Northern Ireland
Football Kits
Northern Ireland wear distinctive
green home shirts with white shorts and green socks. Despite a modest
international history, they boast one of the greatest players ever to play the
game, with George Best their most famous player.
The ‘Green and White Army’ played
their first fixture in 1921 following the break up of Ireland. In 1958, they
achieved their greatest performance to date when they reached the quarter
finals of the World Cup. They then suffered a period in the wilderness before
Michael O’Neill led his troops to the Euro 2016, where they reached the
knockout stage before being eliminated by Wales.
Northern Ireland generally favour
a dark or royal blue away shirt, or a white away shirt.
The first Northern Ireland shirt
made available for sale to the public was manufactured by Umbro in 1975. They
were replaced by Adidas in 1977, but returned in 1990, making the kits through
to the end of the 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Asics, Olympic Sportswear and
Patrick would then have spells supplying the replica shirts before Umbro
returned once more in 2004. Their eight year contract was the longest in
Northern Irish history, but was again replaced by Adidas in 2012. The Northern
Ireland kits for Euro 2016 were made by Adidas.
At the Euro 2016 tournament,
Northern Ireland jerseys featured 8th in our bestselling kits. This
was in some ways down to striker Will Grigg who, despite not featuring for even
a minute in the tournament, became the star of the competition as the infamous
“Will Grigg’s on fire” caught fire and was a huge hit with even non-Northern
Irish supporters. Will Grigg outsold many of his peers at Euro 2016, including
the likes of Paul Pogba, Andres Iniesta and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.