This blog post is part of a series looking at some of the people behind new England kit, ahead of its launch on 28th March. Today, Chris Hunt talks to Umbro senior designer David Blanch about how the design process got started. Although David is in his tenth year of involvement with the England football kit, he tells journalist Chris Hunt that this time around there was the opportunity to create something really special with a completely different creative focus.
Chris: How did you get involved with overseeing the design of this new England kit?
David: “I’ve been working with football kits at Umbro for nearly ten years. The first England kit that I worked on was in 2000 – the one with the red stripe through the crest that came in when Sven started to manage the team. At that time it was quite a significant change in football kit design. If you look at football shirts over different decades you can often see distinct eras of kit design – and when we started working on this new kit, we were asked to conceive a bold new move for England, one that reflects The FA and what they stand for, the team ethos and one that also reflects Umbro.”
Chris: How close is the relationship between Umbro and the Football Association?
David: “There’s really strong synergy between The Football Association and Umbro because they both have such deep authenticity in the game, not only in football tradition but also football innovation. The majority of The FA’s football kits have been innovative in one way or another. And Umbro has been partnered with them more than any other brand and helped them to create some really strong, iconic kits over the years. I see a football kit as more than a team identity, it’s as something that reflects the team’s values, and when Caplello came on board, we had some meetings with him and the question we asked ourselves was: ‘How’s he looking to build the team and how can we help in a way that hadn’t been done before?’”
Chris: The arrival of Fabio Capello was perfectly timed for what you wanted to achieve with the new England shirt.
David: “What we were focusing on fitted seamlessly into his approach to the England team. He’s starting from scratch, he’s not only interested in who’s played before, but how each player adds to the overall team strength and that’s exactly what we’ve done with the kit. We’ve consciously not been encumbered by the past, but have allowed it to inspire the future. We started with a plain white sheet of paper – we wanted to start with a fresh approach and create something iconic from the offset.”
Chris: Was there a lot of pressure to deliver?
David: “The clock is always ticking when it comes to a new design but there was a massive pressure to deliver against expectation. We came up with the concept of creating a new kit steeped in English football culture, performance and style.”
Chris: Where did you and the team hit on your inspiration?
David: “We took a small team of people up to National Football Museum in Preston and our role there was to absorb what the game is really about. We were looking at both what football stands for and what is football ‘soul’. One of the football kits that we saw had a great label in it, saying ‘Tailored By Umbro In England’, which made us think about why Umbro referenced tailoring in football kits? It became apparent to us that tailoring was a significant part of both Umbro’s history and footballs heritage. We went on to put the concept together and brought back ‘Football Tailored’ as the inspiration for innovation.”
Chris: What was behind the concept of ‘Football Tailored’?
David: “The reason for ‘Football Tailored’ made sense was because of how it informs a real sense of smartness and confidence – and the reason that football kits fitted the players so well in the past is because they were quite simply ‘tailor made’ for the players. I loved the fact that football was born from the principles of tailoring and I wondered what if we combine that craftsmanship with modern technology.”
Chris: What is so special about a tailored garment?
David: “Think of how confident you feel when you wear a suit. It’s more than just a garment, it gives you an amazing sense of confidence. And if you can take that thinking and build it into the construction of a football kit, then you’ve not only got something that looks the part but it will perform technically, but it also performs on a psychological level. If we can help improve a player’s psychology in the same way and combine it with the performance innovation, then you’ve got a kit that’s really special.”
The new shirt will have a new crest. How did the development of the badge evolve?
David: “We wanted to ensure that the crest looked amazing both from a distance and up close. Every stitch was individually drawn so that the final result produced a technically advanced yet carefully crafted England crest. For the new design The FA devised a chronological evolution of the crest from its conception, showing how it had changed. It was decided quite early on to look at the crest of the 1950s for inspiration, which itself was quite a dramatic change in the style, and went on to become one of the most recognized crests in football history. Originally it also incorporated the match insignia underneath, listing the name of the opponents and the season. For the players we’re going to incorporate a similar insignia too. It will be a mark of recognition for the opposing team.”
On Thursday Chris Hunt talks to Martin Prothero, Umbro Senior Vice President of Football about working with Capello on the kit.
