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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Chris Beesley

Everton three best ever away kits clear as original remains greatest

Older fans might go for the classic amber but Everton have had plenty of other iconic away kits over the years and here are some of our stand-out choices.

Personally my all-time favourite has to be the famous salmon and navy stripes from Goodison Park's centenary in 1992 but mixing things up I've also included the all black number from 2012/13 plus the yellow and blue zig worn between 1990-92.

Away kits are a big focus this Christmas due to Homelessness charity Shelter’s #NoHomeKit initiative.

We’ve teamed up with Shelter for the campaign, which will see football clubs across the country wear away or third kits to raise awareness of the increasing number of rough sleepers and unsafe housing.

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Fans are also encouraged to wear their away kits to games on Boxing Day or December 27, with Shelter hoping it will help to generate funds to help tackle the issue. You can donate to the cause here.

Everton are also backing the initiative, and club ambassador Graham Stuart said: “This is a great awareness raising campaign that is receiving nationwide support and here at Everton, we want to help amplify Shelter’s important messages."

More than 180,000 households have been made homeless since the start of the pandemic, with families - many of which contain children - being placed in hostels that Shelter consider unsuitable.

As such, we’re encouraging readers to dig out their Everton away kits and, to give you some help over which kit you decide to wear, here are our favourites.

Kit One

Martin Keown of Everton (Mark Leech/Getty Images)

Everton's original away kit of the Premier League era and almost three decades on, arguably still the best.

When fans heard they were getting a pink away kit back in 1992 to mark the club's centenary at Goodison Park, they didn't know quite what to expect but it proved to be a seemingly unlikely smash hit.

Based on the colour scheme worn by Everton's first League Championship-winning side in 1891, the striped jersey was a colourful take on a retro look with the deep orange-like salmon about as close to red as the Blues dare get and contrasting well against the navy.

It was worn for two seasons between 1992-94 and even got an outing at Blackburn Rovers in a third season in 1994/95.

Indeed it was so smart, even Martin Keown looked good in it!

Kit Two

Sylvain Distin of Everton celebrates with Leon Osman (AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)

Nike are one of the world's biggest football kit manufacturers and sportswear companies but Everton's short collaboration with the US firm proved somewhat underwhelming.

While the 2013/14 season saw the club record their highest Premier League points total to date, the home kit with thick double white stripes down the arms wasn't a winner in the eyes of many.

Nike did redeem themselves somewhat with their all black away kit with yellow trim the previous year though.

Predominantly dark away kits have proven popular with Evertonians ever since Puma first produced one in 2002/03 while Umbro followed suit in 2004/05, 2007/08, 2014/15, 2016/17 and 2019/20.

This collared incarnation was simple, stylish and effective.

Kit Three

John Ebbrell of Everton (Ben Radford/Allsport)

So many kits to go through, it's difficult to leave many out.

Honourable mentions have to go to the grey Le Coq Sportif Hafnia shirt that will forever be associated with Howard Kendall's great side of the mid-1980s, the grey and white stripes that have less glorious connotations with the televised 6-2 thrashing at Aston Villa and more recent off-the-wall third strips which came in the 'cricket' cream or controversially, bottle green with orange trim.

In the end though, I've gone for a kit from my own formative years. The yellow shirt with blue zig zag, launched in 1990 just a few months after the first game I attended.

It represents a time of transition in football. These were the dying embers of old football in a pre-Premier League era but the start of a more inclusive game on the back of Paul Gascoigne's tears at Italia '90 and the start of bolder 1990s fashions, exemplified by Arsenal's famous 'bumble bee' kit a year later.

Everton now sell retro versions of this shirt in the club shop but if you're after an original, it will set you back around £100.

Whilst the festive season is always a massive time for football, it is also a period when those in help need it most, and Shelter says there is a ‘housing emergency’ this December.

Shelter offers a number of services that aid those in need, such as one-to-one help with housing issues, a 365-day free emergency hotline and free legal advice from its solicitors.

For every £1 donated to Shelter, 79p is spent directly on helping people through advice, support and campaigning, and a further 21p is spent on more fundraising.

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