Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid's red and white striped football jerseys were first worn around 1911. Prior to then the side wore blue and white halved shirts (similar to those favoured by Atletico Bilbao at the same time) that were paired with black shorts and socks. One possible reason for the change is rumoured to be due to the fact that red and white striped cloth was less expensive to acquire than other colours in the Madrid area at the time thanks to its widespread use in mattress manufacture! A bulk order of the fabric was duely purchased by the club and fashioned into kits. Hence the club's nickname "Los Colchoneros" or in English, "The Mattress Makers". Another theory though states that the change came about when Atletico Bilbao, who originally had strong connections with Atletico Madrid, decided to change their football shirts to red and white stripes and donated a set of similar jerseys to the Madrid side.The renowned striped shirt is generally paired with blue shorts and either red or blue socks. Blue (especially navy) has generally also been the colour of the majority of the side's away strips over the years although yellow and red have both also sometimes been worn.For much of the 80s and 90s Puma manufactured the club kit, followed by Kappa with Reebok then taking over the mantle in 1998. Nike began supplying the team strip three years later. Reebok's first kit for the club was unpopular with supporters as it opted for much broader stripes creating what was essentially a white shirt with a single broad red panel running down the front. Another controversial design arrived eight years later courtesy of Nike that saw the side decked out in red and white halved shirts partially inspired of course by the club's original blue and white halved jerseys.Atletico's current shirt sponsor is Kia Motors but have also sported the logos of Mita, Marbella and Idea over the years. One of the more unusual sponsorship arrangements in recent history though occured in 2003 when Columbia Pictures signed a deal with the club and opted to promote a selection of their films on the team kit meaning that the shirt designs were in constant flux. This unorthodox situation led to the infamous 2004 'Spiderman 2' home shirt and its specially created navy away companion that featured an enormous web design! Due to very fast manufacturing deadlines though Nike decided not to include the myriad of Columbia film logos on Atletico replica jerseys at this time. If you have any Atletico soccer shirts for sale please click here