Manchester United have unveiled their away kit for the 2023-24 season, and it sees the club return to vertical stripes for the first time in two decades, a design that harks back to the start of their existence.
However, rather than their original green and gold stripes of 1893 to 1899, or red and black as worn in the early 1900s, or even the green and white bars worn briefly from 1902 to 1905, United have instead chosen to meld them all together.
The result is a railing of white stripes all split by thin red pinstripes, which in turn sit atop a dark green backdrop. If there were a Guinness World Record for how many stripes you can fit on one jersey, this would surely go into the book.
According to manufacturers Adidas, elements of the palette are intended to mirror Manchester and its proud industrial heritage, with the red representing the bricks that were used to build much of the city and the grimy green apparently being a colour found in many of its urban structures (presumably in the form of mould or lichen?).
With almost no real estate on the body or the sleeves to spare, there are stripes absolutely everywhere. The long-sleeved version of the jersey boasts so many barcode-esque lines that it could probably check itself out at the club megastore. Indeed, the addition of the manufacturer’s trademark three stripes down the arms adds even more clutter jammed into an already saturated field.
While certain to divide opinion among fans, it’s safe to say that if you happen to like striped football kits — like, really like them — then United’s latest away jersey is definitely the one for you.
The kit was actually first unveiled at the weekend on stage at Tramlines festival in Sheffield by Liam Fray, lead singer of Manchester band Courteeners.
Courteeners’ association with United goes back a few years, to when their song “Not Nineteen Forever” became an anthem for the club’s fans as they celebrated wining their 20th league title in 2013.
The stunt follows on from a similar one involving Manchester rapper Aitch, who revealed United’s new home jersey while performing on stage at Glastonbury last month
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