England Umbro Home Shirt/Kit 2009-11

The Tailored By new image meant a more sophisticated and less cluttered design. The new shirt with its neat collar and sparing use of colour is certainly a world apart from the graphic-heavy previous model. From a distance the shirt looks classy with a back-to-basics approach but closer scrutiny reveals much more.

When you first see the shirt in close quarters your eye is drawn to the crest. No longer the modern, almost photocopy quality we’ve seen over recent years. Sure, previous versions looked professional and were accurate in detail but they brought to mind an American remake of a Japanese film: Functional, profitable but soulless.

Instead, the “blank sheet of paper” approach that Umbro Senior Designer David Blanch was so keen to stress in our interview is more evident in the crest than anywhere else. The design undulates under the touch with definition and contours of even the lions’ torsos given the craftsman’s treatment. The intricate coloured details take us back to a simpler time and, whilst the shirts are obviously still mass-produced, evokes rare heartfelt care and attention.

At the top of the crest there’s something missing. Or rather, something superfluous has vanished. The Three Lions is one of the most recognisable emblems on Earth so we never needed to be told that it represented “ENGLAND”. Thank you to The FA for finally seeing the light on that one.

So then that takes us to the star. England fans clamoured for its inclusion years ago and it remains. You may need to look closely to find it as beautiful white stitching replaces holographic gold plastic and that seems a fair compromise. England should never forget the achievement of 1966 but neither should it act as a reminder to current players and fans of the subsequent failures. Should this England shirt need to carry a bold and striking declaration of international success then it will surely be issued by Fifa next summer.

Emblems aside, the shirt is to be judged on its cut and performance. The only colour is to be found on the crest and the Umbro logo so graphical art was eschewed. No, this shirt is all about what it feels and looks like on.

Different stitching methods have been used in different areas of the shirt to enable it to have full flexibility and strength where required. Other than through noticing the subtle shoulder detail I can’t say I was aware of this. But the shirt certainly performs.

The Hyde Park footballers kindly let me join them to test the product and I was actually surprised that I didn’t get a feeling that I was wearing something dated. Somehow, nine pin pricks in the shirt, supposedly precisely positioned, seemingly give the wearer no inferior a feel to what you get with a standard modern example covered in mesh and material changes. Who knew?

It was also nice to wear something that, even with my less than Adonis-like figure, just felt that it fitted “right”. The sleeves in particular are slim and stylish without cutting in. Even my usual reflex of turning up the aforementioned and deliberately understated collar just didn’t feel right. Wrong collar, wrong shirt.

So to summarise, it feels good and, in the main, it looks good. The only place it may fall short is, for the fans, it just doesn’t have quite enough on the aesthetic side.

From the Tailored By range so far, the City kits have a classily presented sponsor and the third kit has a sash. Perfection. Even the shirt the England players wear has a number and a scroll under the crest with the opponent’s name. It’s those extra little features that give character and stave off the blandness. Let’s face it, a fan buys the shirt to wear at matches and watch matches in the pub - well, the pub features in some respect – for me, in that environment, there’s not quite enough.

There are two solutions. Either purchase the British Forces supporting “Poppy” version or, as I do, complement the shirt with a coloured t-shirt underneath. There’s not many football shirts that you can get away with wearing a pink t-shirt with so go to town on it.

Overall, a great shirt and it certainly left me looking forward to what the Tailored By range comes up with next.