In their first season United had yet to adopt the famous red and white shirts and they first played in white shirts with blue shorts (or knickers as they were called then!)

United soon after started to play in red and white, although to start it was a mainly white shirt with thin red stripes.
From before the turn of the 20th century though, United were playing in broad red and whiite stripes with black shorts. (Below strip from the 1920s)

This style remained pretty much the same until the 1960s and 70s when fashion dictated football kits became more stylish and wearable. The 60s saw United wearing shirts with round collars, and they also started wearing the Sheffield coat-of-arms on the shirts (as shown in this picture )

United's first drastic break from the norm came in 1975 when the red and white stripes had a thin black stripe running alongside them (below).

This remained in various incarnations until 1979 when United took to wearing perhaps the worst strip in their history. It consisted of a white shirt with a very thick red stripe down the middle and pinstripe black and red stripes down the side of the thick stripe. It was awful, but the club insisted the change had to occur in order to accomodate the sponsors logo, which United had started wearing for the first time.

After that every kit change saw a huge difference, thinner red and white stripes in the early Bassett days, then when back in the First Division (now Premier) still thin red and white but with a thinner black stripe down the centre of the white stripe. After this came a return to the shirt of 1975, complete with a tie-up collar, white shorts and white socks.

Next another horror with thinner red and white stripes but with all red sleeves and a huge black hoop across the middle, again for the sponsors logo

But worse was to come when Bassett (obviously in a state of madness) decided United should abandon stripes and wear...diamonds! The fans were outraged and thankfully the kit remained for only one season before being abandoned in favour of stripes. (Below: diamonds are forever? No, thank God!)

Since then up until todays new kit (below) United have fared quite well, but who knows what the designers could come up with next...red and white circles with flashes of orange and gold stars? I wouldn't bet against it.

Below is probably one of worst away kits ever in the history of football.So bad the team refused to wear them because they said they looked like homosexuals (and they were right)