Parma F.C. - Colours and Badge

Colours and Badge

The team is characterised by having used two different colour schemes in recent memory and at its inception. Originally, the club wore yellow and blue chequered shirts in honour of the city's traditional colours, which date back to 1545 when the Duchy of Parma was established, but white shirts with a black cross on the chest were introduced after the First World War, drawing inspiration from Juventus' colours, following a name change. White continued to be worn as the main colour of the home kits for much of the remainder of the century, although often complemented with yellow, blue or both, rather than black. The club did, however, experiment in the 1950s with blue shirts and blue and yellow striped shirts. The cross shirts were restored and worn until bankruptcy in 1968, when white shirts with off-centre blue and yellow vertical bands were worn, but the cross returned from 1970 until 1983 when a yellow and blue-sleeved white shirt was introduced and used for 8 years.

After decades in the lower divisions, Parma was promoted to Serie A in 1990, where the side immediately became a major force in the battle for major trophies, on many notable occasions in direct opposition to Juventus, who would become fierce rivals of Parma's. This rivalry and the influence of Parmalat led to the demotion of the white shirts to the away kit, so the side wore yellow and blue hooped shirts at home for six seasons between 1998 and 2004, and navy blue shirts often worn as third choice in this period. This was a time of great success for the club, thus the shirts have become synonymous with Parma, often still called the Gialloblu (Yellow and Blues) today, despite a recent reversion to the traditional white shirts emblazoned with a cross caused by parent company Parmalat's collapse and the clubs subsequent re-foundation as Parma Football Club. Yellow and blue are normally Parma's away kit colours, used in various combinations since 2004, such as vertical stripes, hoops, crosses or as solid colour designs.

Parma's logo changed in 2005 to reflect the name change from Parma A.C. to Parma F.C., but the logo otherwise remains the same, encompassing the city colours of yellow and blue and the club's traditional black cross set on a white background, and has not changed much in years, although it was dramatically overhauled to feature a prancing bull for one season in 2000–01 before it was criticised and discontinued in favour of the old badge.