Prostate United unveil 90s inspired shirt to be rewarded to October's biggest grassroots fundraisers

Prostate United is making a return in 2024 with a brand new kit design that attempts to draw a focus to prostate cancer and reward fans raising money for the disease.

During October, football fans are encouraged to walk, run or cycle everyday to help raise money for lifesaving research into better tests and treatments to save men's lives. In the six years since its inception, the charity has raised £500,000 from the campaign - and they're now targeting the £1m milestone in October 2024.

Football fans who manage to raise £500 will receive a specially designed football shirt, which adorns the Prostate United crest, black and blue colourway and 45 numbering - representing how someone dies of prostate cancer every 45 minutes.

The football shirt this year has been designed by Ed Cowburn. At the forefront of his thinking for the kit this year has been to create something that will truly resonate with football fans of an older generation. Iconic shirts from the late 1980s and 1990s acted as inspiration for Cowburn, who took a different avenue with the black and blue colourway in 2024.

"This kit is aimed at the first generation of people who grew up with football shirt in the design that we know today," Cowburn tells FourFourTwo. "Guys above the age of 50 are affected, and unfortunately every 45 minutes someone will die from prostate cancer.

"They've all grown up with football shirts in this cool, patterned design, so I wanted to create something that felt like it was nostalgic to people of that generation, where they would know where the inspiration for this kit has come from - whether it's the Arsenal bruised banana kit of 1992 or the Holland kit of 88, for example.

"The colours are obviously the Prostate United colours, too, which is the great thing about the kit because it's not relevant to any team in the UK. That means people can wear the kit without feeling like they're cheating on the team that they support.

"In the pattern there's obviously a bit of inspiration from Croatia as well, which is done in the old-school style of making a gradient somewhat pixelated. I think there's an element of reminiscing, maybe about old school computer games in there, too."

Cowburn added: "It encapsulates that generation of football fans, which is what Prostate United is all about, really."