This season Manchester United will play in a striking blue and black away kit, inspired by the blue kits worn in several of their most famous victories, including the 1948 FA Cup final and the 1968 European Cup final.
The new away shirt consists of a royal blue body and sleeves with hoops made of small midnight navy blue and black stripes. There are exactly eleven stripes in each hoop to represent each member of the United team. The pattern of the shirt is modelled on a previous United away shirt, which consisted of red and white hoops and was worn for seven seasons between 1932 and 1939. It was also briefly adopted as their home shirt for the last two months of the 1933-34 season.
While the history and tradition of the club is present in the shirt design, the new away kit is made from Nike’s ground-breaking recycled polyester – which for the first time includes both the shirt and shorts. Each complete kit is made up of up to thirteen reclaimed plastic water bottles. This new manufacturing process reduces energy consumption by up to 30% compared to manufacturing traditional polyester and saves nearly 100 million plastic water bottles from being dumped at landfill sites.
The away shorts are entirely black except for the same hoop from the shirt consisting of eleven midnight navy blue and black stripes being featured at the bottom of the back of each leg. The new away socks are black with a small white devil from the club crest on the calf and a royal blue band at the top.
The lightweight kits (13% lighter than previous versions) actively regulate the players’ body temperatures on the pitch to keep them dry and cool at all times through use of Nike Dri-FIT technology. This technology draws sweat away from the player’s body through the material where it can evaporate. Temperature regulation is helped by ventilation zones, consisting of hundreds of tiny laser cut holes from the under arms to the waistband, allowing air to circulate to keep players dry, cool and comfortable. For the first time the club crest on the front of the shirt is heat transferred, making it even lighter and crucially allowing this area to now be ventilated as well.
The shirt has a new aerodynamic fit this season, now slimmer and more athletic, providing 17% more stretch than the Manchester United shirt of two years ago. While a bonded hem offers a streamlined look that reduces irritation caused by chafing.
To complement the new match day kit Nike has launched a unique Manchester United line of training and lifestyle clothing for both players and fans to wear on and off the pitch.
The kit and extended line are now available for purchase.
We were a little surprised to see the above PR image. United’s French full-back Patrice Evra has been a T90 Laser wearer for years but is in a pair of the Tiempo Legend IV Elite boots for the new PR campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment