What are River Plate's colors?

Club Atlético River Plate was founded in 1901 through the merger of Santa Rosa and La Rosales, two teams from Buenos Aires’ La Boca neighborhood. Red and White became inseparable from River’s visual identity through the white shirt crossed by its distinctive red diagonal sash. The sash was already part of the club’s appearance when River entered official football competition in 1905 at Dársena Sur. Over time, this simple diagonal design became more recognizable than a conventional striped or solid-color shirt and remains the defining feature of River’s home kit. Although the club later moved away from La Boca and established its home in the Núñez area of Buenos Aires, the red sash continued to connect successive generations of River teams with the club’s earliest years.

River marked its 125th anniversary in 2026 with a special shirt that deliberately emphasized the historical construction of its most recognizable feature. The commemorative design retained the traditional White base and Red diagonal sash, with the sash applied using a stitching technique intended to recall early versions of the jersey. Rather than replacing the club’s established look with an anniversary-specific color scheme, the design centered the celebration on the element that has identified River for more than a century. The release demonstrated how strongly the diagonal band remains tied to the club’s identity: even special editions continue to reinterpret the same red-on-white arrangement instead of moving away from it.