Red, red, and more red: Bayern’s new home kit returns to former glory

Much to the relief of many Bayern Munich fans, the Bundesliga giants have confirmed that they will be ditching their cursed 2023-24 home kit and returning to a more familiar red design for next season.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine how club and manufacturers Adidas could have made the 2024-25 uniform any more red.

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The German giants caused a stir among fans last July when they announced they were planning to break with modern custom and unveiled a home kit with a predominantly white jersey.

Unfortunately, that shirt corresponded with something of an awful season for Bayern, who floundered as perennial nearly-men Bayer Leverkusen upset the status quo by stampeding to the Bundesliga title, thus ending the Bavarians’ 11-year reign as champions.

Of course, at time of writing they could still win the Champions League this season, but this is what counts as a bad season at the Allianz Arena.

As such, Bayern have quickly moved to draw a line under their domestic shortcomings by revealing that the club will be returning to their “magic” triple red kit (i.e. red shirt, red shorts and red socks) in the hope that it will expedite their return to the Bundesliga summit.

The clubs say that the 2024-25 home kit “reflects the heartbeat and passion that unites the players on the pitch with the fans in the stands.” Slightly spurious metaphors aside, the kit is actually quite possibly the reddest that Bayern have ever produced, with three different hues making up the overall design.

Bayern also claim that the use of three different shades of a red is a visual reference to their successes of the past, being the only German men’s team to have won the league, cup and European treble. Just not this season, unfortunately.

The kit will be worn in a match for the first time in the women’s DFB-Pokal final against Wolfsburg on May 9 before the men’s team turn out in it for their final home game of the season three days later, also against Wolfsburg (stream LIVE at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN+).

The club are also keen to point out that they are now the first top-level German club to adorn their new kit with a QR code, which is printed on the sleeve and allows fans to access digital content provided by their stadium sponsor, Allianz.

We’re guessing Bayern fans would rather have a 12th consecutive Bundesliga shield to be celebrating at the moment, but the trailblazing implementation of a shirt-based barcode for next season probably makes for a serviceable runner-up prize.