Purple Hazing

Unique, ever changing and about as hard to pin down as Luis Suarez inside the penalty area, style is an important tool in how we are perceived in the wider world.  It is that individuality that places like school and work can sometimes try to take away from us.  They group people together through no common bonds, other than the fact that they are learning or earning money under the same roof.  Sport is different.  That everybody has the will - even if not the means - to wear whatever they like, the idea that a group of people would choose to dress the same is one that speaks to the tribal nature of football and the idea of belonging to something.  More importantly than this however, is to be seen belonging.  The more something is associated with success, the more people will want to be seen wearing it, hence the growing amount of Manchester City shirts that are popping up in city centres all across the country.

Most of the time fashion is subconscious on both parts, we wear things that we like and look down on those that we don't without ever giving much thought as to why that is.  Colours themselves are inoffensive - even aesthetically pleasing pending on their usage - but associated with something then they become more.  In football they are just that and become the constant that connects past from present.  Billy Liddell, Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan, John Barnes, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard.  They all wore the red of Liverpool FC.  The identity of a club and what they represent are all epitomised by what they wear as they cross that white line.  For all that's different between two sides of a city, all the diversity and distinctions between Liverpool and Everton, this is what is all comes down to.  Red or blue.

Off the field, it means more than just what will be the fashion for the following season.  Manchester United fans went back to green and gold, the colours of Newton Heath in order to visualize their fight against the Glazers.  Cardiff City now face an even deeper crisis, having had an entire history altered and what once was their traditional blue will now only ever be seen away from Ninian Park. Even closer to home, a kit designed as a protest shirt against Hicks & Gillette was made for those who wanted to show their support without filling the pockets of those hurting their team.  That Liverpool fans are now engaged in a simple debate over whether a shirt looks good or not puts things into perspective.

At the end of last season, Liverpool's kit deal with Adidas was replaced by a company very few had heard of.  Formed in 1992, Warrior had been primarily making lacrosse uniforms until having been acquired by New Balance and moving into Ice Hockey.  The deal itself is a bold statement from the relatively unknown manufacturer, with Liverpool receiving a whopping twenty five million pounds a year through the next six years.  A brand new look to go with the new direction of it's young manager, virtually every aspect of Liverpool Football Club has been freshened up over this post season and with this injection of cash it's hoped that will do the same to the playing staff.

Unlike any other kit reveal - certainly in the last decade - this one had an element of secrecy about it that none had gone before it.  Twitter, those in the know and various forums all around the internet could only speculate as to exactly what would be draped over the shoulders of players to come in the following year.  When the home kit was eventually reviled, there was both a collective sigh of relief in that Warrior hadn't given us an abomination but a sense of satisfaction that it looked very smart.  There was a shadow looming over the horizon however.  It'd take a monumental effort to oust Man United's tablecloth effort as the worst kit in circulation, but that's what appeared to be on the cards.  For as good a job as they had done with the home shirt, everyone began speculating about the third.  With nothing official to go on, other than the colour scheme of purple and orange, rumours spread like wild fire.  Were Liverpool about to be lumbered with one of the worst kits of all time?

The actual need for a third kit - aside from the cynical, potentially more accurate response of more money - is that Liverpool are once again back in Europe.  Short of coming up against AC Milan, there will be very little in the way of an actual clashing of shirts that will require the use of the purple strip and so it is unlikely to be used excessively over the course of the season.  The nature of modern sportswear manufacture and the constant turnover of new product - especially now that Liverpool will now be changing the home kit every season as opposed to every two - mean that it's likely that something else next year will be heralded as an abomination.

On the fourth of July 2012, it was finally revealed to the world.  By then pictures had been circulating the internet of exactly what kind of monstrosity we were supposed to be getting but this was the first time Liverpool players had been seen wearing the shirt.  Rather unsurprisingly, a lot of fuss had been made about nothing.  There will always be people who hate the very concept of Liverpool wearing purple - or nightshade as Warrior so melodramatically put it - and those who would have purchased it along with their home and away kit regardless of how offensive to the eyes it was.  Citing David James as inspiration behind it's colour doesn't exactly inspire greatness, however there have been far more upsetting Liverpool kits in previous years.  Last years dubious blue effort springs immediately to mind which went on to become one of the most successfully sold shirts in years.  Controversy creates cash.

Think back to the 22nd of February 2007.  The day itself may not immeidiately ring any bells but the result certainly will.  Barcelona 1-2 Liverpool.  Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise scored as Liverpool pulled off one of the best results in European football this century.  That night - as I'm sure you're now picturing it - featured a kit many thought very little of but that image has now been forever burned into the memories of LFC fans the world over.  It wouldn't have mattered if those shirts been made of wool and featured a polka dot pattern.  Those kits that endeer themselves to the memory only ever do so because of the results made wearing them.  If Brendan Rodgers and his team have a good season, the next time Liverpool are to wear purple it won't be just to commemorate a couple of old goalkeeper jerseys.

In the end what Liverpool are left with is an home strip that's as close to being universally liked as is possible these days, one which was nowhere near as bad as had been made out and an away kit that if anything has underwhelmed.  Football is a world away from the game that saw Juventus borrow the colours of Notts County and never relinquish them.  Every single aspect of the game is far more commercialized and that's something we have to acknowledge and move with the times, as well as trying to maintain our proud traditions.

Hard to believe but there was a once time when Liverpool took to the field in blue.  After changing to a red shirt, white shorts and red sock combo in 1904, it wasn't until Bill Shankly himself decided to change the kit by going out in an all red kit in 1964.  Though it is a vital part of the history of the club, it is not defined by its colours.   The shade of red which coarses through the veins of every Liverpool fan that is far more vibrant and fantasic than any that could be put onto a strip of material and it will remain that way regardless of what players come and go, what manager is at the helm and what we go onto the field wearing.