Football Shirts: Liverpool's Beautiful Black Adidas 2007-08 third jersey

Fresh, fun, and now completely dated, this was a fantastic football shirt

This time, we look at one of Liverpool's best away kits which comes from the 2007-08 season. It was actually the club's third shirt or European away kit during that season.

Unfortunately, I don't remember this kit being worn too often during the campaign. It may have only made it onto players' backs a few times.

Liverpool's other away kit was a classic-looking white shirt, black shorts, and white socks combination. The colour combinations that season meant Liverpool rarely needed to wear their all-black third kits.

That is one of the great travesties of football kits. A club has a great away top or third jersey, but due to the other teams in the league, there isn’t an opportunity for the kits to be worn.

Indeed, Liverpool ran into a similar problem this past season. Nike produced a great-looking all-green kit as the team’s third choice. It was far better than the seizure-inducing white away kit, with its mess of squiggly lines. Liverpool only wore their third kits for a few games. Even playing against Arsenal away from home, Liverpool chose to wear all-white instead of their third kits.

It seems like a complete waste to have such a great third-choice kit and not wear it as much as possible. That is what happened in 2007-08.

Liverpool 2007-08 third kit

Liverpool's 2007-08 kits were supplied by Adidas. It marked the second year that the German sports manufacturer had been tasked with producing Liverpool's kits. Reebok had been the Reds' kit supplier previously and made some pretty standout kits as mentioned in a previous blog.

From 1986 to 1996, Adidas was the official kit supplier for Liverpool. Reebok took over in 1996, but Adidas returned for the 2006-07 campaign. Although Adidas’ designs were awful by the end of their time as the kit manufacturer (I’m not a fan of current Adidas productions either), they started very strongly.

One of my biggest arguments with Adidas-made kits is they tend to all look the same. There are always the three stripes that run down the shoulder and/or sleeves. As Liverpool's deal with Adidas continued in the noughties and into the teens, it felt like every shirt Liverpool had was worn by another team in Europe or had just been recycled from a previous one.

It is the same feeling I get when looking at Liverpool’s current Nike-produced kits. There are only a few companies doing things differently in terms of design and Hummel is definitely one of those brands.

In 2007-08, the shirts still looked and felt fresh. Liverpool's third kit featured a black shirt for the first time since 2002-03 and 2003-04. Like the shirt three years prior, Adidas placed the Liverpool badge in the centre of the chest and a red swirl was featured on the jersey going from the neck down the front to the shorts.

Adidas' classic three stripes were on the sleeves. The shorts also featured the three stripes running down the hips.

Liverpool mixed and matched the black shirts in their few times wearing them. The Reds were able to combine them with white shorts and black socks as they did in a Premier League match versus Derby County.

Against Marseille in the Champions League, Rafael Benitez's team wore the black tops with black shorts and black socks against the all-white wearing French team.

It has been almost 15 seasons since Liverpool wore these Adidas-made kits. Since 2007-08, Liverpool have worn black away or third kits in 10 seasons. For a while, black was a common colour worn by the club on the road. Yet, somehow the 2007-08 jersey still stands out more than the shirts that followed.

I bought a Xabi Alonso No. 14 black 2007-08 shirt which I still love. It is one of my favourite jerseys in my Liverpool collection. Unfortunately, it resides in my wardrobe year-round as I can no longer fit into it. How was I ever that thin?

Liverpool most recently wore black during the 2020-21 season. Nike produced a black third top in their first season as the kit maker. It was a good-looking shirt, with red trim and an alternative black/grey check pattern across the front.

The Nike black top, despite having a great look, just didn’t offer the same magic as that top from 2007-08.