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Liverpool Retro Shirts: Every Classic Kit Explained
433FC stocks 57 Liverpool retro shirts, and unusually the range is deepest in the 1980s with 18 shirts from the Crown Paints and Candy years. It starts with a 1965 FA Cup final reproduction and a 1979 Hitachi shirt, Liverpool’s first sponsored kit. All are replica reissues, not licensed originals.
Liverpool’s retro range is the odd one out in our catalogue, and in a good way. For almost every
other club our stock peaks in the 2000s or 2010s; Liverpool’s peaks in the 1980s, the decade of
Crown Paints, Candy and a team that won almost everything. Our 57 Liverpool lines start with a 1965 FA Cup final
shirt and a 1979 home shirt from the first season the club ever carried a sponsor, then run through the Adidas and
Reebok years to Istanbul and beyond. If you want genuinely old Liverpool shirts rather than recent throwbacks,
this is the deepest section we have.
Which Liverpool eras does this range actually cover?
The decade split here is unlike any other club page on this site:
- 1960s — 1 shirt. A 1965 FA Cup final reproduction, from the era when Bill Shankly had recently
switched the club to its all-red look. - 1970s — 1 shirt. A 1979 home shirt. That is the season Hitachi appeared on the chest, and
Liverpool are recorded by the club itself as the first English professional club to agree a shirt sponsorship. - 1980s — 18 shirts, the largest slice. Crown Paints and then Candy, across 1981/84, 1985/86,
1985/87, 1987/88, 1988/89 and 1989/91, including FA Cup final versions and a 1990 Kenny Dalglish testimonial shirt. - 1990s — 17 shirts. Adidas until 1996, then Reebok. Covers 1992/93, 1993/95, 1994/96, 1995/96,
1996/97 and 1998/99, with Carlsberg arriving in 1992. - 2000s — 14 shirts. The Reebok and Adidas years, including 2005 and the Istanbul commemorative.
- 2010s — 4 shirts. The thinnest slice, which is unusual for us.
Which sponsor tells you how old a Liverpool shirt is?
The chest print dates it almost exactly. Hitachi ran from 1979 to 1982, Crown Paints from 1982 to 1988, Candy from 1988 to 1992, then Carlsberg for eighteen years to 2010 and Standard Chartered after that. Anything with a bare chest predates 1979.
One point of genuine dispute worth flagging: the manufacturer of the 1984 European Cup final shirt is contested.
Some archives credit Umbro and others Adidas, because the two brands changed over around that time. What is not in
doubt is the Crown Paints sponsorship. Where sources disagree we describe the shirt by its sponsor and season
rather than claiming a maker we cannot verify. The same caution applies to the exact year Umbro handed over to
Adidas, which archives place at either 1984 or 1985.
Is the gold Istanbul shirt the one Liverpool actually wore in the 2005 final?
No, and this trips up a lot of buyers. Liverpool beat AC Milan on penalties in Istanbul on 25 May 2005 after a 3-3 draw, wearing the plain 2004/05 home shirt. The famous gold-trimmed five-star version is the 2005/06 European shirt made to celebrate the win afterwards.
| Season | Chest sponsor | What made it famous |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | None | FA Cup final reproduction from the era Shankly established the all-red kit. |
| 1979 | Hitachi | The first Liverpool shirt to carry a sponsor at all. |
| 1985/86 | Crown Paints | The league and FA Cup Double season; we stock home, third and FA Cup versions. |
| 1988/89 | Candy | Shadow stripes and the raised white Candy wordmark; the 1989 FA Cup final was won 3-2 against Everton. |
| 1990 | Candy | The Kenny Dalglish testimonial shirt, a one-off occasion piece. |
| 2004/05 | Carlsberg | Istanbul. Drew 3-3 with AC Milan on 25 May 2005 and won 3-2 on penalties. |
What should you look for when buying Liverpool retro shirts?
Liverpool’s change kits are the interesting part of this range, because the club spent the 1990s doing things
that annoyed supporters at the time and are now the reason the shirts sell. Bottle-green and white change strips
arrived at the start of the decade and drew real criticism. A green-and-white quartered away followed in the
mid-1990s and became one of the most popular shirts in the club’s history. Then came the 1996/97 away in a beige
shade that Reebok marketed as ecru, a word one kit archive drily notes seemed more market-friendly than beige.
We also stock a 1995/96 black shirt and a 1990 Dalglish testimonial, both one-off occasion pieces rather than
season kits. If you are shopping by era rather than by shirt, remember that the sponsor is your fastest guide, and
that our 1980s section is the largest here, which is not true of any other club page on this site.
Are 433FC Liverpool retro shirts authentic reissues or replicas?
They are replica reissues, not licensed originals and not official club merchandise. We reproduce the colour, crest and sponsor print of the original season on modern fabric. A genuine Crown Paints or Candy shirt in wearable condition is a vintage-market purchase at several times the price.
How should a Liverpool retro shirt fit?
Our Liverpool range leans older than most, and older cuts run boxier. The 1980s reproductions have a wide body, a deep V-neck and generous sleeves, exactly as the originals did. The 2000s shirts are closer to a modern fit. For anything from the 1980s, your usual size will feel roomy.
Adult sizes run S to XXL with some lines going further, and long-sleeve and kids’ versions carry their own size
runs listed on each product page. Browse the complete Liverpool collection for current
kits alongside these reissues, the full retro football shirt collection for more than 2,000
classics, or read our guide to the most iconic retro football kits.
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