Why does Naruto always wear Orange? 

One of the first few things we associate Naruto with is Ramen, his yellow colored hair, and his orange uniform. Naruto is quite special and important to those who grew up watching him, and fans have often wondered why his uniform is orange in color.

Masashi Kishimoto revealed the true reason behind the color of his jumpsuit, and he also gave an explanation in the anime itself.

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Fans initially thought Naruto's orange uniform was inspired by the Dragon Ball series

Initially, some of the fans had speculated that the orange jumpsuit was a tribute to Son Goku since Masashi Kishimoto was inspired by Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series. However, Kishimoto clarified the real reason in an interview. He said:

"That kind of story, it would be a different genre. So I was thinking about what would be appropriate for not only a shonen manga series, but a Jump shonen manga series. I figured I wanted to take a polar opposite approach, and portray this character who wears orange. It's an orange jumpsuit, and Naruto goes 'Hey, I'm here!' Which is totally opposite of how a ninja should behave! It's a paradox. But I figured, 'Why not make this another type of real ninja?' Of course, I had some hardcore ninja fans who were like, 'Dude, get lost.' They were really upset because this is not how ninjas are supposed to be!"

Kushina's explanation of Naruto's outfit (Image via Kishimoto)

The author had also provided another reason within the manga itself. In chapter 498 of the series, Kushina explains that the reason why her son wears orange is because it’s a mixture of two colors, yellow and red.

Yellow can be considered as an abstract representation of his father, Minato, who was also known as Konohagakure’s Yellow Flash. Red is a representation of Kushina since she was given the name of “Red-Hot Habanero”, which is accurate considering how angry she could get when provoked.

Some fans have also looked at this from the perspective of color theory. While the protagonist wears orange, Sasuke wears blue, which happens to be a pair of complementary colors. This could be a form of symbolism given the vast difference in behavior of the two friends while simultaneously sharing a complementary relationship dynamic.