Most of Manchester will have their eyes on the big match at Eastlands tonight – along with plenty of television viewers at home. But what about further afield? Manchester City have recently launched a campaign to recognise those people and places around the world where people congregate to watch their matches, and are looking for bars, pubs and meeting places that could fit the bill.

The Heart Of The City has been launched in partnership with us here at Umbro, and aims to give City fans living abroad or on holiday a place to feel at home. The first venue to be recognised was the NRG Bar in Abu Dhabi, who received their commemorative plaque which is pictured above when the club visited the country last November. City are now looking for other venues to spread the word to, with the next venue on the East Coast of the USA due to be announced later this week. To find out where the Heart Of The City is next, and for more information on the campaign, keep your eyes on the City website.

As reported in our weekly round-up yesterday, Umbro recently held a competition for young Manchester City fans ahead of their team’s match against Chelsea today, asking them to design a new kit. The prize? The chance to be City’s mascot for the day, leading the team out onto the pitch into battle against John Terry’s London lot. There was a massive response from the City youngsters, and the talent that they displayed in their ideas suggests that some could be future Umbro desingers in the making.

Our Senior Designer David Blanch was asked to pick out a winner from the masses of entries, and had to add a runners-up category to the competition as the standard was so high. Congratulations to Thomas Doorbar and Alfie Jones who were picked out as those runners-up, and will receive a tour of the City Of Manchester stadium as their prizes. There could only be one outright winner however, and that was Ethan Hodge, whose design is pictured at the top of the page. He won not just because of the design, but for the thought that had gone into each detail of his kit.

Pictured below are the two runners-up designs, plus a snap of all the best kits on display here at Umbro’s headquarters. Perhaps they’ll be inspiring our designers as they walk past!

Umbro have designed two new limited edition t-shirts for Manchester City fans based on two of their most iconic moments of football culture – their inflatable bananas and the ‘we’re not really here’ chant. To capture these great shirts, we enlisted the help of Same Teens, the fanzine writing/gig promoting/all-round awesome bunch of young Mancunians who won the first Umbro Industries award earlier this year.

As you can see from the pictures here, Same Teens did a great job capturing the spirit of the tees, ably assisted by a team of models and two of Manchester City’s brightest upcoming players, David Ball and Ben Mee.

We’ve returned the favour to the Same Teens crew by providing a load of gear for the exciting New Years Eve party they’ve got planned. Taking place at The Ruby Lounge in Manchester, the Teens are converting the club into a full house party, complete with different rooms, beds to jump on and beers to swipe from the fridge – but hopefully without the neighbours complaining about the noise. They’ve got a load of top bands such as The Whip, Dutch Uncles and May68 on DJing duty on the night, as well as anarchic mash-up specialists The Kleptones. If you’d like more details on the their New Year party, take a look at their Facebook page here. If you’d like to buy the limited edition t-shirts, take a look at Manchester City’s online store, here.

Young Manchester City and England defender Nedum Onuoha dropped into the Umbro offices yesterday to check out what we’re up to. Whilst taking a look around Umbro’s History Room, we took a quick snap of the lightning-fast player and asked him a few questions. Here’s what he had to say…

What are your ambitions for the rest of this season?

‘They’re similar for both myself and the team, really. I’d like to be part of a successful team, and for that team to have our best season in the Premiership. Not many people realise that the highest that we’ve finished in the league is 8th, so I’m just looking forward to having a chance to put a real marker down and improve on that.’

Have you ever tweaked your stats on Pro Evo to make yourself a better player?

‘Erm…I’ve never done it myself, but other people have done it for me! I’m never in the first 11 on these games, so I need to tweak my stats to get into the team. There’s plenty of people at City that do it though. Kelvin Etuhu has this memory card that he carries round with him, with this team full of super human players, so no one wants to play him.’

We hear you’re a big music fan, is there any artists you’d like to recommend that we should check out?

‘There is one, but I can’t remember their name! Just a minute…I’ve remembered…it’s Kenna. He’s a guy from America who’s friends with the Neptunes, he’s really good.’

What do you think of the Man City kit?

‘I really like it. To be honest I didn’t really like the last one we had, but I think most of the lads like this one. I like the England one as well, but I think I prefer the City kit.’

And finally, a question sent from our Twitter friend Dan213…why did you give up the athletics?

‘I always used to run in the summer, and play football in the winter, but when I started to play football in the summer as well, I had to give up the athletics. I haven’t been timed doing the 100 metres recently, but when I was 14 I did it in 10.9 seconds.’

And with that, he was off. Not quite as fast as that 100 metres, but pretty close.

The eagerly anticipated Manchester City third kit has been officially unveiled. We know that many City fans have been waiting for the full unveiling of the kit and we don’t think they will be disappointed. The kit goes back to the Seventies and is probably best described as a ‘classic remastered’. Our kit designer, David Blanch, definitely thinks so:

The third kit is something that I believe is very special. It’s a modern interpretation Of City’s original sash design. However, we have moved the sash design to the other side. One of the reasons for doing this is that we wanted to draw attention to the crest, and this was done with the full support of the club and the club’s sponsor, Ethiad.

It was important that the sash did not distract from the crest but instead created a frame for the crest. If we did it the other way the diamond would dominate and this wasn’t something we wanted to do. Sure, we could have moved the crest over to its original position but we felt it was important to keep the crest where it belongs – above the heart. With the sponsor, we wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t interfere with the sash. For the last decade, or so, any shirt with a design across the front is compromised with a space where the sponsor sits. Well this is a pure football kit and the sponsor – whether it is a brand or a manufacturer – should look to compliment the kit. By placing the sponsor under the crest and not breaking the sash, we’ve blended contemporary with traditional design. This goes to show that innovation isn’t always about technology.

When I look at the final product, I’m really pleased because it makes such a statement. It stands out from the crowd – globally as well as domestically – in a way we haven’t seen for years. I’d like to think that this kit demonstrates that a sponsor can enhance a design rather than compromise it.”

The kit is available for pre-order from September 4th from the MCFC club website and will be on general sale from September 26th.

As has been shown over the past months, Manchester culture can pretty much be described in two words: football and music. Go a little further and the bonds between MCFC and the Manchester music scene are huge. What we also know - thanks to events such as Live from City – is that the Manchester City fans love their music. So who better to ask to create a soundtrack for the match, to get the City of Manchester Stadium in the mood during the pre-match build-up?

If you know which three tracks you would like to hear played in order to get the fans buoyed – and why – get involved by joining the MCFC Facebook page. Further details can be found here on the club website.

Tomorrow (31/07/09) marks the start of pre-order for the brand new City away kit – which will go on general release on August 15th. As pictured above, it’s the black kit which references the Manchester Bee – let’s remind ourselves what David Blanch, the kit designer had to say:

All of the kits have a resonance in some way with both the club and the city. The away kit was partly inspired by the Manchester’ Bee’s industrious connotations and colour symbolism; which for me was power, strength and confodence.

As with the home kit, colour balance is a really important factor. That said the away kit needed to look both bold and imposing. We chose to use the gold from the crest and use it at the shoulders to focus the upper body to open up the chest and define the upper torso. The rest of it is completely black. In relation to the black, this creates a completely different personality to the home shirt but both speak about the club’s heritage.

And here’s a little more about that neck opening:

The neckline has an association with the home kit but it’s slightly different as it has a concealed neck line opening. We’re not using buttons; we’re using a lightweight closure so you can either have it open for more ventilation or closed for a smarter look.

Pre-orders on the club website begin from 12pm.

Robino, Stephen Ireland, Vincent Kompany, Shay Given and the rest of the Manchester City team get the full tailoring experience from Umbro’s designers. Ensuring each player gets the best fitted kit possible.

…We were standing in the glorious rain as we celebrated the launch of the new MCFC kit with three thousand City fans. Here are a few more images from the Live from City gig:

Once the rain stopped (and the sun had set):

Mike Pickering entertaining the crowd:

Even the poncho couldn’t tame their excitement about the new kit:

Backstage:

The Answering Machine and the new ‘football tailored’ shirts:

Adio, from Kid British, finally happy to have a top to coordinate with his glasses:

Mike Pickering looking pleased with his newly acquired football strip:

One of the only times it’s acceptable to write on the walls:

Images by Sebastian Matthes.

As I mentioned yesterday, the new Arndale City store has just opened as a bit of a Manchester City ‘culture’ destination. And already it seems to be getting a bit of attention. One of our friends spotted this family having its picture taken in front of the genealogy that features in the shop window. The genealogy has been created, by hand over three days, to link the Club’s history with the cultural happenings of Manchester, and football generally, over the years. Come to think of it, I suppose that makes it a pretty cool spot to have a family portrait done. On which note, thanks if you are the family in the above image – we hope you don’t mind that we’re making you famous!