Joe Ganley

Friday 05 July 2024 15:27 Share With email Copy Link The exciting new Manchester United adidas home kit for 2024/25 was released on Monday - but did you know that the inspiration behind the shirt dates back more than 70 years, to the Sir Matt Busby era?

Our new 2024/25 apparel takes its inspiration from a kit worn by the Busby Babes in the early 1950s that was made from reflective materials.

The reason for those reflective materials? To aid visibility on the pitch, in the early years of evening games being played under floodlights.

Our new kit aims to create something similarly striking, via a myriad of different red shades that create both a glow effect and a connecting line that stands out as the players are in motion.

But the long road to this latest Manchester United kit began way back in 1951, on a cold, dark night at the Cliff, our former training HQ in Broughton, Salford.

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That night, during a youth fixture, Busby's aspiring players complained about being unable to pick out team-mates, with our rich, dark red kit lost amid the gloom.

The following summer, during a tour of the United States, Busby noticed that one of the opposition teams we faced were clad in a fluorescent shirt, which got Sir Matt thinking about the earlier problem.

Busby was a football pioneer in many senses. He was one of the first 'tracksuit' managers, who preferred to join his players in the muck and grime of the training pitch rather than stand aloof on the sidelines. He was also among the first to go scouring the outer reaches of the UK and Ireland for young talent. And when he found talent, he wouldn't hesitate to lob it into the first team, if he sensed something unique.

But, until now, his futuristic approach to kits has not really been spotlighted.

United experimented with florescent kits in games like our 1952 FA Youth Cup tie with Nantwich .

When he returned from that Stateside tour in 1952, he ordered some reflective kits to be made for the club. And on 4 November 1952, they were first worn, as an experiment, in an FA Youth Cup match against Nantwich at the Cliff. It was the first-ever competitive tie that the FA sanctioned to be played under floodlights.

Players like Duncan Edwards, Albert Scanlon and David Pegg featured that day, as United mercilessly battered 23(!) goals past Nantwich without reply. The youth team would lift the Youth Cup trophy months later, in the competition's inaugural year.

From 1952 onwards, the reflective kit was used sporadically, particularly in away games, given Old Trafford did not boast floodlights at that time.

Famously, some of our most memorable early European games - the 10-0 whupping of Anderlecht in 1956, and the dramatic comeback against Athletic Club in 1957 - were played at Maine Road because Manchester City did possess those facilities.

Roger Byrne, wearing our bespoke reflective kit, shakes hands with Real Madrid captain Miguel Munoz.

It wasn't until 1957 that Old Trafford installed floodlights, and a month after that amazing 3-0 win over Athletic Club at Maine Road, United took on Bolton Wanderers in M16's first floodlit match.

Umbro had been working on a 'floodlight kit' for such an occasion, with a silver reflective stripe, and it was first tested at the aforementioned Bolton game. Exactly a month later, it was used in the European Cup semi-final second leg against Real Madrid, as the Babes drew 2-2 with Di Stefano, Gento, Kopa and co.

It was the start of Old Trafford's beautiful relationship with European football. United would not lose to continental opposition in M16 until 1996, 39 years later.

But it was also a landmark day for our creative relationship with matchwear; a relationship which continues to produce innovative results like our exciting new adidas home kit for 2024/25.

And it all dates back to the restless drive and ambition of the incomparable Sir Matt Busby.

Thanks to Leslie Millman for help with additional imagery.

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Joe Ganley

Friday 05 July 2024 15:27 Share With email Copy Link Back to Top

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