Why are Arsenal's Away shirts often yellow and blue?

Arsenal's latest yellow jersey was unveiled only yesterday. It is in a bright shade with black stripes and has already caused discussion before the game. But just like all other football teams, Arsenal too have given to fans and kit lovers some home jerseys that have turned into a cult for their style and elegance. And just like all other football teams, Arsenal jerseys’ history is full of second or third kits that have entered the collective imagination for their colors and their patterns.

As for the Gunners, this second line is characterized by wide use of two colors: yellow and blue. Two shades over the years have become a sort of unofficial corporate colors for the club, going from a mere custom to become an arrangement, a bond, an unwritten rule, a tradition. To make it simple, every season Arsenal’s fans expect at least one yellow or one blue kit if not even one that merges the two colors, expectations also fulfilled with the new 2023/24 Away kit presented in the last few hours.

The relationship between Arsenal and these two colors is deeply rooted. As confirmed by the club, Arsenal wore a blue jersey for the first time in 1892 against Everton, as Liverpool’s team back then used to wear a red jersey. But blue was used for Arsenal’s kits even before the club was called Arsenal. Dial Square FC, the first name of the club, created their first-ever kit using the tissue brought as a dowry from a small group of players who left Nottingham Forest to join the club in 1886. They created a red jersey that was combined with socks with horizontal white and blue bands.

It takes longer to see the first ever Arsenal yellow jersey: it happened in 1950 when the Gunners defeated Liverpool in the FA Cup final. From that point on, they never looked back, as yellow became Arsenal’s lucky color. The definitive approval came from the fans themselves as Arsenal played in three consecutive FA Cup finals from 1978 to 1980 wearing a yellow jersey. During that period, fans began to serenade with “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”, a song that was already well-known among Arsenal’s fans in the 50s since it was based on a 1917 George A Norton poem and was used in John Wayne’s 1949 movie of the same name.

The first time that yellow and blue were merged for an Arsenal kit happened in 1968 and since then Arsenal, together with their kits’ suppliers, realized some immortal jerseys opting in most cases for a suit-separate kit with a yellow jersey combined with blue shorts and socks. The most iconic shirt is, without a shade of a doubt, the “bruised banana” namely a groundbreaking yellow jersey with an innovative dark blue triangular pattern that Arsenal wore between 1991 and 1993 that adidas brought back in 2019 with a rebranded version to celebrate the new contract with the Gunners.

As for Nike’s collections, there have been many yellow jerseys that became a cult. One example came from the one Arsenal wore between 1999 and 2001, a yellow jersey with blue sleeves sponsored by SEGA that in 2002 was revisited with gold taking yellow’s place. Then you have the one used by the Invincibles during the 2003/04 season, a plain yellow jersey with blue details that is always remembered with pleasure among Arsenal’s fans as players wore it during the Battle of Old Trafford, the game against Manchester United that could have spoiled Gunners’ unbeaten streak if only Ruud Van Nistelrooy managed to score a penalty kick in the dying minutes of the game.