The Belgium shirt is red, and for forty years the interesting question has been what the makers did to it. adidas put a band of diamonds across the chest in 1984, Diadora spent the nineties on white and navy change kits, Nike arrived in 1999, Burrda gave the golden generation a shirt, and then adidas came back and dug the 1984 diamonds out of the archive.
This is the full Belgium kit history, in order, with the shirts that matter and why.
Who has made Belgium's kits
- Umbro, 1970 to 1972
- adidas, 1976 to 1980
- Admiral, 1981 to 1982
- adidas, 1984 to 1990
- Diadora, 1992 to 1998
- Nike, 1999 to 2008
- Burrda Sport, 2010 to 2014
- adidas, 2015 onwards
That list explains most of what follows. Belgium is one of the few national teams whose kit supplier changed often enough for the maker to date a shirt on its own.
1. Belgium 1984 home shirt
Worn at the 1984 European Championship in France, and still the reference point for every Belgium kit since. adidas took a red shirt, ran a white horizontal band across the chest and filled it with an argyle pattern of red, yellow and black diamonds, then finished it with a V-neck.
It should not work. Argyle belongs on golf jumpers. Instead it produced a shirt that is instantly Belgian without using a flag, worn by the side of Jan Ceulemans, Franky Vercauteren and Enzo Scifo. It is the design adidas would return to more than thirty years later.
2. Belgium 1986 World Cup shirt
Mexico 1986 was Belgium's best World Cup until 2018. Guy Thys' side reached the semi-finals with Jean-Marie Pfaff in goal, Ceulemans up front and Scifo running the midfield, and went out to the Argentina of Diego Maradona.
The kit was adidas and almost aggressively plain after 1984: red, three stripes, white numbers, nothing else. It is remembered for what happened in it rather than how it looked, which is the opposite of the shirt before it.
3. Belgium 1994 away shirt
Diadora had the contract from 1992 to 1998, and the white change shirt from the 1994 World Cup in the United States is the pick of that run. Clean, with restrained red and black trim, at a tournament where most kits were doing the opposite.
Belgium beat Morocco and the Netherlands in the group stage before losing to Germany in the last sixteen. Scifo, by then at the peak of his career, is the player most people picture in it.
4. Belgium 2000-02 away shirt
Nike took over in 1999, and the away shirt from Belgium's co-hosted Euro 2000 is the one collectors ask for by name. Not white, as it is often described, but a deep navy with red and yellow trim on the collar and cuffs, the swoosh embroidered on the right and the Royal Belgian Football Association crest on the left.
Marc Wilmots, Emile Mpenza and Luc Nilis wore it in a tournament Belgium hosted and left at the group stage. The shirt has outlived the campaign comfortably.
5. Belgium 2002 home shirt
Still Nike, and much braver. A red shirt cut by a darker red cross through the chest, which divided opinion immediately and has aged into a cult favourite.
Belgium reached the last sixteen in Japan and South Korea, where Brazil knocked them out. Wilmots is the name attached to this one too, including the goal against Brazil that was disallowed.
6. Belgium 2014 World Cup shirt
Twelve years without a major tournament ended in Brazil, and the shirt that ended it came from Burrda Sport, a maker most people had never heard of before or since. Deep red with tonal striping, yellow trim and no sponsor, because national teams do not carry one.
Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Vincent Kompany all wore it. For anyone who started following Belgium in the 2010s, this is the first shirt.
7. Belgium 2018 World Cup shirt
adidas came back in 2015 and, for Russia 2018, went straight to the archive. The 1984 argyle band returned, redrawn across the whole chest in tonal red and yellow rather than sitting on a white panel.
It is the most successful shirt Belgium have worn. They beat Brazil 2-1 in the quarter-final and finished third, their best World Cup finish. Thirty-four years after the original, a design that had been a curiosity became the national team's identity.
8. Belgium Euro 2020 shirt
adidas followed the diamonds with a black and red brushstroke running diagonally across the front. Bolder, less rooted in anything, and the shirt that marked the end of the golden generation's best years rather than the start of them.
Which Belgium shirts are worth chasing
Three patterns from what passes through our hands.
- The change kits are scarcer than the home shirts. Belgium sold red shirts. The navy 2000-02 away and the white 1994 away were made in far smaller numbers, and they date themselves instantly.
- Burrda is the odd one out. A maker with one national team and a four-year run means limited production and no reissues, which makes 2014 shirts harder to find than their age suggests.
- The maker dates the shirt. Diadora means the nineties, Nike means 1999 to 2008, Burrda means 2010 to 2014. On a shirt with no sponsor to help you, the logo on the chest is the fastest check you have.
Where to find an original
Our Belgium shirts collection is where the Red Devils kits land when we get them, and the wider national team shirts collection covers the rest of the international game. If it is the change kits that interest you, the away shirts collection is where the navy and white ones live, and the 1990s shirts and 2000s shirts collections cover the Diadora and Nike eras.
Every shirt is measured, graded and photographed front and back including the wash tag, so you can check the maker and the season yourself before buying. If you want the same treatment applied to another country, our piece on the Netherlands 1988 shirt does it for the Oranje, and the most iconic football shirts you can own widens it out.
Frequently asked questions
Who makes Belgium's football shirts?
adidas, since 2015. Before that Burrda Sport from 2010 to 2014, Nike from 1999 to 2008, Diadora from 1992 to 1998 and adidas from 1984 to 1990.
What is the Belgium diamond shirt?
The 1984 adidas home shirt, with a white band across the chest filled with an argyle pattern of red, yellow and black diamonds. adidas brought the pattern back for the 2018 World Cup shirt, which is why the two look related.
What was Belgium's best World Cup?
2018, when they beat Brazil in the quarter-final and finished third. Before that, the semi-final run in Mexico in 1986.
Why do Belgium play in red?
Red is the first colour of the national flag and gives the team its nickname, the Red Devils. Yellow and black, the other two flag colours, appear as trim rather than as a base.
Which Belgium shirt is hardest to find?
The change kits. Belgium sold red home shirts in volume and far fewer of the navy 2000-02 away or the white 1994 Diadora away, so those are the ones that take patience.