Last week saw the launch of ‘United Kit Revisited’ - a celebration of all that is great and good about Manchester United kits.
The online exhibition contains many never-before-seen artefacts from our museum, while we explore the history of United’s first-ever colours, hear from a former Reds skipper on his all-time favourite jersey and much more.
We’ve also encouraged you, the fans, to get in touch and share your memories and pictures of United jerseys from over the years, through our Memory Vault.
With everyone else detailing their most-loved kits, we thought we’d have a go, and our writers have selected which United home away is their favourite...
Ben Ashby, Editor, Inside United: “Probably like a lot of people, I struggle to nail down one United kit as a favourite. There are so many that I like the look of or have specific memories of. But I definitely have a penchant for kits of the late-1970s and early/mid-1980s. I really fancy the away shirt we wore in in the late-70s because I like the unusual positioning of the adidas stripes, running off-centre down the front, and I've always gravitated towards our white and away strips. There's a cool variation on it that came in in 1980, when the stripes were run up the flank and under the arms.”
“I loved the mid-’80s kits (pictured at the top of article) with the slashes at the shoulders, mainly because they were just so different from anything we’d seen before (or since). I see this kit and think of Bryan Robson… specifically, lashing the ball past Bruce Grobbelaar from 30 yards at Maine Road against Liverpool to help take us to Wembley. For me, nothing has come close to this jersey – although I’ve a soft spot for the psychedelic blue strip from 1992-94. But this white shirt that looked like a photographic negative of the home shirt was really classy-looking when worn with black shorts and white socks.”
“I love the all-black strip worn by the 1993/4 Double-winners and the so-called Hacienda jersey from the early 1990s certainly broke the mould and raised a few eyebrows. I had both shirts, the black one is still going strong which is a great testament to its quality (!) but I think my vote would go to another jersey I had – the blue-and-black away one from the first season of the Premier League. Dion Dublin scored our first winner in the new division wearing it, at Southampton, and I think that was enough to make me fall in love with it. It’s an absolute classic!”
“I’ve always been a big fan of United in black, dating back to its first appearance as our ’93-95 away kit. Maybe it’s because black just looks smart and quite intimidating, but more likely is the fact that it was worn by some of my favourite players. Keane, Giggs, Kanchelskis, Ince… the list of greats who wore it goes on, but the one who springs to mind immediately is Eric Cantona. Collar upturned, mean and moody, he looked the business whatever he was getting up to.”
“I LOVE the ’96/97 away shirt (the colour and the badge in the middle were my favourite features) it also represents an important moment in my life when, as a United-obsessed teenager, I won a match report competition in the official club magazine. I got to spend a few days with the magazine team at Old Trafford as part of my prize and I was also given this signed and personalised shirt from Sir Alex, Cantona, Beckham et al. And, yes, I’ve never actually left OT since… still lucky enough to be working for the club I love. Overall great memories of this kit for many different reasons.”