Congratulations to Darren Bent on scoring his 100th Premier League goal tonight! Here’s a close up view of the very special Speciali R boots Darren has to mark the occasion. Here’s to 100 more!

We’re very happy to have some new music to share with you here on the Umbro blog, as Tailored At Dale Street returns in 2012. Collaborating with some of the best promoters from in and around Manchester, Tailored At Dale Street is our way of showcasing some of the finest talent in Manchester and beyond.

Our latest gig was co-ordinated by Now Wave, who regularly put on some of the finest gigs in the north-west. The party we staged at our Dale Street design studio was a great night, and the first act to be picked from the evening is The Cold One Hundred, who perform their track ‘On To The Next One’ in the video above.

Formed in Salford in 2010, the band soon outgrew their university roots and are now regarding as one of the north-west’s finest upcoming indie-rock acts. Specialising in post-Britpop romantic anthems, The Cold One Hundred recently supported Suede frontman Brett Anderson on his solo tour. Check out their website for details of any forthcoming gigs and releases, and take a look at our Flickr stream for more great photos from the night…

Umbro founder Harold Humphreys was born on this day in 1902, the man who brought football and fashion together and introduced tailoring to the world of sport. Over the years, Umbro have crafted some of the most iconic moments in football’s history, kits and products that continue to influence the sport today. It’s these items that we’re celebrating in our Icons Reissued collection.

A premium collection of some of our most iconic products, reproduced stitch by stitch from the original designs, Icons Reissued are steeped in history and the story of football, but they also look great as modern designs. There’s four items in the Icons Reissued collection, here’s a little bit on them all:

Icons Reissued 1966 Anthem Jacket

Crafted from a Victoria blue stonewash twill, this Anthem jacket will forever be associated with English football’s greatest every victory. With the England crest proudly embroidered on the chest, the jacket also has red, white and blue ribbed trim on the collar, cuffs and hem.

Icons Reissued Mexico 1977 Jersey

Another item forever associated with classic England footballing moments, the Mexico 70 jersey looks just as good today as it did over 40 years ago! With a classic crew neck collar, the shirt is crafted from the same ribbed fabric as the original, and features a reproduction of the ‘Choice Of Champions’ screen print that featured on the hem of the original shirts.

Icons Reissued Drill Top

The original inspiration for our celebrated New Blue collection, the classic Umbro drill top was a part of every player’s wardrobe and even found its way onto the stage at one of the biggest gigs to ever take place in Manchester. Recreated stitch for stitch, the drill top features an oversized Umbro logo on the chest, and is crafted from the same washed cotton twill as the original.

Icons Reissued Taped Track Jacket

We’ve recreated the look of the taped track jacket many times, but this is the original that they’re all inspired by! With the same ribbed taping down the sleeves as the original, the Icons Reissued track jacket features a subtle Umbro logo on the chest.

We’re really excited by the Icons Reissued collection, and we’re sure you’re going to be impressed when you see it up close. There’s more pictures over on our Flickr stream, or you can head straight over to Umbro.com now for more details. Happy birthday, Harold Humpreys!

Football teams often talk about keeping their fans close at heart, but Peru’s finest team have gone one step further with their latest home shirt. Universitario de Deportes, based in the capital city of Lima, have stitched a special crest onto the inside of their new shirt, so that it will be close to the heart of both players and fans that wear it and show their support around the world.

The special internal crest has been created by Peruvian artist and Universitario fan Cherman, inspired by one of the team’s nicknames, ‘Garra Crema’ – the Cream Claws. While this is a literal translation of the team’s colours, ‘garra’ is also considered to be a local word for resilliance and strength, and is seen by the Universitario fans as a key characteristic of the team.

The new shirt, which the team will wear throughout the forthcoming 2012 season, has been Tailored by Umbro to reflect the culture and history of the team, who were the first Peruvian squad to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores. Alongside the internal crest, the shirt also features the supporter’s ‘garra crema’ logo on the hem. Crafted from a lightweight cotton/polyester fabric, the shirt also features the team’s iconic U logo embroidered on the chest.

We know how popular some of our overseas shirts are amongst football fans around the world, and if we find out any ways in which this new Universitario shirt will be available we’ll be sure to let you know! Check out more photos of the new shirt over on our Flickr stream.

Earlier today we revealed the special football boots that Darren Bent will be wearing for Aston Villa’s big FA Cup match against Arsenal on Sunday, but what about the other games that are live on TV? Well, every game will feature the Umbro Neo Pro, the official ball of the FA Cup, and our boots are going to be well represented as well. Every other game on the box will feature some of Umbro’s finest, so keep your eyes peeled for these on the pitch from tonight:

Kyle Walker (Watford vs Spurs, tonight) – Umbro GT silver/red

Andy Carroll (Liverpool vs Manchester United, tomorrow), Speciali R

Jordan Henderson (Liverpool vs Manchester United, tomorrow) Geometra white/red

Jonas Gutierrez (Brighton vs Newcastle) Geometra black/green

Connor Wickham (Sunderland vs Middlesbrough) Umbro GT silver/red

Plenty of great matches to look forward to on TV this weekend, and plenty of great boots on display! Head to Umbro.com for more on all our football boots

These are some colourful boots! Look out for them on the feet of Aston Villa striker Darren Bent this weekend, when he debuts them in his club’s FA Cup 4th round tie against Arsenal. Created especially for Darren, there’s only a tiny number of these yellow and purple football boots ever being created. Ahead of the game, we had a quick chat with Darren about his boots, and him closing in on 100 Premier League goals. Here’s what he had to say….

You’ll be debuting these boots in a big game at the weekend, are you looking forward to the game at Arsenal?

‘Yeah, it should be a good game. I wasn’t involved in the game earlier this season, but I was at the last one down at the Emirates and it was a good game. Being an Arsenal fan as well, it’s always nice to play against them, but hopefully we’ll beat them!

The FA Cup is a special competition, and if you can beat Arsenal on the way, then it’d be even better. Beating Arsenal wouldn’t make it any easier though – that’s the magic of the FA Cup, that you can play any team and everyone just grows in stature. It doesn’t matter what division you’re in, anyone can beat anyone, it’s just about producing the goods on the day. If you don’t do that, then you’re out!

Winning the FA Cup would be a massive thing for Villa, we’re a massive, massive club and they should be winning trophies. If we could win the FA Cup, which is such a big prize, it’d be great for all the fans, and there’s no reason why we couldn’t do it.’

These special boots are a bit colourful, is that what you were looking for?

‘Yeah! I’ve always wanted some boots that are a bit more out-there, and Umbro have certainly produced the goods with these ones. I’m looking forward to wearing them! Umbro boots have always been really comfortable, they’re probably the most comfortable boots out there, and then they’ve done this yellow and purple colourway just for me, and they look fantastic, so I’m really pleased. With the colours, I just liked the look of them, I liked how out-there they are. You can’t sit on the fence with these ones.

The boots have also come at a great time as you’re close to getting 100 Premier League goals. Were you aware that you’re close to joining a very special group of players?

‘Yeah, it’s always been an aim of mine, to get in the Premier League 100 club, it takes some doing and there’s some absolutely class players in there. Alan Shearer, Robbie Fowler, Thierry Henry, these are all people that I regard as the best to ever play in the league. I’m on 99 at the moment, so I’m just looking for one more, hopefully I’ll get one off my shin or anything, just so I can be part of that. Once I get in there I’ll just be looking to get more as well. If I could get to 150 and beyond I’d be so happy.’

Obviously if you keep scoring goals, you could be part of the England squad at the Euros this summer. Have you thought about that yet at all?

‘I’m just concentrating on the cup and the league to be honest, because I’ve been in a similar position before, and all I can do is focus on what I do and play as well as I can for Villa, and if I got to go to the Euros with England I’d be delighted.’

We’ve done some special boots for you before, when you were the first player to have their Twitter name on their boots. How does it feel to be a trendsetter?

‘Nice! As long as people know that I was the first person to do it that’s cool, it’s all good fun. Trendsetter, I like that!’

Thanks to Darren for taking the time to speak to us. You can get your own pair of Umbro Speciali boots over at Umbro.com now – the Speciali 3 is on sale now.

It’s the FA Cup Fourth Round this weekend, and once again there’s some cracking ties to look out for. Whatever the game you should be counting the amount of times the ball hits the back of the net though, as it could win you a great prize. We’re asking you to guess the total amount of goals that will be scored in the round for the chance to win an Umbro Neo Pro ball, the official ball of the FA Cup sponsored by Budweiser. Head over to our special Facebook competition page to submit your answer, and you could be one of three lucky winners. The Neo Hi Vis will feature in every game this weekend, as teams look to take one step closer to Wembley and the chance to lift the trophy. Luckily the Neo goes where it should, so if your team are on their toes, they should see it heading for the back of the net! Best of luck in the competition, and lets hope we see plenty of goals….

Our special Umbro Tee Shop collaboration with Tinchy Stryder has been getting plenty of attention since we revealed it last week, but just how did this special connection come about? While we were finalising the design earlier this week, we spoke to Tinchy about the tee, the song and his admiration of Mario, despite being a Manchester United fan! Here’s what he had to say:

So how did the song Why Always Me come about?

‘Slix, one of the members of Ruff Sqwad reached out to me and said he had this song Why Always Me that would be good for the EP we were working on. So he sent it over and I really liked it. Why Always Me is something that anyone can relate to whether it’s positive or negative, so I got involved and people seem to really like it.

When the track got sent over, the hook really stood out, and it got me thinking. At the time I was supposed to be going into the Celebrity Big Brother house, so my verse is a lot around that and how I was feeling about that. Something about the whole Mario Balotelli character appealed to me in that way.’

What is it that you like about Mario Balotelli?

‘I like everything about him, his whole character. For example, when I first met him I said, “why do you never smile when you score goals?” and he said: “I’m a striker, that’s just what I do. You’re a performer, so that’s what you go out and do.” That’s a good way of looking at it, he’s just doing his thing, he’s not putting it on, he’s just naturally like that. I think people can relate to him, he’s got a good heart and he’s strong to his beliefs. That’s the thing that I think the world of football needed, we haven’t had a character like that in England for a long time. And to go along with all of that, he’s also a good footballer, which helps!’

That must be difficult for you to say, as a Manchester United fan?

‘Yeah, that’s the hard part! But I just love football. I am a United fan, so I know people are going to be thinking “Tinch supports Man U, he’s done a track with Ruff Sqwad that’s all about Mario Balotelli, that doesn’t add up.” But, I like him as a person, and it was the ‘Why Always Me’ moment that grabbed me. If you’re a football fan and you know football, you’ll know he’s a good player.’

So ideally, Mario will be the top scorer in the league but United will win it?

‘That’s the dream world, yeah. Mario can be top scorer but United win the league, I’ll take that.’

Why did you decide to create the tee shirt with Umbro?

‘I guess the whole situation is that, music is my first thing in life, but I’ve always been interested in the business world as well. So when the Mario Balotelli track came up, we knew that it’d be good to come together with Umbro and design the tee based on the Why Always Me design. We related it to me, to him and to the whole situation really. It’s all for good reasons, so it’s all positive.’

What did you think of the designs?

‘The designs have been really cool man, when I explain something and then someone can capture what you’re thinking and put it onto a tee shirt, that’s great. It doesn’t look like it’s representing any one thing either, anyone can wear this shirt, but there’s little things in there like the music notes for me. It’s a great collaboration that represents me, Mario and Umbro all linked into one.’

I hear that you’re quite a decent footballer, who would you compare yourself to?

‘Yeah, I was good at football, and then I guess music just became a bit more important for me. If I was going to suggest a player I always liked or hoped I played like, I’d say Ronaldo – the older, Brazilian one – or maybe Aguero, another City player! I was quite quick, good on the ball and I scored goals, so maybe Romario as well.’

You were born in Ghana but grew up in England, so who do you support?

‘I went to that game against England, and I was supporting Ghana, that was a great game. It felt like a win for Ghana even though it was 1-1. If they’re not playing against each other, then I’ll be supporting England. I was born in Ghana, so that’s where my heart is.’

What else have you got planned for this year in terms of music?

‘After this EP, I’ve been working on loads of different things. I’ve got a single out with Pixie Lott called Bright Lights, and then I’m launching my own label Cloud 9. With music I never like to plan too far in advance, so things come up all the time. I know this year is going to be really exciting for me though.’

You’ve met Jay-Z a couple of times, do you think he’d enjoy watching a game of football?

‘Yeah, it’s different because he likes basketball, but I reckon he’d like football. He’s a really cool guy, really laid back. If he wanted to come over I’d take him to Old Trafford for a game. I’m not sure if he’d want a pie and chips though!’

Thanks to Tinchy for taking the time to speak to us. The special Why Always Me tee shirt is available exclusively from the Umbro Tee Shop now. Ruff Sqwad’s EP is out on January 24th, here’s the video of the track Why Always Me:

The Speciali has long been regarding as Umbro’s iconic boot, offering classic style, comfort and great fit year on year, game after game. Now, following in the footsteps of the commemorative Speciali ’92 comes the latest design for our classic boot: the Speciali 3.

On sale from today, the Speciali 3 has everything you’d expect from the Speciali, with some interesting new innovations that keep the boot at the top of the class. The two colourways here – black and light blue, and white, black and orange – have already been spotted on the football pitch as top players such as England striker Darren Bent test them out. Now, they’re available to buy, so you can put them through their paces as well.

Available with both soft ground and hard ground outsoles, the Speciali 3 has a lightweight TPU outsole that gives the wearer greater flexibilty and heel stability. The SG studs are aerospace graded aluminium, lightweight yet incedibly durable. The uppers are crafted from the finest soft leather, making the boots incredibly comfortable, something that continues inside the boot thanks to Poron sock inserts. An assymetrical lace area provides a greater strike zone, so you’ve no excuse for those shots that hit row Z rather than the top corner!

Soft ground and hard ground Speciali 3 Pro football boots in both new colourways are on sale now on the Umbro website – head there now for more details and to grab yourself a pair.

We’ve already shown you the tee shirt that Umbro and Tinchy Stryder have created, but here’s a great video that shows the moment when Tinchy arrived at our Dale Street studio to finalise the design along with Mario Balotelli.

In the video, Tinchy talks about how he came to write the song ‘Why Always Me’ with Ruff Sqwad, why he wanted to create a tee shirt with us and why he’s a fan of Mario – despite being a Manchester United fan!

The tee shirt is on sale now, exclusively at the Umbro Tee Shop