Aston Villa were the claret and blue football kit pioneers. It’s led to believe that the Birmingham-based club were the first to wear this colour combination, all the way back in 1887. Since then, Villa have inspired 5% of the football league to wear these colours, and this colour combination has also made its way overseas. Villa was one of the teams that helped form the Football League and they enjoyed lots of success in the early 1900s, which helped the claret and blue colour combination become popular.
It is claimed that Oliver Whateley was behind the design of claret body and blue sleeved jersey all the way back in the 1880s. Whateley was a graphic artist by trade and Aston Villa’s third England international. Since then, manufacturers and sponsorship deals have changed, but the illustrious claret and blue will always remain. Now 5% of the Football League wear the obscure colour combination. Often referred to as the ‘Villa style’, it is also claimed that Ollie Whateley was the visionary behind the distinct contrasting body and sleeves on your traditional Villa shirt. Instead, one of the players who was responsible for washing the kit at the time, decided to give Dove an Aston Villa shirt. It turned out that William’s son, Charlie Dove, was a fullback for Thames Ironworks. From there on in, Thames Ironworks decided to wear claret and blue colours. West Ham, then the Thames Ironworks – wear their cut of claret and blue due to both fascinating and ridiculous circumstances, in the form of a 120-year-old wager that decided a football clubs’ permanent colours.
At a fair close to Villa Park in the summer of 1899, William Dove – a sprinter of national repute – was challenged to beat four Villa players in a race. Inevitably, the Villa men had to pay their debts but didn’t have enough money. To compensate for their broken terms, one player who was responsible for washing the kit handed Dove an Aston Villa shirt.
Here’s where things get interesting. William’s son, Charlie Dove played as a full-back for the Ironworks, and he received that very strip from his father. It was then formally adopted by the Thames Ironworks football team.
The Thames Ironworks were disbanded in June 1900 and soon re-launched as West Ham United. The club’s crest still carries a reference to the Ironworks to this day and retained the colours that were passed down to them by Villa over a century ago. In 1900, Thames Ironworks disbanded, but soon after became West Ham.
Claret and blue football kits grew in popularity in later years because of Aston Villa’s roaring success in Division One during the late 1800s and early 1900s. They won the first Division five times between the years of 1893 and 1900. Other sides wanted to replicate their kit colours to achieve similar success, and this is one of the reasons why the colour combination became more popular.United. If you look closely at West Ham’s badge, you’ll see a reference to the ironworks, as well as West Ham’s nickname being ‘The Irons’.
You’d think that Burnley FC, sometimes referred to as ‘the Clarets’, would hold more ownership of the claret and blue kit colour combination, but that’s not the case. The reason that their wear these colours is simply because of Aston Villa’s great influence.
Before 1910, Burnley trialled wearing a number of different coloured kits, including blue, green, pink and yellow. During the 1910 season, Burnley decided to adopt the claret and blue colour combination, the season in which Aston Villa won their sixth Division One title.A fellow football league founding member, Burnley played in green for a decade from 1900 to 1910, before switching to claret and blue. Burnley hoped that changing their kit colours to claret and blue would bring them more success on the football field.
A club that’s not so commonly related to claret and blue is South London club Crystal Palace. They adopted the claret and blue colour scheme in the early 19th century after Aston Villa donated them a replica kit during Crystal Palace’s primitive years.
Another link between these two football clubs is that Aston Villa’s secretary left the club to join Crystal Palace, so this could be a reason why Palace chose to wear claret and blue. It wasn’t until 1908 when Palace decided to start changing their kit colours to be more unique.
Crystal Palace are now renowned for wearing ‘cardinal red and blue’ a combination of colours that has helped the club differentiate away from being a claret and blue football team.
Scunthorpe United:
In 1910, the year in which Aston Villa were champions of England, a team made up of both Scunthorpe and North Lindsey United became Scunthorpe United. That same year, newly formed Scunthorpe United chose claret and blue as their kit colours. At this time, it’s quite clear that claret and blue football kits were popular due to Aston Villa’s success. For 50 years, Scunthorpe United proudly wore claret and blue, becoming a key part of the movement around claret and blue football teams. Scunthorpe did have a spell where they moved away from claret and blue colours. In 1960, the club moved to a white and blue kit combination and stuck with this for nine years until 1969. From 1969, they then moved to an all red kit design until 1976 before incorporating a red and white combination until 1982. Since 1982, the club have stuck with their claret and blue kit design, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be changing anytime soon.Aston Villa’s heritage has been remembered across the world for many years.
In fact, around 60 years later, Turkish side Trabzonspor decided to wear a claret and blue football kit in honour of Aston Villa. They decided to do this from the year that they formed, in 1967. Trabzonspor are arguably the biggest side in Turkey behind Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, and this shows how far Aston Villa’s legacy has spread across the world. There is another theory that exists regarding their kit colour combination. The belief is that four Trabzon based teams joined forces and chose to wear opposite colours to their local rivals, İdmanocağı.
Although they have a claret and blue football kit, their designs tend to differ from Aston Villa’s. The Turkish Süper Lig side have worn a range of different style shirts, including claret and blue striped versions. The club achieved promotion to the Turkish top flight in 1976 and were the first club based outside of Istanbul to win the title, an incredible feat. Colorado Rapids' Claret and blue football kits have even made their way to the MLS in America. Colorado Rapids, founded in 1995, went through a big rebranding in 2007 which resulted in the club colours. They decided to choose claret and blue, and their club badge was designed using this colour combination too.
In 2023, English striker Danny Ings made history when he moved to West Ham United from Aston Villa. The striker became the first player to play for all three Premier League claret and blue football teams – Aston Villa, Burnley and West Ham.
Burnley’s reason to flex claret and blue is far more straightforward – while Villa’s influence was much purer than a lousy bet.
The Lancashire club trialled blue, yellow, green and even pink before settling on claret in the year Villa claimed their sixth Division One title back in 1910.
Fellow Football League founding member Burnley spent a decade in green, and whilst that was deemed an unlucky strip after suffering relegation to Division Two, the Turf Moor club thought they’d emulate the then English champions Aston Villa.
Burnley have since adopted the nickname ‘Clarets’ to complete their brand overhaul from some 109 years ago.
Crystal Palace also saw a chance to alter their fortunes through a change in strip colours, but eventually found their own distinct pallet. From the club’s creation, Palace donned claret and blue after Villa generously donated a replica kit in the early days of their existence, at the turn of the 19th century. It was also claimed that Crystal Palace’s first secretary joined from Villa, and so it seems they took the shirt with them. Initially wearing identical kits as Villa, the Eagles took until 1908 to start tweaking their own strip. Palace have explored all four divisions of English Football and even hosted Real Madrid at Selhurst Park in 1964. It was that year when the Croydon club paid tribute to the Galacticos white strip and successful heritage, by wearing an all lily-white kit of their own. Palace themselves were promoted to Division Two for the first time in their history, after unsuccessful seasons in claret. With the claret body discarded, they are now recognised in ‘cardinal red and blue’ which was introduced to separate their identity from Villa’s.
The story of Scunthorpe United’s creation is confusing, unlike that of their club colours. A combination of North Lindsey United and Scunthorpe formed in 1910, the same year Villa reigned across England as Division One champions. That very year, Scunthorpe & Lindsay United identified themselves in a claret and blue shirt like Villa, with the two separated in all but kit colours. It’s an unlikely coincidence that the two so happened to match. Scunthorpe & Lindsay wore a classic claret body with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and claret socks with blue trim – to mimic Villa that year. After swapping between white and red shirts for the next two decades, they reverted back to the colours they chose to emulate in the early "aughts". Since 1958, The Iron have been more recognisably known as Scunthorpe United.
Fashionable in Britain, Villa’s iconic identity expands further than British shores, 3,300 miles to be exact. The city of Trabzon in Turkey homes Trabzonspor would you believe, one of the most successful clubs outside of the three big İstanbul sides – Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas. After officially forming in 1967 the club adopted the claret and blue in honour of Aston Villa’s heritage. This gospel belief emerged after four Trabzon based clubs formed an alliance and made an agreement to choose opposing colours to their local rivals İdmanocağı. After several years in the second division, the club achieved promotion to the top flight and in 1976 became the first club outside Istanbul to win the league title in what has become a world-famous colour pallet. In many ways, Aston Villa Villa were football’s Victorian pioneers, their colours revered across the land and continent from Lancashire to İstanbul – Villa-the true cornerstone of football heritage.
