Long gone are the days when football shirts were just what players wore on the pitch. In the modern era, they are everything from fashion items, to treasured memorabilia, to a sense of identity. For players, they represent high-performance clothing designed to give them a competitive edge, and for fans, wearing their team’s colours can not only show support but also inspire a sense of pride.
Shirts take on even greater importance in the build-up to a World Cup. Every fan has an opinion on how their national team should look on the world stage — when designs for England and the United States were released ahead of this month’s tournament in Qatar, supporters complained they looked like training gear. Argentina’s purple away shirt also proved divisive despite its message of gender equality.
What many fans do not realise is that the finished product they see is the result of several years’ work from designers, marketers and brands. It is an arduous and often thankless process that involves trying to keep both fans and players happy, adapting to host country conditions and staying true to the football origins of each team.
As one former Nike brand lead who preferred to remain anonymous told ESPN: “Those kits become the nations.”
How much effort goes into each design and how much do the designers care about fan feedback? When do designers start planning for the next World Cup and why are leaks not as damaging as they might seem for the biggest brands? This is a behind-the-scenes look at World Cup shirts — from start to finish.
How to design a World Cup kit
For the biggest brands, planning for a World Cup often begins as soon as the host country is chosen.
This is the point at which they decide on their strategy for the finals — do they want to place an emphasis on bright colours or appeal to younger fans? It is also the point at which research begins on how best to equip players for the conditions they will encounter.
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Craig Buglass was creative directing manager at Nike during the 2002 World Cup and was responsible for all the brand’s shirts at the tournament — including winners Brazil. He and his team realised the polyester-knitted jerseys usually worn by players would not be suited to the humidity of host countries South Korea and Japan. They settled on a new technology called “cool motion,” which drew sweat away from the body through separate layers. All but one of its teams — the United States — adopted the design.
“We tried as hard as we could to convince them to take the kit but they just wouldn’t,” Buglass said. “We were disappointed, but it wasn’t the end of the world because, with the deepest respect to the U.S., we weren’t expecting them to win the event. But if you look at any of the images [from the tournament]… Every picture you’ll see of the U.S., they are absolutely drenched.”
