“A sports team's uniform is called a kit — from Middle Dutch for a wooden vessel — and the word's journey from barrel to football strip is a story of how 'equipment' became 'identity.'”
Middle Dutch kitte meant a small wooden tub or vessel — the container that held a set of equipment for a specific purpose. A kit of tools was the set of equipment needed for a task. The word entered English in this general sense: a kit was what a soldier carried, what a craftsman packed. 'Full kit' in the army meant complete equipment for the field; a soldier 'in kit' was properly equipped.
Football adopted 'kit' for the complete playing uniform — shirt, shorts, socks, boots. The kit was the player's equipment for the specific task of playing football. Arsenal's kit, Chelsea's kit — the distinctive shirt and shorts that identified a team in an era before numbered jerseys (numbers were added in English football in 1939). The kit was identity as much as equipment.
The commercialization of football kits accelerated dramatically from the 1970s. Umbro, Adidas, and then Nike and Puma competed for kit contracts. Leeds United's kit deal with Admiral in 1973 was the first major manufacturer deal that printed the manufacturer's name visibly on a club jersey. By the 1990s, kit launches were commercial events. Manchester United's kit revenue alone exceeds £80 million annually.
Away kits, third kits, goalkeeper kits, training kits, warm-up kits — the kit category has proliferated. The word 'kit' in British English also retained its general sense: a first aid kit, a tool kit, a kit car (assembled from components). The Dutch vessel — the thing that holds equipment — has become the word for the equipment itself, and in football, for the visual identity of a team.
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Today
The football kit is the most portable kind of identity. Put on the shirt and you are Arsenal, Manchester City, Santos. The shirt works because it is visible from any seat in the stadium, from television, from a photograph. The design, the color, the badge — all communicate instantly.
Kit companies now design shirts as fashion objects as much as sporting equipment. A kit launch is a fashion event; former players model it; the designs reference the club's history, local architecture, fan community. The Dutch wooden vessel that held equipment has become the container of a club's identity, revised every one to three years, replacing itself while claiming continuity.
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