When the club was formed, Colchester United continued in the tradition of their predecessors Colchester Town and played in blue and white striped shirts combined with white shorts. For the majority of the club's history, the kit has remained true to the traditional design, with slight variations occurring in 1967 and 1968, when candy stripes were preferred, with white on blue used for 1967–68 and blue on white for 1968–69. The stripes were removed altogether between 1969 and 1973, with blue shirts and blue shorts adopted between 1969 and 1972 as modelled by Chelsea, and white shirts for 1972–73 during a failed relaunch. The original stripes were reinstated for the following campaign, and remained largely unchanged since this period. The club briefly used blue kits with white pinstripes between 1982 and 1986, and a crosshatch design between 1988 and 1990.