Initially launched with white shorts, black pairs were too put on general release with the 1997-99 away shirt, which had its fare share of iconic moments yet is probably most notable for not being worn.
The first of those was out of vanity, versus Chelsea in the FA Charity Shield. Black shorts were picked with it and the only thing out of necessity were the home socks, as no corresponding black ones were produced.
Such stand-in stockings didn’t ruin the look as they contained the same three traditional colours as the rest of the kit, complete with identical markings.
One noteworthy aspect about the Shield that year was that it’s the first to have dedicated sleeve patches, even though such branding came in in 1995.
Coinciding with Littlewoods partnering up with the FA and popping the Cup’s corporate cherry, all competitors in the event during the interim sported patches denoting their league membership.
With the new Premier League season starting the following weekend, a uniform in-house typeface would be rolled out among its members so for the curtain raiser, both teams opted for sets supplied by their technical suppliers, Umbro.
Chelsea went with the classic outlined American college style and as did United, albeit just with the lettering and goalkeeper.
The numbering used by the outfielders was of the lesser-seen font worn by the likes of Celtic and England against Colombia at France ’98, for the latter its corresponding letterset featured. In this instance they were black with a large red border, an inversion of the names.
(At least in Lens ‘Beckham’ was spelt correctly, which at Wembley was an error by the suppliers rather than club kitman Albert Morgan.)
The League-mandated Optima-based typeface was introduced when its action kicked off; outlined and with the competition logo at the base of the numbers, in the same colour as the fimbriation.
The only other configuration this term with the shirt in question was at Southampton, where it was white shorts and black socks.
If extra caution was taken, the all-blue third could have got its fourth of fifth competitive (or of eighth overall, when accounting for pre-season) outing, but no.
In the UEFA Champions League, the shirt made an appearance at Slovakian side Košice.
All-black bottoms were the order of the night — as they would be in the league at Crystal Palace in April — but unlike in the Shield, another of Umbro’s typesets were pressed into continental action.
Seemingly a revamp from the season-opener’s, it was an all-black version of what the new special European home strip had, giving this shirt its third distinctive font. The 1996-98 domestic home shared this feat but that was over two seasons.
Those bold-bordered digits weren’t phased out, being called upon for two friendlies the next term — its home equivalent was used for this one in the League Cup and also for Paul Lake’s testimonial against Manchester City.
No names were printed for each occasion; against Brann during the Scandinavian pre-season tour and at Aberdeen over the Scottish winter break, for the Dons‘s own legendary kitman Teddy Scott.
The 1997-98 white socks were worn in both these games, with black shorts in the former and white in the latter. Those socks just got one competitive outing in 1998-99, at West Ham United in the second league game.
For the rest of the campaign, stockings from the new home ensemble were paired with the retained top, featuring Umbro taping across the turnover as seen on the new home sleeves and shorts.
Finishing second in 97-98 meant the qualifying rounds for the following Champions League, plus the loss of rights to the ‘champions’ sleeve patches on the domestic front.
In the meantime, Arsenal’s Double win gave United the spare berth for the 1998 Charity Shield, where league patches returned to the fixture for one last hurrah. They won the coin toss to have first pick on kit choice, choosing the home this time.
Starting in the Second Qualifying Round of Europe’s premier competition, Polish champions Łódź were in their way for a Group Stage spot, whose own red shirts would mean something else would be needed on the road, via plane.
While United wore the black domestic home socks at Old Trafford in the first leg, disrupting the white-bottomed continental tradition introduced the year before, they wore the plain European home ones from the season prior in Poland, along with black shorts.
Squad numbers now appeared on the change shorts in the tournament, just featuring on the home outfield and goalkeeper uniforms previously.
On the shirt, the flag motif on the right sleeve and the Vapa Tech label below the collar on the back were missing, to comply with UEFA’s regulations.
A 2-0 aggregate win saw the English side progress and they were grouped with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Brøndby in the next round.
Barça only having an orange alternative caused United to go all-white in both meetings, with the Catalans staying in their home colours. In Bavaria, Bayern’s predominantly navy blue attire had a thick red band across the chest and arms, causing the Red Devils to deviate to white again.
Again, the socks were modified for the competition proper — using the updated continental home pairs. Gone were the initials and the Umbro wording was moved up top to where they were placed.
Come the business end of 1998-99, they were fighting on three fronts. By the time of the FA Cup Semi-Finals in mid-April, it was between them and London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea as to who had the best shot of winning the Premier League, plus Leeds United with an outside chance.
United and Arsenal were still in the Cup, to play each other at Villa Park. Roy Keane thought to have broke the deadlock for the Manchester club but his goal was chalked off due to Ryan Giggs playing himself offside in the build-up, leaving the tie goalless after extra time and forcing a replay for three days’ time.
Being made to wear yellow and navy in the initial encounter, the Gunners had first dibs on kit selection for the rematch and so forced their opponents to switch from red.
As the referees still wore black in FA-sanctioned competitions, the third kit as seen in the League meeting at Highbury in September was prohibited. In spite of the clashing sleeves, this left one option for United.
Black legwear from the domestic home were picked, complete with the revamped crest on the shorts — most noticeably dropping the ‘Football Club’. Incidentally, this was the only time the new black home socks were paired with the white top.
Giggs atoned for his the linesman’s mistake from the original tie by scoring one of the greatest FA Cup goals; picking the ball up in his own half in extra time and beating six men, before dispatching it beyond a hapless David Seaman.
In the resulting jubilation, the Welshman emphatically swung around his jersey in his right hand as he infamously exposed his unkempt chest under the floodlights in the Birmingham night.
That game, plus the 8-1 drubbing of Nottingham Forest on their own turf with Ole Gunnar Solskjær coming on with 18 minutes to go and bagging four, the two 3-3 draws with Barcelona, and in general being in United’s kitroom for their 1998-99 Treble season has made their white 97-99 away one of the club’s most iconic non-red shirts.
Kitted Off 