Celtic Kit History: When Did the Hoops Replace Vertical Stripes?

By Flux Jersey Editorial Team · Editorial policy

Celtic adopted green-and-white horizontal hoops in 1903, following white shirts and then vertical stripes. The club commemorates 15 August 1903 as their introduction, although the precise first match is debated. That is the turning point in Celtic kit history; it does not mean every away shirt must have hoops.

Before the hoops: white, then vertical stripes

Celtic’s official shirt history describes the first design as white, with a green collar and a red-and-green Celtic cross on the chest. Green-and-white vertical stripes followed, before the horizontal bands familiar today.

The club’s account links the change to St Anthony’s, the Glasgow junior club already wearing green-and-white hoops. It says the individual who made Celtic’s decision was not recorded. St Anthony’s is therefore a documented influence in that account; naming a particular person as the certain inventor would go further than the evidence.

Why the year is clearer than the exact day

The club’s 120-year anniversary announcement, published in September 2023, explicitly gives 15 August 1903. That is the date Celtic uses to celebrate the pattern.

There is a more cautious reading of the match evidence. In a 2021 article for The Celtic Star, Liam Kelly points to newspaper descriptions of new horizontal jerseys against Third Lanark on 29 August 1903. He questions whether the hoops had already appeared against Partick Thistle on 15 August, while acknowledging that the evidence is not conclusive.

Those newspaper originals have not been independently examined for this article. The defensible distinction is 1903 for the change, 15 August for the club’s commemorated date, and uncertainty about the first match. A precise day deserves that qualification.

What remains recognisable in a later home shirt

A Celtic hoops jersey is immediately recognisable by the green-and-white bands across its body. The neckline, sponsor panel and pattern inside those bands can still make one season’s interpretation look very different from another.

In this catalogue photograph, the white polo collar and black insert frame the neck, while a tonal geometric pattern runs through the green bands. The full front makes those details easier to compare than a badge close-up alone. This is a later catalogue example of the hooped home look, not a photograph of an early Celtic shirt.

Away colours and the date on the crest tell different stories

The home tradition does not define every change shirt. The away example below has a largely plain dark-green front, pale neck and cuff trim, and a black Carling panel. Beside the home shirt, the difference is straightforward: repeated horizontal bands versus a broad uninterrupted green area.

The printed 1967 refers to the European Cup triumph being commemorated. Celtic’s anniversary account separately recalls Billy McNeill lifting that trophy in 1967. The printed date and the 2007/08 season in this listing answer different questions: the event remembered and the design represented.

Neither a commemorative date nor a listed retro season establishes when an individual garment was manufactured, or proves its licensing or provenance. Here, both photographs show current Flux catalogue items. Use the full design and the listed season to distinguish them; consult the individual product page for current options.

The hoops remain Celtic’s defining home pattern, introduced after two earlier designs. A plain away shirt can carry another part of that history. The Celtic collection lets you compare those current interpretations without treating every green-and-white shirt as the same design.