In pictures: The evolution of Manchester United’s crest

By Dima Markova

In the wake of Juventus redesigning their official club crest into a brand logo, we thought we would have a look at how Manchester United’s emblematic crest has changed throughout the years.

At first the club used Manchester’s coat of arms as a crest, followed by an embroidered Lancashire red rose. The devil was added in the 70s and the words ‘football club’ kept disappearing; journey through the evolution of Manchester United’s crest.

An embroidered Lancashire red rose for Manchester United’s first FA Cup Final in 1909

United appeared at another final almost 40 years later donning the Manchester coat of arms

The same crest was worn in the FA Cup final against Aston Villa in 1957

In the wake of the Munich disaster in 1958, the club had red home shirts in a final for the first time

By the time of the 1963 Cup final came around, United had returned to the old Manchester coat of arms

And again in the 1968 European Cup Final

During the 1960s,  United started using this version of the club crest on official club documents

The basic design of Manchester United’s current crest was introduced in 1971 and has remained largely unchanged

When Admiral took over from Umbro as kit suppliers they changed the colour of the ship to red

Adidas took over the kit contract from Admiral in 1980

In 1984, adidas added two three-stripe boots to the top ribbon – a feature that remained until 1992

Umbro took over from adidas at the start of the Premier League era and they redesigned the crest once more

In 1993, the white lettering was replaced by gold, as was the red ship

In 1998, the words ‘football club’ were removed, the badge was designed to look more horizontal, the colours were changed and a black outline was added

The official crest of Manchester United FC today

[H/T Red Cafe]

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About the author

This post was written by Dima Markova. Dima is originally from Bulgaria and after spells in Greece and England, her life led her to Berlin, where she enjoys working in the Newsroom of Onefootball.

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