Hearts today unveiled the new Umbro home kit for season 2007-08, with vice-captain Christophe Berra expressing his delight at the new look.
The club signed a lucrative new deal with the leading shirt manufacturer in March and the new outfit features more maroon as the club moves back towards a more traditional appearance.
One of the most significant changes is that the club badge has been switched from the centre of the top to the left breast."To be working closely with a company of the calibre of Umbro is fantastic for the club," said Christophe."
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"The new home kit looks great and I'm sure the fans will enjoy wearing it as well. Hopefully the quality of our performances on the pitch next season reflect the standard of the new strip."
Hearts were founded in 1874 and are reputedly named after a popular local dance hall, which in turn took its name from the novel The Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott.
The Heart of Midlothian is a heart-shaped mosaic built into the pavement on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Folklore says that spitting on the Heart will bring good luck.
The first Hearts Captain, Tom Purdie, stated that they may have played in 1873. They initially played at The Meadows, Powburn and Powderhall before moving to the Gorgie area in 1881. They moved to their current Tynecastle site in 1886.
The earliest mention of Heart of Midlothian in a sporting context is a report in the Scotsman newspaper from 20 July 1864 of the Scotsman vs Heart of Mid-Lothian at cricket.
It is not known if this was the same club who went on to form the football club.
The traditional club colour is maroon. Reportedly the club's colours came about when the original and patriotic red, white and blue configuration ran in the wash, and turned out maroon. At the time they probably had to make do and thereafter adopted maroon as the team's colour.
Over the last few season the club have had various manufacturers who have produced the kit, Admiral, Pony, Olympic Sports and Errea, though the sponsor Strongbow has remained on the shirt front throughout.
The away top is usually a bland sort of white and maroon mix, though we have had a silver top, very garish, and a sort of light blue 'Argentina' style away top.
Their badge is based on the Heart of Midlothian mosaic on the Royal Mile (which gave rise to the unsubstantiated legend that the club was founded by youngsters that had initially played street football, using the Heart of Midlothian mosaic as a centre spot, until dissuaded by the local police at the behest of the Church of Scotland fearing for the stained glass windows of St Giles Cathedral).
The new strip will be available exclusively through Heart of Midlothian FC outlets. It will be launched on Friday, June 29 at 7am in the Hearts at Tynecastle, the City Store in the St James' Shopping Centre and the Livi Store in the Almondvale Shopping Centre, Livingston.
The club is expecting the new strip to be hugely popular and there are three ways in which fans can order the new home kit now Call Hearts Direct on 0871 663 1874, option 2 Visit any of the Hearts stores and our staffwill process your pre-order.
The shirts are priced at just GBP 41.99 for adults and GBP 29.99 for juniors and fans can guarantee delivery of their new strip on June 29 by pre-ordering before noon on Wednesday, June 27.
