Manchester United and Nike have unveiled the new home kit for the 2012/13 season, inspired by the city’s industrious past. The new Manchester United Home 2012-13 shirt will feature the iconic gingham check that hailed from Manchester’s famous cotton mills...
Nike’s most environmentally friendly ever kit honours the club’s illustrious past with a bold new design. Manchester United football club’s success has been founded on the traditional values of respect and hard work. Those values are what made Manchester the city it is and from the mid 18th century the cotton mills there were prolific in the industry. From those mills came the gingham fabric, an iconic check that like Manchester United is famous around the world and is now – for the first time – used on a Manchester United home shirt.
The tonal gingham in traditional and iconic red gives the home shirt a bold new look. The black v-neck collar gives the shirt a contemporary look. The inner back neck graphic on the shirt reads, ‘Forged in Industry, Striving for Glory’; paying tribute to the cities industrial past but also the club’s hard-working ethos.
The outer neck graphic is the iconic devil symbol so synonymous around the world with Manchester United whilst a diagonal hatched graphic on the white shorts is a subtle link to the gingham used on the shirt.
The socks are black with a red detail on the top and a white devil icon. They offer a new and innovative design featuring an updated cotton footbed offering the support and comfort enjoyed by professionals to all that wear them.
Whilst the new Manchester United 2012-2013 football kit combines modern sport and youth style to give the club an iconic new look, Nike’s innovation gives the team our most technologically advanced kit to aid athlete comfort and performance.
The new Man Utd shirts have bonded re-enforced t-bar junctions that support critical seams on the shirt and shorts and inner welded seams with a flat finish construction to improve comfort and performance. Temperature regulation is helped by ventilation zones, consisting of a series of tiny laser cut holes from the under arms to the waistband, allowing air to circulate to keep players comfortable.
The new Manchester United home kit is made from Nike’s ground-breaking recycled polyester, making it Nike’s most environmentally friendly kit ever produced. Each kit (shirt and shorts) is made using up to thirteen recycled plastic water bottles. This innovative manufacturing process reduces energy consumption by up to 30% compared to manufacturing traditional polyester. Since 2010 Nike has used an estimated 1115 million recycled plastic bottles to create its high performance kits.
The kits are made out of 23% lighter fabric with 20% stronger knit structure than Nike’s previous kits and feature Nike Dri-FIT technology to wick moisture away from athletes to help keep them cool and dry on-pitch.
Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs was asked his opinion on the new Manchester United home kit for next season and said: “I think the gingham design is great – it looks the part. It is a bit different from last year’s kit and it has moved on which Manchester United, both on and off the pitch, like to try and do. We try to move on and do different things. The players love it and I’m sure the fans will love it as well.”
Asked whether he likes the way this kit reflects the history of the city and Club, Rio Ferdinand commented: “I think it’s great that the gingham design has its roots in Manchester’s cotton industry, and that ties the kit nicely to the club and the city so I’m sure the fans will be pleased with that – we are as players.”
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The work ethic between the city and the football club is something Nike, Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson have been keen to emphasize. When asked how important the similarities between Manchester United and the city of Manchester were, Sir Alex answered: “Well, I think the great similarity is the industrial part of Manchester, which has always been there, like the cotton mills. For instance, Manchester United started from a railway background and if you look at the club, it has always had a great work ethic about it, and the players who have been successful in this club have adopted that fantastic work ethic. That is what Manchester is really; it’s a working class city, with working class people - and that’s our history".
The new Manchester United home kit 2012-13 is available to pre-order now and will be available from 1st July. Now you've seen the new gingham design we'd love to hear what you think of the new Manchester United soccer jersey? Share your thoughts and join the conversation online, on Twitter and on Facebook.