As anyone who’s stood on a packed terrace will tell you, some of football’s best moments can happen off the pitch. The songs and chants dreamed up by the fans are an essential part of the club’s identity – and also provide some much needed relief when you’re watching a game that could put a glass eye to sleep.

That’s why we’re very excited to be launching our first iPhone App, which lets you create, record and share your own chants. The Umbro Chants app is perfect for the creative minds out there, who come up with a great new chant for your team, which you can record and send out to all your fellow fans. And, even better, it’s completely free!

The app records your voice, and then plays it back to you with the sound of a crowd backing your every word, giving you an idea of what it will sound like when the whole crowd is bellowing out your creation. You can then save the chant on your phone, and email it to your friends so they can learn every word.

You can also use Umbro Chants in other ways – want to send a loud and clear message to a friend that it’s his round? They should get the idea after a quick blast! Celebrate a victory on the foosball table? Record it on Umbro Chants, and suddenly everyone is singing your name! Needless to say, we’ve been having plenty of fun with it here in the Umbro office…

The best way to see Umbro Chants in action is to head to the App Store and download it for free. And don’t forget to send us your best efforts!

Although most of the world’s attention might be directed towards South Africa at the moment, there’ll still be some football fans with their eyes elsewhere – on their local park, a set of playing fields or the astro-turfed five-a-side pitch. Anyone who plays for a local team will know that, while you can still get passionate about football on the TV, it’s the anticipation of next season’s matches that’s really getting you excited. And if you’re the person charged with organising the kit, you might be thinking about next season’s colours about now.

That’s why Umbro wanted to give these players the same respect and attention to detail that we would give to the professionals. You might be playing on Hackney Marshes rather than Wembley, but we know that you give your team as much effort and determination as a Premier League superstar – perhaps even more! That’s why we now give our teamwear shirts the same badge of honour offered to our finest – Tailored By Umbro.

Tailored By Umbro started with the current England Home shirt, and has now been introduced to our teamwear range. As you can see from the pictures here, which are taken from our UK collection, the results are pretty smart: you know that running out in these kits is going to give you an extra bit of pride in your performance. For teams here in the UK, these Tailored teamwear collections allow you to a have a little bit of class on the pitch, regardless of the level of skill on display.

So, if you look after a UK-based team and want to freshen up the changing room ahead of the new season, and give your lads (or lasses) a boost on the pitch, get us to tailor it for you. If you’re in the Uk, take a look at www.umbrofootballkits.co.uk or call us on 0845 603 7047 to find out more. For anyone situated elsewhere in the world, you can still get great teamwear – take a look at Umbro.com to find out your nearest Umbro contact.

Hitting the target is the key to success in football, and that’s why here at Umbro we’re very pleased to introduce our new NeoPro ball, which is built to provide a ‘truer’ flight than any of its predecessors. How can it do that? There’s a number of reasons.

First of all, the NeoPro is cut using laser technology, which provides greater grip when you hit the ball, and a smoother flight through the air as it flies towards goal. It’s also made from larger panels than most other balls – 14 panels in total go into the NeoPro – offering cleaner strike zones for you to wrap your feet around.

Attention to detail on the NeoPro extends as far as the look of the ball, which is made from irregular geometric shapes and uses bright, vivid colours to aid a player’s vision, and constructed from soft materials for better touch control.

All together, the NeoPro is a ball that delivers on its aim: to provide that true experience that players are looking for. Once you’ve launched the NeoPro into the top corner of the net, you’ll see what we mean. Beware though – you’ll have no excuses now for shanking a shot into Row Z!

The Neo ball will be used for the first time in Saturday’s FA Cup Final sponsored by E.On, a fitting stage for such a terrific piece of equipment. Next season, you’ll also see plenty of teams getting the most of its fantastic features as it is used in the FA Cup from the second round onwards.

It’s the England Away shirt, but not as you know it…. the shirt you can see above is actually part of Umbro’s new tonal range. Using the same design principles as the England Away kit, these pieces are made using the same techniques: the three distinct panels made from three different, complimentary materials, each one designed to cater for the needs of that specific part of the body.

They’ve just been crafted using some subtlely different colours. The victoria blue used on the shirt above is also featured on a new drill top and an Anthem jacket which you can see below. A lot of people have been suggesting that this shirt might be used as a third strip by England, but we can confirm that this is not the case…

Also featured in the tonal range are the red drill top, and the England Away shirt with some subtle differences to the Umbro logo and the England crest. The range is available now, so let us know what you think…

A few people have been asking about this jacket since it was debuted last night by Robbie Williams and his band during Sport Relief – there’s a brief glimpse of it here on the Sport Relief site. With that in mind, we thought we’d give you chance to admire it in all its glory here, before it’s released later this year ahead of the big tournament in South Africa. It’s inspired by the classic jacket worn by England‘s World Cup winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey during his spell in the top job. Like the new England Away shirt, the Ramsey is inspired by the past, but it’s crafted from the most modern, technologically advanced materials, and designed by our creative consultant Aitor Throup.

This is only a sneak peak, as the jacket won’t be available to buy until the summer – keep an eye on the blog for more info on where you can get your hands on one!

Our friends over at football-shirts.co.uk have been running a great competition this season to find the most popular kits in the Premier League, and they’re asking for your input as we reach the semi-final stage. Here’s what they had to say…

“The football shirt devotees over at at football-shirts.co.uk/fans have been narrowing down the best kits of the 2009/10 season, with fans voting since August in a knock-out cup for the best kits this season.

The shock of the early round saw Blackburn narrowly knock out Liverpool’s kits, whilst Manchester United’s shirts survived a scare to come back from behind against Stoke to eliminate the Potters.

In the first round proper Burnley won the battle of the claret and blues taking out Aston Villa, whilst Tottenham won the battle of the London clubs taking out Fulham.

Two of the quarter-finals saw the Lancashire sides do the double over London clubs, with Blackburn beating Spurs and Burnley defeating Arsenal.

Umbro make 30% of the shirts worn in the Premier League this season, but interestingly have managed to take three of the four spots in the semi-finals, with the other spot taken by Burnley.

Hundreds of votes have already been cast in the two semi-finals, but there is still time for you to make a difference as to who reaches the finals of competition, voting will be open until Monday 22nd March,  and you can vote here: http://www.football-shirts.co.uk/football-kit-comp”

So, if you fancy showing your support for Man City, Blackburn or West Ham in the semi-finals? Get your votes in then!

Earlier this week, we launched our competition to win a pair of our new Stealth boots, and we’ve been overwhelmed with the response so far – we’ve had a ton of entries, so plenty of you are obviously counting your chickens. We’ve also had some interesting responses to the video and images that we’ve made to celebrate Stealth, ranging from cool to bizarre to complete what on earth is going on? We’re glad it’s got you talking anyway!

We’ve got a little more Stealth stuff for you here today. First of all, we’re sure you’ll have noticed the pictures here that feature Gael Clichy looking tremendous as he models the new boots. The Stealth boots will be worn by leading Premier League stars such as Gael Clichy, Phil Jagielka and Michael Mancienne until the end of the season, so be sure to keep a look out for them on the pitch.

In the meantime, we also thought that you’d like to check out this video, which offers a sneak peak behind the scenes of that crazy Stealth video and the photo shoot with Gael Clichy. If you fancy winning a pair of our new boots, then you’ve still got time to enter our competition – head here for details on how to enter.

On Friday, we revealed our new Stealth boots for the first time, and now here’s your chance to win a pair! We’re giving away 5 pairs of Umbro Stealth boots, which have been designed for the smarter, craftier player on the pitch. With that in mind, you need to be at your smartest if you want to be in with a chance of winning them. To enter the competition, you need to watch the video above, and then answer this question:

How many chickens can you see in the video?

Both real chickens and chicken heads need to be counted. To make it a little easier for you, we’re giving you a number of answers that you can choose from. Simply pick which of the following answers you think is right, and email us your choice on blog@umbro.co.uk.

Is the answer…

a) 43

b) 45

c) 47

d) 49

We’ll then pick five winners at random from the correct entries, and they’ll be the lucky winners of a pair of Stealth boots. If you’re lucky enough to win, you’ll be able to pick from the white and red or red and blue colourways. The competition is open from today until 5pm on Friday, March 19th, and the only way of entering is by emailing blog@umbro.co.uk.

If you want to increase your chances of winning, then head over to Club Website, where there’s another competition underway to win some Stealth boots.

Good luck, and get counting!

Here’s the new boot from Umbro: Stealth. It’s designed for the smarter player, one who knows what to do on the pitch: how to hunt down the opposition, evade tackles and leave other players cowering in their wake. It presents a simple question to a footballer – are you a fox or a chicken?

If you think you’re a fox, here’s what Stealth can offer you. Created with speed, power and comfort in mind, the new Stealth boot is designed for players who take the lead on the pitch. A streamlined last and two lateral studs in the middle of the boot offer increased speed, while the carbon fibre shank and heel counter provide the power you need. Combined with cushioned insoles offering comfort, Stealth has all the assets that a player will need to outfox the opposition.

So you’ve heard all about the Stealth, but what does it look like? Take a closer look…

Stealth will be available to buy in the above colours from April 1st – if you want to find out more, take a look at umbro.com. To accompany the launch of the new boots, we’ve created some pretty cool ads and this pretty bonkers film, all inspired by the question Are You A Fox Or A Chicken? We hope you like it…

Following the success of the Tailored kits for England, Ireland, Manchester City and a number of teams in South America, we’re very excited to reveal the new Umbro kits that we’ve designed for the Swedish national team. Of course, you might have already seen the kit – the Sweden team wore it for the first time during their friendly against Wales on Wednesday, and ran out 1-0 winners. Obviously the kit played a key part in inspiring the players on the night!

One of Sweden’s longest serving players, Anders Svensson, is certainly impressed by the Tailored approach. Asked about the new kits, he said: “One might think that every match kit is the same, but the fact is that you quickly feel the enhancements here as soon as you start playing. I personally think that the new kit is quite neat. It’s a classic design.”

High praise indeed. It wasn’t just the Home kit that was unveiled this week – Sweden’s beautiful blue Away kit was also shown for the first time. As you can see here, it’s difficult to decide whether the Home or Away is better!

If you want to see more of the new Sweden kits, including the new Anthem jacket that will accompany them, check out our Flickr stream.