The Canaries wore this very stylish Adidas shirt for 3 seasons in 1981/82, 1982/83 and 1983/84.
Adidas replaced Admiral as the club’s kit supplier. The pinstripe design was a template used for Norwich’s away shirt (white shirt/green stripes). It was also used with other clubs including Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United.
The shirt features a fully embroidered club badge and adidas logo.
The only real variation in the design came when Poll Withey Windows became Norwich’s first shirt sponsor. Their company name was added to the front of the kit early in the 83/84 season.
Martin O’Neill
This number 8 shirt was worn by Martin O’Neill.
Martin first signed for Norwich in 1981 and very nearly helped the Canaries escape relegation from Division One. Unfortunately, a final day 3-2 home defeat to Leicester City along with other results going against them combined to send City down.
O’Neill left for Manchester City so he could stay in the top flight. That move didn’t really work out and he re-joined Norwich in 1982. He was a big part of a late promotion charge that sealed a 3rd place finish and an instant return to Division One. Martin left too soon again when he joined Notts County in 1983.
O’Neill did return as manager in 1995 for a brief spell. Unfortunately a falling out with the chairman meant he quit to join Leicester City. It was hard to then watch Norwich’s season fall apart while O’Neill led Leicester to the Premier League via the play offs. He had a very successful spell with Leicester that included 2 League Cup wins before even more glory at Celtic.
An iconic shirt
Given the popularity of this iconic pinstripe shirt, it’s surprising that Adidas didn’t go on to supply Norwich with more kit designs in the following seasons.
Perhaps they felt it was never going to get any better and best to quit after delivering such a classic.
They were replaced for the 1984/85 season by Hummel.
They would go on to deliver another classic kit design that will forever be associated with one of the club’s finest moments but that’s a story for another day.