Umbro Blog

We’ve given you the first glimpse of the new England away kit, complete with an introduction to Aitor Throup, the conceptual designer behind the shirt. Today, Aitor tells us about the concept behind the kit itself. Here’s a video that reveals some of the story:

“With this kit, the most interesting things were in the form, and in the components that then make up that form. We knew that different parts of the body needed different types of material.

This concept was developed totally through insight, through talking to players but also talking to experts such as Loughborough University in particular. There has been extensive amounts of research done into that field, looking at thermal conditions in different parts of the body during exercise. There are thermal maps that exist that show you what parts of the body get hotter after what length of time doing what type of exercise. So we knew that in a game of football, we had to cool down the back, we had to cool down the underarm and the upper side of the body.

There is also an understanding that the front of the garment for example can’t feel too shear or exposed, it needs to be comfortable and it can’t be too coarse, without any textural difference.

The sleeve is just logical, in that it’s the only part of the upper body that has joints that move in that way, where the amount of skin in that area of the body changes and contracts, so they already require an articulation concept in order to work with the body. So when you deconstruct that thinking into ‘the arm needs this, the back needs that, and so on’, it seems really obvious, but no one has really thought that directly about it before. It’s not just that we wanted to make a shirt out of three fabrics and make that the front, the back and the sleeve, it was also about making those elements work together, which is what is really fresh about this kit. It’s really considered as a whole.

It’s a piece of really modern, technological kit, but embedded in this idea of style and tailoring. With the away kit, we wanted to balance out those two factors – we wanted it to be as much about performance as it is about style. That’s a really complicated thing to achieve, getting that balance right. So we’ve tried to talk about simplicity and craftsmanship and even minimalism, whilst actually making one of the most unconventional constructions that we’ve ever seen in a football kit. That would normally negate a connection to minimalism, but we’ve somehow achieved it.

We discovered that Alf Ramsey was actually involved in the design of the ’66 shirt, in that he asked Umbro to design a shirt without a shoulder seam. So the front and back panel is just one piece. To think that that’s something so forward thinking and revolutionary, yet it creates something so timeless and pure, – that was a huge inspiration for us. It’s got a revolutionary role that nobody knows about, because they didn’t need to know.

We wanted to make this shirt as comfortable as possible. It’s only about ’66 in a visual context, it’s really more about the new design language that we’re inventing. For instance, the collar on the ’66 shirt was a high crew neck, which was quite uncomfortable. If you look at this shirt, from the side, it’s actually higher at the back than the front, so it ventilates much more easily and is much more comfortable.

If you take the principles of the ’66 shirt and that era, there’s a real design restraint to it all. If you take that approach, but on a modern form, you can get to some really new and interesting places.”

Keep your eyes on Umbro.com, our Facebook page and Umbro’s Flickr account for the latest news on the new England Away kit…

From The Terrace

On 1 Feb 2010, at 2:53 pm Paul Biggs wrote:

Why do we (England) still persist in having a red away kit? I seem to remember that in the early to mid 90′s we had a blue kit. Why do we never go back to having that colour again? The red kit is sparks nostalgia, but what is wrong with blue?

Cheers, Paul.
On 1 Feb 2010, at 4:31 pm Tim wrote:

The blue kits were third kits that were very rarely worn. England’s traditional change kits have been red. Blue kits have only been worn by England in 5 competitive matches in the past 70 years (if don’t you count the “indigo blue” – aka gray – kits that were worn in 3 matches in 1996).

In short, it’s traditional, and seeing as though red was worn for England’s greatest triumph, it’s always been a popular choice.

Check out this link for more info on old England kits: http://www.englandfootballonline.com/teamunif/unif.html
On 1 Feb 2010, at 4:49 pm Paul Biggs wrote:

I always remember the blue one with the three lions embedded into the shirt from the early 90′s. I admit red is the shirt of our greatest triumph, and as long as we never go back to grey as worn in Euro 96 that would be great. What would happen if we ever got drawn away to someone like Paraguay in an international competition? Is there still a need for a third kit? Or would Paraguay be forced to wear their away shirt? Mind you that’s probably a question for FIFA. Cheers for the info on the kits, and look forward to seeing the new shirt in March.
On 2 Feb 2010, at 10:12 am Michael Miles wrote:

Kit design had been moving towards more elaborate designs with extra piping, shapes and unnecessary flashes of colour e.g Spurs kit. Bolton’s kit is including extra sponsorship detail on the sleeves and anywhere it can fit- heading towards a south american football kit look- and i think it was starting to crowd the garment. Good to see more effective traditional designs coming through.
On 3 Feb 2010, at 1:18 pm waqas wrote:

hi this is so good
On 7 Feb 2010, at 8:41 pm True Colours Football Kits » Visit to Umbro wrote:

[...] Tailored by Umbro kits. Find out more about Aitor’s involvement with Umbro by visiting the Umbro blog. Both he and David were such nice chaps and so friendly and open in their discussions about kits. I [...]
On 14 Mar 2010, at 12:40 pm John wrote:

I have recently bought the new away shirt and have I’ve noticed that the back of the shirt does not seem to hang correctly; the point on the shoulders where the stitching meets seem to bunh up and stick out when worn.

Does anyone else have this problem or is there a fault with my shirt?
On 26 Mar 2010, at 2:04 am Jorge Garrido wrote:

when does the England away arrive to mexico?
On 8 Apr 2010, at 9:17 pm Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone know about the Tailored by England t-shirt design contest to commemorate the June 12th England v. US game?
On 8 Apr 2010, at 9:19 pm Ryan wrote:

Does anyone know about the Tailored by England t-shirt design contest to commemorate the June 12th England v. US game?
On 11 Apr 2010, at 8:55 am James wrote:

Anyone else think that the top picture shows clearly that they are using Peter Crouch as their model????
On 1 May 2010, at 5:51 pm Julian wrote:

Great – I can just buy a red T shirt and save 50 ish quid, because no one will be able to tell the difference from more than 20 feet away, (same as the feeble white offering).
I wonder if Umbro in their design are mirroring the last few decades of England teams (much promise no result)
Huge Disappointment, wrong again Umbro