Swindon Town F.C. - Colours and Kits

Colours and Kits

Home Kit

Originally playing in black and white with the addition of blue sash for away games, the club changed to black and red quarters on entry to the Southern League in 1894. The club changed again in 1897 with the Swindon Advertiser reporting:

"The new colours of the Swindon Town F.C. are to be green shirts, with white sleeves. Good-bye to the old well known red and black."

With problems obtaining green dyes, the kit was short-lived and Swindon Town changed their shirts to the more familiar red in 1901. Initially a dark maroon, a lighter shade was chosen for the start of the 1902–03 season and also resulted in the club's nickname "the Robins" appearing in print for the first time in programme notes for the first game. The nickname is a reference to the former name of the European Robin – "Redbreast".

Swindon Town have played their home games in variations on the red and white theme since then, wearing a red shirt with white collars and white or red shorts for much of their history which has led to the team being known as the "Red and White Army". For example; the kit worn during the 1985–86 Division Four Champions season consisted of a red shirt with white pinstripes, white shorts and red socks and chants of "Lou Macari's Red and White Army" were heard from the supporters at the final stages of the season.

Following the club being re-branded in 1991, green elements were re-introduced onto the Home Strip and badge to represent the team's short-lived kit from the turn of the century. These were removed in 2007.

Away Kit

The club's away kits have only begun to change since the 1990s and the advent of the lucrative replica kit market. Swindon's original away kit (that was entirely separate to the home kit) consisted of an all-blue strip, this was not used for the club's 1969 League Cup Final victory where they elected to wear an all-white strip.

For a period in the 1980s the club changed their away kit to white shirts and black shorts and introduced a new third kit of yellow shirts and blue shorts. The club alternated between these two schemes as its away kit for the 1980s.

When the club re-branded in the 1991 close season, it introduced a new away strip; the white and green "potato print" shirt with dark blue shorts, this remained in use until its replacement in 1993 with another yellow and blue strip, integrating the new colour scheme by adding a green collar.

A special third kit was added for the 1996–97 season and was coloured "Petrol green" in honour of the then sponsors Castrol.

Swindon wore black and gold striped away shirts for the 2003–04 season with an all-white third kit, following this with variants on the blue theme until returning to all-white in 2007.

In 2008–09 they returned to the dark blue away kit that was used previously for the 2006–07 season but this time they had white shorts instead of a whole dark blue strip. In 2009–10 they returned once again to the all white kit, but compared to the home kit who showed 'FourFourTwo' on the front, they showed 'FIFA10' on the front as a part of sponsorship with EA. They also this year has an all blue third kit which was featured for the FA Cup and also the play-off away game to Charlton.

In 2010–2011 they had an all black third kit. The all black kit became the clubs away kit for the 2011–12 season with an all white kit as a third kit used for the FA Cup run. This kit caused controversial issues for some fans, because it had the sponsors 'the people' in printed on the shirts.

For 2012–2013 they have a blue and yellow away kit which a lot of the fans are in dismay of because they are the same colour as Swindon's close rivals Oxford.

Shirt sponsors

Nationwide announced that after the revelation of more financial problems within the club, they were to terminate the sponsorship deal at the end of the 2006–07 season, this also included the cessation of Stadium Sponsorship. Swindon Town finance director Sandy Gray said on 24 November 2006 – "We are in negotiations with someone already. They are very keen to do a sponsorship deal in the football league."

On 7 June 2007 it was announced that Kingswood Construction, a local development company, would undertake a five-year sponsorship of the club. The £100,000 a year contract included both shirt and stand sponsorship. This contract was terminated on 17 March 2008 following Kingswood's financial problems and failure to pay the club, with Swindon Town Chief Executive Nick Watkins commenting "We had to withdraw from Kingswood because they had not paid their money and going forward under new ownership we don't want to work in any past uncertainty."

In June 2008 it was announced that FourFourTwo Magazine would be the club's new sponsors after signing a three-year deal with the club.