Run for the balls: West Ham team up with Iron Maiden for new kit

New shirt – presumably with the number of the beast on the back – launched by bassist Steve Harris and defender Pablo Zabaleta

West Ham United have collaborated with Iron Maiden on a new kit.

Going under the name Die With Your Boots On, the new version of the claret and blue home kit features the lettering IMFC alongside the club’s crest, and the band’s name emblazoned across the chest where the sponsor would be.

The partnership was driven by Maiden bassist and songwriter Steve Harris, who has been a Hammers fan since 1965. “I went to see West Ham play against Newcastle when I was nine and my mate was 10,” he said. “We jumped on a bus and went to the game, and they won 4-3 and that was it. I was hooked!”

Also introducing the kit was West Ham’s Argentinian defender Pablo Zabaleta, who said: “Iron Maiden are a huge icon back home in South America and it’s great for fans of West Ham and the band to be able to show their support for both.”

West Ham’s licensing manager Tracey Stratton said the collaboration made “perfect sense … One weekend last summer our club shop was inundated with rock fans from all across the globe, and we realised that Iron Maiden were playing two sold out shows at the O2.”

Iron Maiden, who Harris formed in 1975 in east London, are currently on their Legacy of the Beast world tour, and recently completed 44 dates across North and South America.

Harris originally aspired to be a footballer, and played for West Ham’s youth team as a teenager, but ended up following the path to heavy metal. “It was great, but 14 is the wrong age really,” he told Kerrang! magazine in 1992. “Because all I wanted to do was start having a few beers and meet a few birds – which doesn’t mix with playing football. They want you in bed early and all that stuff.”