Manchester United’s 2012-13 home kit is not only Nike’s most environment-friendly kit, it also honours Manchester’s industrious 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.

The new 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.

Kits 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 2012/2013 home shirt is now available for £49.99 on the Soccerlens Store.

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