Classic and Retro Athletic Bilbao Football Shirts

Although their original choice of football kit was white, in 1902 Athletic  Bilbao adopted blue and white halved kits as worn by Blackburn Rovers. In 1910 a Bilbao student Juan Elorduy whilst in England was asked by the club to buy a set of new football jersey’s. Unable to track down enough jerseys in the club's style he was returning home via Southampton docks when he discovered that the colours of Southampton FC, red and white, matched the colours of the city of Bilbao and he decided to buy a set of  their striped shirts instead. On returning to the club the directors decided to ditch the blue and white halved shirts and adopted the new striped design - the now familiar Athletic Bilbao kit was born. Incidentally, supposedly a set of shirts were sent to Athletic Madrid who also adopted the colours. The red and white striped jerseys are worn with black shorts and socks although red and white hooped socks were worn throughout the 1950s, 1960s and the first half of the 1970s. Today the club kit is manufactured by Umbro but prior to their arrival at the San Mames Adidas and Kappa supplied the kit, although from 2001 to 2009 the club produced their own strip under the name of '100% Athletic".Clearly influenced by the side's early strips, away from home Bilbao have generally sported kits in various shades of blue, often combined with white.For the 2011-12 season kit suppliers Umbro have launched an away kit comprising of the traditional Basque colours of green, white and red. Like their Basque compatriots Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao resisted the lure of modern day sponsorship and played in shirts bereft of a sponsors' logo until 2008, when a deal was struck with oil company Petronor. The only exception to this stance came in 2004 when, in an initiative with the Basque Government, the side supported the region by featuring the word "Euskadi" (another term for the Basque country) on their shirts for UEFA Cup and Copa del Rey matches. If you would like to sell your old football shirts please click this link Sell Shirts