Circe in The Odyssey. Circe, a sorceress known for her transformative powers and association with seduction and female power, lived on the island of Eea, now the Circeo Promontory in the Province of Latina. The shirts reference the floral and Greek geometries depicted on a famous 5th-century BC vase illustrating their encounter. The home shirt features black and blue stripes with vase-inspired patterns on the blue segments, while the away shirt incorporates a white base with a diagonal blue sash and matching graphics on the collar and cuffs. Also check out Boreale FC’s kits from the same manufacturers.

Sevilla (Castore)

Castore’s relationship with football has been a little bit hit and miss but Sevilla’s third kit definitely falls in the former category.

FC Basel (Macron)

FC Basel’s home shirts might be a bit too Guy Fieri for my liking but their away kits pick the best elements and turn the garish into classy.

Bodø/Glimt (Puma)

I like kits that have added meaning behind them, and Bodø/Glimt’s away kit fits in perfectly. Inspired by the Norwegian winter nights, it sees a dark blue jersey dominated by a white star pattern on the front with the Polar Star in the centre.

Grenfell Athletic (Nike)

There is no other shirt on this list that can match this one for each shirt incorporates fabric pieces donated from clothing that survived the Grenfell fire, including garments worn by survivors on the night of their escape.

The new kits feature a unique design with a subtle perimeter around the club crest, specifically reserved for a customized piece of this meaningful fabric.

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