Retro Brentford Shirt – The Bees Rise to the Top

Brentford Football Club was founded in 1889, making them one of the older clubs in the capital. The club quickly established roots in west London and joined the Football League in 1920 as a founding member of Division Three. Their early decades were marked by steady consolidation, but it was the 1930s that delivered Brentford's first genuine golden era. Under manager Harry Curtis, the Bees were promoted to the First Division in 1935 and remarkably finished fifth in the top flight in the 1935–36 season – one of the highest finishes in the club's history. For a brief, brilliant period, Brentford were rubbing shoulders with Arsenal and Aston Villa at the very summit of English football.

The post-war years brought decline. The club slid through the divisions across the 1950s and 1960s, eventually reaching the fourth tier. Griffin Park, their beloved ground in Braemar Road, became both a fortress and a symbol of their stubborn lower-league resilience. What made Griffin Park truly unique was a quirk celebrated across football: a pub at each corner of the ground. The Princess Royal, The Griffin, The New Inn, and The Royal Oak gave match days at Brentford an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in England.

Brentford spent much of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s bouncing between the second and third tiers, occasionally threatening promotion but never quite sustaining it. A play-off final appearance in 1997 ended in defeat to Crewe Alexandra, summing up the heartbreak that had become familiar to Bees supporters.

The transformation of the club began in earnest when mathematician and gambling entrepreneur Matthew Benham took over in 2012. Benham introduced a data-driven recruitment model that prioritised undervalued talent, turning Brentford into a laboratory for modern football thinking. The results were spectacular. Back-to-back Championship play-off final heartbreaks in 2013 and 2015 were followed by sustained pressure on promotion. Thomas Frank, appointed manager in 2018, brought structure and belief to Benham's progressive project.

The crowning moment arrived on 29 May 2021, when Brentford defeated Swansea City 2–0 at Wembley to earn promotion to the Premier League for the first time since 1947. To cap an extraordinary year, the club also moved into the state-of-the-art Brentford Community Stadium. The Bees' first Premier League season in 2021–22 was a triumph of pluck and intelligence, including a stunning 4–1 thrashing of Chelsea in the west London derby.

Brentford's history is littered with players who gave everything for the red and white stripes, even if many never reached the national spotlight they deserved.

Jim Towers is the club's all-time top scorer, netting 153 goals between 1954 and 1961. A natural finisher with an eye for goal that would have earned him top-flight recognition at any other club, Towers remains the benchmark against which all Brentford strikers are measured.

In the modern era, no player embodied Brentford's rise quite like Ollie Watkins. The energetic forward developed under the Benham model before securing a £28 million move to Aston Villa in 2020 – a transfer that validated everything the club's data-led approach stood for. Said Benrahma, the silky Algerian winger, left for West Ham at the same time, confirming Brentford as a genuine production line for Premier League talent.

Ivan Toney became the totemic figure of the Premier League era. A powerhouse centre-forward signed from Peterborough, Toney's combination of strength, technique, and ice-cold finishing made him one of the most feared strikers in England. His 12 Premier League goals in the debut season and subsequent England call-ups were a testament to the club's vision.

Christian Eriksen's decision to join Brentford in January 2022 – his first club after suffering a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020 – was one of the most moving stories in recent football history. His performances in west London reminded the world of his genius and helped secure Brentford's Premier League status.

On the managerial front, Harry Curtis shaped the club's first golden era in the 1930s, while Thomas Frank has become the architect of its modern identity – a manager who combines tactical intelligence with an infectious passion that his players and supporters respond to equally.

The Brentford shirt is one of football's enduring classics: bold vertical red and white stripes on a white or red base, a design philosophy the club has maintained with remarkable consistency since the early twentieth century. For collectors, this consistency is a gift – there is an immediately recognisable Brentford aesthetic across every decade.

The 1970s and 1980s shirts are particularly sought after by collectors. These eras saw the classic stripe rendered in the heavier cotton cuts of the period, often featuring simple club badge embroidery and minimal sponsor branding. The raw simplicity of these kits captures football at its most elemental.

The 1990s brought synthetic fabrics and bolder sponsor placements, with various local and regional brands appearing on the chest. The silhouettes of this era – looser fits, rounded collars – have become fashionable again among retro shirt enthusiasts.

As Brentford climbed toward the Championship and beyond in the 2010s, their kits reflected a club with growing ambitions. Cleaner designs and more sophisticated badge treatments marked this period, culminating in the crisp, Premier League-ready strips of the 2021 era.

A retro Brentford shirt in the classic vertical stripe pattern is a versatile collector's piece – bold enough to stand out, historically grounded enough to impress the most serious shirt aficionado. With 59 options available in our shop, every era of Bees history is represented.