Goodbye Walton but only farewell to the white socks?

Whether it’s in the interests of simple rotation, money-making in the vein of changing kits every season, or a nod to history, Everton will be wearing different-coloured socks in 2025/26 to those they have sported for the past 11 seasons.

The Club officially unveiled the new home strip yesterday but while the distinctive Mersey-inspired wave design was already in the public domain — as is sadly the case these days, images of the shirt had leaked to social media weeks ago — what was not generally known until this week’s reveal was that the Toffeemen will kick off the first season at Hill Dickinson Stadium in the same shade of royal blue socks that they sported in the final season of David Moyes’s first spell in charge.

It marks a departure, a disappointing one to these eyes, from the white socks that have completed the look of the home kit since 2015/16 and which have, at various times since the late 1950s set Everton apart from every team in the country.

Everton's 2025/26 home kit

Of course, in Roberto Martinez’s second campaign at Goodison Park, the Blues wore navy blue socks that evoked the 1927/28 Championship-winning season in which Bill Dean scored his record 60 league goals. Since then, though, we’ve been the “Walton White Sox”, with either blue or white turnovers, which, when you add the famous royal blue jersey and white shorts gave us a look that was all our own... at least until Birmingham adopted the same look a few years ago.

When you cast your eye over the history of Everton’s home strips, there has been a lack of real consistency down the decades when it has come to our socks. Before kit colour was viewed as a cornerstone of a team’s identity, of course, experimentation and variation was to be expected.

Everton's 2024/15 kit was a nod to the season in which Bill Dean, shown here in this colorised image, scored his 60 league goals. Credit unknown

Everton didn’t settle on royal blue jerseys until 1901 and, with the exception of 1881/82’s Black Watch kit, the team wore black or dark blue socks in all but two years of the first 56 years of its existence. In 1934/35, they wore royal blue hoops, black and navy, and navy and white all in the same season, before royal blue or white  became the established base colours for all but two seasons until the present day. 

The first campaign after the Second World War saw the Blues turn out in the same combination as they will next season — royal blue shirts and socks with white shorts — but the intervening eight decades have witnessed very little consistency. In the post-War era, Everton have worn a variation of blue socks 20 times and predominantly white socks 31.

Of course, this chopping and changing isn’t unique to us. You can start at the top of the alphabet on the Historical Football Kits site and see that even in the modern age of hyper-commercialisation and branding, many of our top-flight rivals have switched things up over the years.

Arsenal have worn varying combinations of mostly red, mostly white or hooped socks since the War and Aston Villa have had claret, light blue or white socks at different times over the same time period. Further down the alphabet, Manchester City have worn everything from white to navy to hoops as well as their sky blue and Tottenham have frequently alternated between navy socks and white socks.

Alan Ball's white boots complemented the white socks worn here with the rest of the Holy Trinity

Some, however, have made their head-to-foot colour combination part of their identity. Manchester United have been famous for their red, white and black since the early 1970s (occasionally opting for white socks when playing in Europe); since ditching white socks in the mid-1960s, Liverpool have always worn all red; and though Chelsea once sported blue and even yellow socks, since the 1980s they’ve always had blue shirts, blue shorts and predominantly white socks.

As ever in what is a game of opinions, you probably won’t find much consensus among Evertonians over what colour socks our team should play in. Some have made the argument that the Club has been more successful playing in blue or dark socks — i.e. all of the pre-War silverware plus 1966, 1987 and 1995 — and there are plenty of fans who advocate for Everton to wear all blue like we do at places like Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium when facing teams that play in red.

To this supporter, however, there is something classic about Everton in white socks, what feels like the signature look of the School of Science that was worn so effortlessly by the Golden Vision and the Holy Trinity in the 60s and the 1969/70 title winners, as well as the famous side that swept almost all before them in 1984 and 1985. It’s also been the defined look of the team since 2015.

The Golden Vision, Alex Young, and Everton wore blue socks in the 1966 FA Cup-winning season but in many of his other most famous photographs his legs were replete in white.

What was most important to these eyes was the fact that, before our friends in Brum switched to white socks,  in the top four divisions of England, all of Scotland and most probably the Cymru Premier League (Peny-y-bont played in blue/white/white a few seasons ago but appear to have gone to an all-blue strip by way of Brighton-esque stripes), only we played in blue shirts, white shorts and white socks. Prior to 2022, that look was uniquely, distinctively Everton — we aren't Ipswich or Leicester, after all!

For the time being, then, in keeping with our departure from L4, the Walton White Sox are no more and though it’s a fairly trivial gripe, speaking on a purely personal level, colour me somewhat miffed! Ultimately, though, as long as the team is successful on the pitch, it won’t matter much at all and, if history is any guide, the white socks will be back before you know it.

What do you think?