Arsenal 1991-93 Away Shirt: The "Bruised Banana"

The Arsenal Bruised Banana shirt - the yellow-and-navy adidas away shirt worn in 1991-92 and 1992-93 with the JVC sponsor - is the most recognisable Arsenal shirt ever made, and the one collectors ask about more than any other. Nobody calls it the "1991-93 adidas away shirt". Everyone calls it the Bruised Banana.

Quick facts

• Club: Arsenal
• Type: Away shirt
• Seasons worn: 1991-92 and 1992-93
• Manufacturer: adidas
• Sponsor: JVC
• Base colour: Yellow, with a navy zig-zag "bruise" pattern across the body
• Why it is a grail: Instantly recognisable design, a two-season life, and a nickname that has outlived the kit itself

Where the name came from

The shirt is yellow. The pattern is a jagged, uneven wash of dark navy running across the chest and shoulders. Put those two things together and the description writes itself: it looks like a banana that has been dropped a few times. The "Bruised Banana" label was not a marketing line - it was what fans and the press started calling it, and it stuck so completely that adidas themselves used the nickname decades later.

That is part of what makes it collectible. Most shirts are remembered by season or by a player. This one is remembered by a joke, and the joke turned into affection.

The design

adidas took over from Umbro as Arsenal's kit supplier in 1986 and produced a run of largely conservative designs. Then came the 1991-93 away kit. It kept adidas signatures of the era - the three stripes down the sleeves, the trefoil, the collar - but replaced the usual plain yellow with an all-over graphic. The navy shapes are irregular rather than repeated, so no two panels look quite the same, which is one of the reasons photographs of the shirt vary so much.

The JVC sponsor sits centrally on the chest in navy, and the Arsenal crest of the period, with the cannon and the club name, sits on the left breast. The shirt was produced in short and long sleeve versions.

It also arrived at a moment when kit design in England was getting louder. The early 1990s produced a wave of patterned, "shouty" shirts, and the Bruised Banana became the reference point for that whole era - the one people mention first when the subject comes up.

On the pitch

Arsenal went into 1991-92 as reigning champions and wore this kit on their travels for two seasons. Its most famous outing came early: Ian Wright, signed from Crystal Palace in September 1991, scored a hat-trick on his league debut away at Southampton wearing the yellow and navy. For a lot of supporters that afternoon is the image of the shirt - Wright, arms out, in a kit nobody had quite got used to yet.

The 1992-93 season brought two trophies, the League Cup and the FA Cup, both against Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley. The finals themselves were played in the home kit, but the away shirt had done its share of the work along the way, and it bowed out at the end of that season as adidas moved on to a new design.

Afterlife: reissues and the 2019-20 third kit

The shirt never really went away. It became a fixture on "best kits ever" lists, and when adidas returned as Arsenal's kit supplier in 2019 the design was the obvious thing to revisit. The 2019-20 third kit was a modern reinterpretation of the Bruised Banana pattern in navy and yellow, and it sold out quickly, introducing the design to a generation of fans who were not born when the original was worn.

That matters for collectors in two ways. First, it pushed demand for originals up sharply. Second, it means there are now several things in circulation that look like a Bruised Banana but are not the 1991-93 shirt: the 2019-20 third kit, official adidas Originals retro releases, and a very large number of unofficial reproductions.

How to spot a fake Arsenal Bruised Banana shirt

Because the shirt is so heavily reproduced, the checks matter more here than for almost any other Arsenal shirt.

• Tags. An original carries adidas care and size labelling of the early 1990s, not modern woven tags or a printed neck label. Retro re-releases have modern tags that state they are reissues.
• Pattern. On originals the navy graphic is part of the fabric print and slightly soft at the edges. Crisp, perfectly repeated shapes are a warning sign.
• Crest and sponsor. The crest is embroidered; the JVC sponsor is a flock or print of the period and should show age consistent with the rest of the shirt. A brand-new-looking sponsor on a "worn" shirt is a red flag.
• Fabric. Original shirts use the heavier polyester of the era and have a different hand feel to modern climacool or recycled fabrics.
• Sleeve length and cut. Long sleeve originals exist and are rarer. Cut is the generous early-90s fit; if a listed size fits like a modern slim shirt, ask questions.
• Player issue. Genuine match-worn examples are scarce and normally come with provenance. Treat "player issue" claims without documentation as replica pricing.

How does the 1991-93 Arsenal away shirt fit?

Early-1990s adidas sizing runs large by modern standards, and years of washing can shrink the polyester of that period. Always go by the measurements in the listing rather than the size on the tag - pit-to-pit and length - and compare to a shirt you already own.

Why it stays on the Grail List

Plenty of shirts from this era are colourful. The Bruised Banana is on the Kickio Grail List because it has all four things a grail needs: a design you can identify from across a room, a story attached to a specific player and moment, genuine scarcity of clean originals, and a nickname that keeps it in conversation thirty years on. Prices reflect that, and so does the number of fakes. Buy carefully.

How much is the Arsenal Bruised Banana shirt worth?

There is no single figure. What an original 1991-93 Arsenal away shirt sells for depends on condition, size, sleeve length and whether it is an original, an official retro re-release or the 2019-20 adidas third kit inspired by it. Original shirts in clean, unfaded condition in popular sizes sit at the top of the range; heavily worn or shrunk examples sit well below it, and reissues are a different market again.

Rather than quote a number that ages badly, the chart and listings below show what this shirt has actually sold for on Kickio and what is available right now.

Sources

• Historical Football Kits - Arsenal change kits: https://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Arsenal/Arsenal-change-kits.html
• Museum of Jerseys - Arsenal: https://museumofjerseys.com/arsenal/
• The Athletic - "Bruised bananas, cannon crest or maroon and gold": https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/2716983/2021/07/20/bruised-bananas-cannon-crest-maroon-gold-best-arsenal-kit/
• football.london - inside story on the 2019-20 adidas kits: https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/inside-story-arsenals-new-adidas-16746778