Show Your Colors – Euro 2021 Jersey Designs
Football is coming home to Wembley stadium at the UEFA Euro 2021 finale this Sunday. But if England is going to snatch up the title again remains to be seen! One thing is certain though: the winning team will look good on the football field.
With Europe in the tight grip of UEFA’s Euro 2021, we couldn’t resist writing at least a short article on the (football) event of the year ourselves! Of course, drupa is all about print, but graphic design has become an essential part of the print world over the past years as well. After all, there are more than 7.5 hours of content in our virtual.drupa video library in the design section. This Sunday, it is already time for the finale, so let’s take a look at the unique designs that are able to present the football identity of the finalists in just one simple shirt.
Forza Azzurri
This one is an especially interesting project to look at, as Puma opted to redesign all of their team’s away kits when Euro 2020 was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic: For 2020, Puma initially chose a clean and minimal design for the Italian team that wasn’t received well by all of the fans, doing a full one-eighty turn in their redesign. The new royal blue Italian home kit was inspired by the culture’s defining renaissance era of art and architecture, incorporating a luxurious renaissance pattern across the shirt to “celebrate Italy’s past greatness”. Puma was therefore underlining and celebrating the nation’s past achievements and influence on the rest of the world culture and the history of football:
“During the renaissance, Italy was the epicentre of creativity and innovation,”
said David Bremond, head of product line management at Puma.
“Italy didn’t just influence the world; it redefined it. With this home kit we want to celebrate this era and craft this kit from Italy’s most important cultural time.”
Pointing out the previous success of the countries beyond just football seems to be a recurring theme at Euro 2021 which makes it especially interesting from a design point of view and gives long-time football fans as well as casual viewers something else to watch out for at the events.
Football’s Coming Home
The English team is “coming home” on Sunday to play the finale in their own country at Wembley stadium in front of about 65.000 fans. And they will also be able to play in their white home shirts as their away strip has just about the same royal blue color as Italy’s luxurious design. The Three Lions got their jerseys designed by Nike, who went for a clean and minimalistic style: a traditional white home shirt with a dark blue crew neck and side stripes composed with red and blue lines. The signature Three Lions crest and Nike logo, topped off with the single star representing their World Cup victory in 1966, are arranged at the centre of the shirt. The royal blue away shirt has the Three Lions crest on the heart with the Nike logo on the right and went with a busy print overall. For us, the home shirt is the clear favorite – as it should be – and we are looking forward to seeing the team being able to play the finale wearing it!
“We’re united in our goal of representing our fans far and wide,”
said England captain Harry Kane.
“This collection captures that feeling of togetherness we hold so dearly.”
The 12th Man
Football jersey designs are more than just a nice gimmick though, they are more than anything a highly profitable business. Sports teams always make a significant amount of their earnings by selling their merchandise and an international event like Euro 2021 is not different. The fans are buying their country’s jersey to represent their affinity and stand behind their teams, becoming the so-called “12th man”. For the Euro 2020/2021, the leading designers are Nike, adidas and Puma with hummel, JAKO and JOMA designing one country’s jersey each.
Learn more about the significance of jersey designs for the Euro 2021 event and the other team’s designs by watching this well-researched clip by TSN:
Many designers were looking to make a mark with their designs this time, switching the usual ideas up like adidas did for the German team’s jersey or Portugal going back to their nostalgic 2004 green shorts.
Germany sadly lost their game against England, so we have no one to cheer for anymore. Who do you want us to cheer for at the finale? And will you be watching the game fully equipped in your team’s jersey? Let us know or share your “finale look” with us on social media tagging @drupa on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn!
