Enter the Dragon: Man City release special Lunar New Year kit،
Manchester City are ushering in the Lunar New Year with a special collection of kits and clothing ahead of traditional celebrations next month.
According to the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the New Year should begin on February 10. To that end, City have put together the perfect package with a jersey designed to mark the start of the Year of the Dragon.
I just landed 🐲
Our new collection of Year of the Dragon shirts and capsules is available now 🙌
-Manchester City (@ManCity) January 18, 2024
Indeed, the design of the 2024 Lunar New Year kit achieves the unlikely feat of blending centuries of ancient Chinese tradition with the 20th anniversary of City's move to the Etihad Stadium as well as the vast success they have enjoyed since.
The bespoke shirt design heralds the start of the Year of the Dragon, a mythical creature that symbolizes strength, expertise and outrageous luck in Chinese mythology; attributes embodied by Pep Guardiola's treble winners.
Each Year of the Dragon specifically represents one of the elemental signs – for example Earth, Water, Fire, Metal – and the lunar year 2024 is named after the Wood Dragon. As such, the pale gray shirt is covered in a custom pattern that depicts hand-drawn wooden carvings of the dragon, which wraps around the torso.
These spirals are also said to reflect the large blue 'turrets' which stand outside the Etihad Stadium – important architectural elements which also inspired the repeating graphic found on City's 2023-24 home shirt. The names and numbers on the back of the jersey, modeled by City stars including Jessica Park and Laia Aleixandri, are also displayed using a custom zodiac-inspired typeface which includes a stylized 'tail' flourish of dragon”.
The kit is part of a small Year of the Dragon capsule available which also includes a matching track top. The jacket, worn here by City star Jack Grealish, features a large club crest with the swirling dragon on the back.
This same symbol also appears on the t-shirt that completes the collection, worn here by Mateo Kovacic.
This is not the first time City have created a special kit to signal the start of the Lunar New Year with Erling Haaland helping to model the 2023 edition, which saw the Year of the Rabbit celebrated with a deep blue and gold moonscape .
Manchester United were among the first Premier League clubs to release a special kit to mark the Lunar New Year, doing so in 2020 with a striking design featuring an intricately embroidered dragon motif on a red faux silk shirt.
Arsenal then followed suit in early 2021, releasing a dedicated Lunar New Year warm-up jersey celebrating the Year of the Ox – an ancient symbol of stability, strength and, if the results are to be believed, cacophony dizzying visual.
