Dressed to Impress: The Last 25 Years in Bayern Kits

We begin our look back at Bayern's kits at a juncture in the club's history where they were once again switching shirt sponsors. The first kit sponsors in team history were Adidas from 1974-78, who more or less had the effect of making it seem as if the players were outfitted in t-shirts. Classy, winning t-shirts that is. Next came truck company Magirus Deutz on a five-year deal from 1978-1981 before that company merged with IVECO, which landed 'IVECO' with a subscript of 'Magirus' on the fronts of the shirts. Some pretty funny photo-shoots occurred in this time as well. More on that when we get to Opel. Starting in 1984, Commodore Computers began another five-year deal that lasted until 1989 Sometimes there were blue shorts. Sometimes there were shorts with stripes on them around the waist. It was an odd time. This is when car manufacturers Opel entered a long-term arrangement with the club and this is also when we pick up our guided tour through FC Bayern kit history.

1989-1990

Home: Opel's first year on the shirts saw a change from some of the sublimated designs of the 1980's back to a solid red, majority cotton shirt.

Change: More or less just an inversion of the home.

Change II: Really the same as the home but with white cuffs and collar trim, as sported here by Stefan Reuter. This should remind you of the shirts Bayern won the CL with in 2001, the only differences being a slightly updated crest and a different Adidas logo.

Change III: Worn on the final matchday when Bayern celebrated their title, this was a tad futuristic in comparison to their normal kits.

Opel Anniversary: Well well well, this happened didn't it. Monocles, top-hats, and horseless carriages included.

1990-1991

All kits remained unchanged. The Opel anniversary kit wasn't worn this season.

1991-1992

Home: This is when Adidas really started to make odd and different decisions with the team. The traditional stripes down the arms? Out.

Change: Like before, just a white version of the primary. Lothar Matthäus scored a hell of a goal in this shirt.

1992-1993

All kits remained unchanged.

1993-1994

Home: This is not too different from the previous home shirt, but with blue sleeves and an extra set of three stripes opposite the ones on the upper left shoulder.

Change: Argh. There's no need to offend anyone here so the commentary about these shirts will end now. All the team did was lose in these.

DFB SuperCup: These are in the pattern of Germany's 1994 World Cup outfit.

1994-1995

The kits were unchanged and the SuperCup shirt was not worn again.

1995-1996

Home: Well don't these peaches look familiar! Klinsmann kicking the battery, Scholl, Helmer...ah those were the days.

Change: Remained unchanged, unfortunately.

Change II: Bayern only wore this one in Europe a few times.

Change III: Same story, couldn't even find a match where these were worn.

UEFA Cup Final: This shirt, a throwback to the mid-1970's, was worn in the second leg of the Final and then retained into the next season.

1996-1997

Home: Unchanged

Change: Cup Final shirt from previous season

1997-1998

Home: This has to be the least Bayern München shirt of the lot. It's navy blue, with a dash of red across the chest. Maybe as a change kit this would have been acceptable, but who are we kidding. It was the 90's.

Change: Same as previous/Cup Final

Stadtderby: This is the best kit from this year. Simply perfection.

1998-1999

Home: Unchanged

Change: This particular shirt, which is really comfortable to wear (if you own one you know what I'm talking about) debuted as the world was partying like it 1999. Not enough shoulder padding for Prince, but sort of stylish.

Change II: :'(

1999-2000

Home: Hooray, red again! And this happened in these shirts.

Change: Same as previous

Change II: Same as previous but with white lettering this time around.

2000-2001

Home: Unchanged

Change: Gorgeous isn't it? Well not him but the shirt.

Change II: Many peoples' favorite from this era, and understandably so.

2001-2002

Home: Bordeaux red with grey around the edges. A nice shirt, but paired with the grey shorts it cam off a bit too Nürnberg-ish for my taste.

Change: Didn't change.

Change II: Didn't change, didn't change.

2002-2003

Home: Now we move into the T-Mobile era. The same as the previous season's, which was not always, err, different enough from their opponent's kits. Also, this kit is notable in that it is the first one in a very, very long time to not really include any red in the shades we're most familiar with.

Change: White with Telekom-themed gray trim and company-colored sponsor detail.

European: Same template as the change kit but red/navy blue and with CL flock, meaning no "Bayern München" above the name/number.

Stadtderby: Bayern printed the T-Mobile logo on their classic 2001 CL-winning shirt for the special occasion of playing the other Munich team, you know, the one that Mehmet Scholl so likes to score against.

2003-2004

Home: This Arsenal-esque kit was merely a continuation of our different colored sleeves theme by other means.

The change and European kits were not altered for this season.

2004-2005

Home: Same shirt as the previous season in general with a few changes; the sponsor logo now read "T-Com" and this is the year in which the stars above the crest designating Bundesliga titles were added.

Change: Oh boy, where to start with this one. Not that Bayern are strangers to adventurous, yellow-tinted tops, but this one felt like less of an homage to Brazil and more like Adidas' German kit-designing division picked the wrong New Orleans Saints game to watch several years prior.

European: They say that once you go black, you never go back. Well, since trying out a black kit in the mid-nineties, they hadn't. Nearly a decade later, though, a new theme in Bayern kits was born; the black alternate.

2005-2006

Home: Because Sammy Kuffour's "Wir brauchen rot-weiße Trikots" rant really resonated with all parties involved in designing Bayern kits, we ended up with two seasons of what amounted to a replica of early-1980's collar adventurism to open the Allianz Arena. The crest was placed inside of the same silvery backgroundd that the team used notably on their 1996 UEFA Cup-winning white kit but also sporadically throughout the 1970's and 80's. Sometimes this kit was worn with white shorts, others with red.

The change and European kits remained unchanged.

2006-2007

The home kit didn't change, as per Bayern's general "2 years per kit" rule of thumb.

Change: Definitely one of the more ambitious efforts in the years leading up to its use. Modern-style trim that extended all the way to the end of the collar and also wrapped around the back of the shirt completed the look.

European: Back to dark red, or maroon as it probably is. This kit was most notably worn when Roy Makaay set the record for quickest goal scored in a European competition with his goal against Real Madrid in the 10th second of play.

2007-2008

Home: While design blueprints have since been released as for where the inspiration for these kits came from, they were truly a step in a different direction for the club. Faint sublimation on shirts from the 1980's not withstanding, this was the only time the club had sported horizontal stripes aside from the 1998-2000 kits. Oh and how about those socks?!?

The change kit did not, um, change.

European: Hey! These look familiar!

2008-2009

Home: While it is the same as the previous year's shirt, another star was added atop the existing three after the previous season's Bundesliga title.

Change: Black with grey piping and a collar. Though it was intended to be used in league play, most will remember this shirt from a particular evening in Manchester a year later.

European: Solid white with bright red stripes. Very conservative and traditional. Also, one of the best looking shirts in recent memory.

2009-2010

Home: A classy rot-weiße kit, just like Kuffour recommended. This shirt propelled Bayern all the way to within a win of the Triple.

The change kit remained the same.

European: A fun little number that brought the red and white of the previous year's European shirt together with the gray of the first change shirt of this recap.

2010-2011

Home: These were first worn in the UCL Final against Inter and the DFB-Pokal Finale versus Werder Bremen at the end of the previous campaign, two matches the club would fail to reach for two seasons. These were a throwback to the beginning of the club's modern successful period in the early 1970's and to commemorate the 110th anniversary of FCB.

Change: These weren't the best. Besides they were cursed! Cursed! CURSED!

European: A bit of a nod to these from the 80's with the horizontal striping. Not too bad overall.

2011-2012

Home: Golden stripes and silver medals with this kit. It was worn, however, in the record breaking 2012-13 Bundesliga campaign as well as various Champions League successes throughout its life.

Change: STILL CURSED.

European: A bit of a Prussian look with this shirt.

2012-2013

The primary kit didn't change, going back to the two-years-per-kit rule that had been broken by the striped shirt of two years ago.

Change: Infrared! Once, against Werder Bremen, the team even wore infrared shorts. That was a good day. They also clinched the title in this kit.

European: Infrared chest fireworks! The silver numbers and sponsor are unique to this shirt as well.

2013-2014

Home: This glorious shirt was worn when Bayern won the Champions League, Pokal, Bundesliga (twice), SuperCup, Club World Cup, and for the momentous Paulaner Cup triumph, their third in a row.

Change: Wiesn.

Third: Are we Inter Milan? No. Throw these in the trash.

2014-2015

Home: Bayern look back to the mid-90's for this one, if not the early 1970's.

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