Soccer Equipment Reviews

It’s finally official. After weeks of speculation and ‘leaked’ images, Nike and Manchester United have released and announced their new home kit for the 2009-10 season.

The red kit, which can be pre-ordered online now, celebrates 100 years of Old Trafford with a large chevron across the chest, reflecting the design of the shirts worn by United when the stadium first opened during the 1909/10 season.

The back of the shirt has an engineered mesh, which is a series of small chevrons, a performance feature to offer the players even greater ventilation during games. Inside the black round-neck collar is a high quality woven label in red, white and black, while engineered into the side seam is a small label that reads ‘The Theatre (Theater) of Dreams Since 1910.’

The shirt is made from Nike Dri-Fit fabric, which keeps the players drier, cooler and lighter by drawing sweat from the body to the fabric’s surface, while it’s three-dimensional construction gives more air space around the skin to reduce clinging.

The white shorts have a red stripe along the side, a red devil graphic on the back of the waist band, while the draw cords feature ‘MUFC’ on the tips. The black socks have a red chevron on the calf.
The players will don the kit for the first time during their pre-season tour of Asia next month. The squad fly out to the Far East on 16 July – the day the kit goes on sale and on which pre-orders will be delivered.

Wayne Rooney says it’s an honor to wear the shirt week in, week out and is looking forward to pulling on the latest design.

“It’s always exciting to see the new kit,” he said. “It’s important that we like it and get used to it before the season starts [on tour]. I’m really excited about playing in it.”

Ji-sung Park echoed those sentiments, adding: “It always feels great to put the kit on and there is always a great meaning behind our kits. History is very important at this club and it’s something all the players are aware of.

“I really like the chevron feature – I like to think of it as ‘V’ for victory and hopefully we can win every game we play in the new kit.”

With Nike poster boys Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez out of Old Trafford, we’ll have to wait and see if the Red Devils will be able to continue to hold onto their title as Premier League Champions in their new retro home kit.