by David Goody and Peter Miles
Twitter @sufc_history
SOUTHEND United’s first shirts were blue with black collar and cuffs.
These can be seen in early team group photographs, but by the time the team joined the Football League in 1920, the black had been replaced by white.
The club pretty much stayed with this colour scheme, with only some minor styling changes to the collars and sleeves until the 1960/61 season, when they decided to try changing to white shirts, an experiment that lasted only one season before a return to blue, this time with a wide pinstripe of white.
By the time the 1965/66 season came round, the club were back to plain blue, but 1969/70 saw the club adopt a West Bromwich Albion-style shirt of blue and white stripes, before a return to all blue for the start of the 1970s.
Southend United in 1906
It was around the time of the early 1970s that replica shirts became available and that encouraged all clubs to begin making changes to their kit on an almost annual basis.
The introduction of shirt sponsorship along with the fashion of having the manufacturers logo and styling on shirts also encouraged many changes and Blues were no different to any other club, embracing manufacturers such as Bukta, Spall, Crevette, Olympic, Rossco and Nike, and sponsors such as Access, Laing, Elonex, United Artists, Betterview and Insure and Go.
The 1980/81 shirt reverted back to predominantly white with blue sleeves, and by 1985 the club had changed from blue and white to blue and yellow, something that persisted for a while.
Southend United in 1981
The 1996/97 season saw the introduction of the infamous custard-splat shirt.
The design, informally named because it looked like someone had thrown custard at the players, was blue with a large yellow splodge on the front, and divided fans in their opinions.
In the early 2000s, the blue of the Southend United shirt became noticeably darker, something that is still in place now.
The main changes to the kit now is the swapping of the colours of the away kit, with the club having used orange, yellow, cherry voltage (a vibrant pink) and a fluorescent yellow, reminiscent of construction workers reflective jackets.
As a supporter of the Shrimpers you’re likely to have a favourite shirt from all those you have seen, so have a think. What is yours?
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