Umbro and MTV partner up on 90s nostalgia-evoking collection

Sports brand Umbro looks to the acid house days of the late 80s and early 90s for its new collaborative collection with MTV, the pioneering music video channel.

The Umbro X MTV collaboration is described as being inspired by a "time when working class kids, football fans, and students came together in disused warehouses, abandoned office blocks and country fields to rave together"

The rave scene’s uniform consisted of an oversized and androgynous aesthetic. Referred to as ‘baggy’, the rave movement became part of Northern identity. These ensembles were loose enough for the shape-shifting moves of up-all-night ravers, yet warm enough to face chilly Northern nights.

Whilst the 1924-founded Umbro’s casualwear was making the move from football terraces to dancefloors, MTV was rewriting pop culture with its 24/7 music videos and providing the pre and post rave sounds for the nation’s partygoers.

For Spring Summer 2023, Umbro and MTV revisit the ‘Second Summer of Love’ with a collection that combines casual sports-inspired silhouettes with a range of graphic prints and colours inspired by the rave scene.

90s-inspired visual markers include a fusion logo, combined with a warped all-over checkerboard print. Fabrics also nod to the 90s with a shell suit inspired nylon crinkle plus a polyester micro-let fabric, with silhouettes throughout the collection slightly oversized for a genderless fit.

The collection ranges from £18-75 and is available to buy globally from Umbro.