The history of West Ham told by its new third kit

West Ham United FC is one of the historic clubs of the Premier League and surely one of the most fascinating. The club gained over the years a cult fame thanks to their complicated history, the hooligans' storytelling and the classy kits. For the upcoming season of the Hammers, Umbro designed a third kit inspired by the first jersey ever worn by the West Ham United players, celebrating the heritages of the club, a period full of myths and wonderful stories.

The origins of the club date back to 1894 when the workers of the shipyard Thames Ironworks founded the Thames Ironworks Football Club. The team stayed amateur for four years until they entered in the professional leagues when the name was changed to West Ham United FC, precisely on the 5th of July 1900. The heritages of the team stayed in the crest - with the two crossed hammers -, but the rebrand of the club changed the official colors. In fact, Thames Ironworks Football Club used to wear Oxford blue kits because the chairman Arnold Hills was a former student of Oxford University. Instead, the club in 1899 adopted the West Ham's classics colors claret and blue.

The story behind this change is quite intrestring, but not historically confirmed. The legend tells that the right back of team - Charlie Dove - received an Aston Villa's kit (that always has the claret and blue scheme) from his father William Dove, who was a professional sprinter of national repute. Bill Dove had been at a fair in Birmingham, and was challenged to a race against four Villa players, who wagered money that one of them would win. Bill defeated them and when they were unable to pay the bet, one of the Villa players who was responsible for washing the team's kit offered a complete team's "football kits" to Dove in payment. The second - and less filmic - version of the story tells that the switch of colorous was due to the predecessors of Thames Ironworks, Old Castle Swifts FC, that played in pale blue shirts, white shorts, and claret socks as early as 1892.

Coming back to our days, this Umbro kit designed by Umbro tells exactly this story. It is a faithful replica of the first kit that West Ham ever used: the colorway, the crest, and the details perfectly match with the 1900 jersey of the Hammers. The three buttoned tonal collar is a quote of the original jersey with a nice cut to keep it contemporary. On the back of the neck is signed the date 05.07.1900, the day when the club switched officially from Thames Ironworks Football Club to West Ham United FC.

Also, the crest is the original one used in the 1900's jersey: it is simple and clear with just two crossed hammers. This version of the crest was used just for two seasons: in 1904 it was updated with a castle in the background. Even for the crest exist two different version of the story. The first one states that the castle represents a prominent local building, Green Street House, which was known as "Boleyn Castle" through an association with Anne Boleyn. For this reason, the former West Ham's stadium - active from 1904 to 2016 - was named Boleyn Ground. The alternative version tells the adding of the castle may have also been added as a result of the contribution made to the club by players of Old Castle Swifts.

The West Ham third kit by Umbro is available on the online store at 60 euros.