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Date: 3rd April 2026
Strip Stories
What Scottish Teams Have Had The Most Dramatic Colour Changes
A football club’s colours are incredibly important — they are what we associate with a club. Partick Thistle in their classic red and yellow, Aberdeen in red and white, Rangers with their strong royal blue. We know these looks so well, but did you know this wasn’t always the case?
Aberdeen
Aberdeen are a club with a rich history, mostly associated with the colour red. European success, Scottish Cups, and league titles have all come in that red and white combination. However, when the club was formed in 1903, Aberdeen originally wore black and gold stripes, very different from today. Just 27 years later, in 1930, the club adopted a red shirt and white shorts combination. In the 1960s, the club made the decision to change to an all-red strip. The change was made to show strong unity while taking influence from European giants like Bayern Munich.
Partick Thistle
Since 1936, the Jags have been synonymous with red and yellow. However, in the early years of the club they experimented with many different options. From 1876 to 1900, the club was normally seen in blue and red tops. They also used orange and black, followed by maroon and light blue, similar to the likes of Aston Villa. After that, it was back to blue kits until the change to what we see today in 1936, after they took inspiration from the West of Scotland Rugby Club.
Dundee United
It’s not often you see a football team with tangerine orange as their main colour. Dundee United are probably the first club you think of, but when the club was founded, the Terriers wore green and white — colours now associated with Hibernian and Celtic. This was because the club was originally founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1909, so the green kits reflected the Irish roots of the club. After the club became Dundee United in 1923, they eventually moved towards their current tangerine orange colours.
Queen’s park
Queen’s park are Scotland’s oldest professional club, they are actually the reason the Scottish National team wear the Navy blue we will see in the states. Queen’s park now play in Black and White, apparently the switch was to avoid confusion with the national team. The biggest story of their Navy Blue kit, and the reason it was adopted by the national team, was because on November 30th 1872 Scotland faced England in the first ever international match. All the Scotland players were from Queen’s park, they ultimately chose to wear their own Navy Blue kit and the colours have stayed since.
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Tags: fans blogs, Scottish football, SPFL