There were many historic images that provided Senior Designer David Blanch with inspiration during the design of the new England kit, but one of the most influential was an iconic image of Bobby Moore. Here he talks to journalist Chris Hunt about the impact of that image.

[Unfortunately, I do not have this iconic image to hand, but you can view the kit that David is referencing here.]

Chris: What have been your biggest influences while designing the new England kit?

David: “In working on this England kit many things have influenced the development of the finished design, but one of the biggest inspirational images has been a picture of Bobby Moore leading out England in the 1966 World Cup quarter-final”

Chris: What was so special about that image?

David: “There’s an absolute visual confidence associated with that strip. Everyone talks about 1966 and the first picture that comes to mind is Moore in the red shirt, but it takes effort and skill and style and craftsmanship to get to the final and that’s where this white outfit just epitomized the confidence we were looking for. It’s one of the strongest images in football. Regardless of them going on to win the tournament, that is still a really confident image.”
Chris: What is the key thing you’

ve wanted to achieve with this new kit?

David: “One of the key things I was trying to drive through with this kit, other than improving a team’s performance through fabric innovation, which we’ve always done really well, is to see how we could improve the team’s confidence. There was a certain level of player confidence that seemed to exist in the past, they really seemed to be playing for the absolute love of the game, and if I could take the confidence associated with that iconic image and merge it with modern technology and innovation, blend them into a perfect form, I just couldn’t think of anything better.”

Tomorrow we will add some more Umbro football shirts to our ever growing archive on Flickr…