Retro Burnley Shirt – Clarets Glory from Turf Moor

Burnley Football Club was founded in 1882, originally playing rugby before switching to association football. They were founding members of the Football League in 1888, making them one of the 12 original clubs that shaped the entire structure of English professional football. That heritage alone earns them a permanent place in the game's folklore.

The club's first great era came in the 1920s. Burnley won the First Division championship in 1920–21, playing an extraordinary run of 30 unbeaten league matches during that campaign. The squad was built on local talent and fierce collective spirit, and their title success was celebrated throughout Lancashire with genuine civic pride.

But the golden age most associated with modern Burnley supporters is the remarkable 1959–60 season, when Harry Potts led the Clarets to the First Division title. This was a team that spent modestly, developed youth brilliantly, and played a sophisticated passing game that was ahead of its time. They qualified for the European Cup and announced themselves to a continental audience, reaching the quarter-finals. It remains one of the most romantically improbable championship wins in the history of English football.

The following decades brought turbulence. Burnley were relegated from the top flight in 1971 and spent much of the 1970s and 1980s sliding through the divisions. By 1987 they were in the Fourth Division, facing a genuine existential threat – a victory on the final day of the season against Orient saved the club from dropping out of the Football League entirely. That survival is commemorated as one of the most emotionally charged days in Turf Moor history.

The modern era has seen Burnley reinvent themselves under a series of shrewd managers. Owen Coyle brought them promotion to the Premier League in 2009, and Eddie Howe later stabilised them in the Championship. But it was Sean Dyche who truly transformed the club's standing. Appointed in 2012, Dyche oversaw two promotions to the Premier League and led Burnley to seventh place in the 2017–18 season – their highest top-flight finish in over 50 years – qualifying for European football in the process. Against clubs spending hundreds of millions of pounds, this was an achievement of extraordinary proportions.

Rivals include Blackburn Rovers, their East Lancashire derby opponents, a fixture that generates enormous regional passion. Preston North End and Bolton Wanderers also form part of the traditional Lancashire rivalry circuit. Turf Moor, the club's home since 1883, is one of the oldest continuously used football grounds in the world.

Burnley's history is populated with players who became legends despite – or perhaps because of – playing in modest surroundings rather than chasing bigger contracts elsewhere.

Jimmy McIlroy is widely regarded as the greatest player ever to wear claret and blue. A Northern Irish inside forward of sublime technical ability, McIlroy was the creative heartbeat of the 1960 championship-winning team. He combined vision, touch, and football intelligence in a way that drew comparisons to the very best in Europe. His controversial sale to Stoke City in 1963 caused genuine outrage in Burnley, with supporters protesting in the streets – a measure of just how deeply he was adored.

Ray Pointer and John Connelly were equally crucial to that great Potts era, providing goals and width in a team that played with genuine sophistication. Connelly later won the First Division title with Manchester United and played in the 1966 World Cup for England.

In more recent times, Michael Duff, Brian Jensen, and Steven Fletcher all became cult figures in their respective eras. But the player who best embodies the Dyche-era Burnley is undoubtedly Ashley Barnes – a physical, combative striker who played with the kind of relentless intensity that perfectly matched the club's identity.

Managers have also defined the club. Harry Potts remains a deity. Bob Lord, the long-serving chairman, shaped the club's identity as much as any player or manager. And Sean Dyche, with his gravel-voiced pragmatism and tactical intelligence, is the most successful manager of the modern era by any measurable standard.

Goalkeeper Nick Pope, developed at Turf Moor during the Dyche years, went on to represent England at international level – a testament to the quality of player identification and development at the club.

The Burnley retro shirt is one of the most recognisable in English football. Claret and blue has been the club's signature palette since the early twentieth century, inspired – like Aston Villa and West Ham – by the colours that gave the Clarets their enduring nickname.

The 1960s kits were beautifully simple: a deep claret shirt with narrow blue trim at the collar and cuffs, white shorts, and claret socks. No sponsor, no excess – just the purity of a shirt that won the First Division and played in Europe. These designs are enormously sought after by collectors for their historical resonance.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, Burnley followed broader trends toward more synthetic fabrics and bolder graphic elements, with Umbro and Admiral both producing distinctive kits during the lower-division years. Paradoxically, some of these more modest-era shirts hold significant emotional weight for long-serving supporters.

The 1990s and early 2000s saw sharper designs with more prominent sponsor logos, as the club stabilised in the Championship. The introduction of a more vibrant, saturated claret – offset with sky blue panels – became increasingly distinctive during this period.

The Premier League-era Burnley kits from 2009 onwards and especially those from the Dyche years have become highly collectable retro Burnley shirt items in a remarkably short time. The 2017–18 home shirt in particular – worn during the club's seventh-place finish and European qualifier – is already considered a modern classic among the Turf Moor faithful. With 279 options available in our collection, there is a shirt for every chapter of the Clarets' remarkable story.