Ranking our favourite pop-culture inspired football kits designed by Fat Heads.
Sometimes in this line of work we get to combine our expertise in graphic design with our other passions, and in the case of this project, we get to combine two: football shirts and pop-culture. We’ve designed a series of football shirts based on popular films, TV shows and music for the good people at Red Molotov who produce high-quality, original, ethically-sourced political and pop-culture t-shirts.
All our football shirt designs feature a lovingly embroidered club badge that we also create to give the garments an authentic football club feel.
To showcase some of the work we have done for this project we’ve decided to rank our top five football shirt designs based on style, details and popularity.
5. The Nags Head Football Club – Only Fools and Horses
This shirt design earns its place simply because it is by far the best selling design we’ve created. Not surprising given that Only Fool and Horses is one of Britain’s best loved and long-running comedy TV series.
Our tribute to the Trotters includes a bright yellow strip based on the family’s famous Reliant Regal Supervan III car with a discreet herringbone pattern as a nod to Del Boy’s flat cap.
Shirt sponsors include Trotters Independent Traders – the boys’ business and Peckham Spring Water from the episode where Del Boy creates his own brand of ‘high-end’ tap water.
The club badge is based on Del Boy and Rodney’s local The Nags Head pub sign accompanied by one of Del’s famous catchphrases.
We think you’ll agree this shirt is Lovely Jubbly!
4. Sidewinder FC – The Shining
Here’s Johnny!
One of the first things we look for when designing these shirts is a recognisable pattern to use as a base for the strip and the geometric pattern from The Overlook Hotel’s carpet was a no-brainer for a football kit inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic The Shining.
The shirt features the name of Jack Torrance (played to perfection by Jack Nicholson) and the number 42 which film geeks may recognise as a number that features heavily throughout the film.
Shirt sponsors include The Overlook Hotel where the film is set and Calumet Baking Soda a brand Kubrick uses subtly to hint at what the film’s is really about – the genocide of the Native Americans.
Sidewinder on the club badge is the Colorado location of the hotel with the maze used in the film’s climactic finale as a backdrop.
Look out too for the phrase Jack repeatedly types to reveal his insanity.
3. Mos Eisley FC – Star Wars
From a galaxy far, far away…
We just had to include one of the designs we created based on one of the most popular movie franchises of all time, Star Wars. The Mos Eisley FC version just gets the nod over Cloud City F.C. simply because there’s nothing cooler than having Han Solo and the number 7 on your back.
The football shirt design is based on the rustic backwater city of Mos Eisley located on the planet Tatooine, home to both Anakin and Luke Skywalker and featured in many of the Star Wars films and TV shows.
The club badge features the planet’s distinctive twin suns, MEFC in Aurebesh (the galactic language) and the phrase “Scum & Villainy” uttered by Obi Wan Kenobi to describe Mos Eisley’s inhabitants.
Shirt sponsors include a detailed drawing of Chalmum’s Cantina bar where Luke and Obi Wan meet Han and Chewie for the first time and Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes that fans of the franchise will know is the jazz band that plays in the cantina bar.
May the force be with you.
2. Partridge Football Club – Alan Partridge
Aha! Fat Heads are enormous fans of Steve Coogan’s comedy creation, Alan Partridge, so we’ll admit a touch of bias as to why this football shirt design gets in our top five. On that bombshell we also think it’s a pretty smart design which we reckon Alan, who is no stranger to Sports Casual clothing, would approve of.
Alan’s personal coat of arms (that he designed himself) serves as both the club badge and the subtle repeating pattern used on the shirt. The racing green, burgundy and mustard colours are taken from the classic Partridge blazer and tie signature look from his earlier series.
Sponsors include Alan’s one-time permanent residence, Linton Travel Tavern and Peartree Productions, his ultimately doomed media company.
The number 7 is a sly nod to Alan’s hero, 007 James Bond, but with his own ornithological twist and of course Alan has to include his own signature as a mark of quality and authenticity.
To paraphrase Partridge, “that is a liquid football shirt!”
1. Amity FC – Jaws
You’re gonna need a bigger list.
It was hard enough only choosing a top five to feature on this list of best football shirt designs so selecting the number one choice was almost impossible but a killer design needs a killer theme and they don’t come bigger than the 1975 Steven Speilberg monster hit Jaws.
Taken the lead from the film’s iconic poster the clean white space at the top of the shirt contrasts nicely with the ocean blue diamond pattern (borrowed from Liverpool FC’s classic 1989 away shirt) separated neatly by a thin blood-red line.
The film’s reluctant hero Chief Martin Brody (played by Roy Scheider) claims the name while the shark (Bruce) himself pops up through the number 9 – chosen because Brody ends the film as an ace marksman.
The shirt sponsors include the unfortunate charter fishing boat, Orca, that Quint sails quite literally into the mouth of the beast and also a vandalised advert for the 4th July Annual Regatta Mayor Vaughn is so keen to see go ahead despite the danger lurking in the water.
The club badge features the nickname The Islanders after the isolated location of the film with plenty of a nautical nuance.
Do you agree with our choice for the number one football shirt design?
Best of the rest
To date Fat Heads have designed over 40 individual film, TV, video game and music themed football shirts for Red Molotov including: Aliens; The Godfather; Scarface; Deadpool; Back to the Future; Grand Theft Auto; Twin Peaks; Rocky; Indiana Jones; and The Sopranos.
We couldn’t possibly display them all here but here’s a small sample of other football shirt designs we’ve done. Can you spot which films, TV shows and video games they reference?
Head to Red Molotov’s Political & Pop-Culture Football Shirts page view (and buy!) the full range of shirts that we have designed for them.
Also why not check out the Bring Me The Horizon themed football kit we designed for the band that ended up being worn by the lead singer or our review of the excellent 95 exhibition at Classic Football Shirts’ store in Manchester.
