Exploring the rich story behind the design, we recently spoke with PUMA Football’s David Bremond to talk detail as he let us in on the process behind the creation of the 2020/21 AC Milan home shirt for the latest episode of ‘Dropology’.
Few cities in the world encapsulate what the nation as a whole is about quite like Milan does: fashion, culture, history… it’s all there. And as a club, AC Milan have a strong connection to it all, so when looking to create a shirt that resonates with fans the world over, that can be worn as a lifestyle piece as easily as it can be on the pitch, the city itself became the obvious inspiration, fused into the design itself for what is one of the most well-appreciated shirts of the 20/21 season so far.
So to start with, how are you doing?
We’re all good. It’s a busy time for us as we’re already working on everything looking towards the World Cup in 2022. So it’a almost weird to be talking about the jerseys that are launching now because we’re already two steps ahead. It’s an interesting time.
Talking all things AC Milan, can you give us the top line design story that goes with the 2021 home jersey?
Yeah, so to develop the home jersey for AC Milan, we focused on three main aspects. The first one is to respect the tradition. The second is to create a jersey that can be worn as a lifestyle piece and then to create a design story that resonates with the fans in Milan, in Italy and all over the world. So this year, our focus was to craft our kits from the culture and take inspiration from the city of Milan then integrate that inspiration back into the design of the kit. As Milan has a rich history and the club has a strong connection to the city, we took those traditional colours and integrated an iconic piece of Milan architecture into the jersey. So the whole 2020 collection for Milan and in particular, this jersey will celebrate and does celebrate the culture of the city of Milan.
What are the details under the surface that you’ll notice, the close you get to this jersey?
So we went with our designers and did this round tour of the city and we told ourselves that with this kit, we wanted to earn the city. We looked for instance at architecture, we looked at iconic places that represent the heart of the city. In the city of Milan you have the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and this was a key inspiration for the pattern that we have integrated into the traditional red and black stripes.
When you take places like that, that have such a powerful history, can you feel the prestige that comes with designing an AC Milan shirt?
It's an honour to be able to work with such a club and on such an iconic piece. The city goes hand in hand with AC Milan. What the city has in creativity and architecture, it was very easy to find stories that represent both the city in the club as part of the process.
Fashion and football have never been so close to each other; football takes inspiration from fashion, and also fashion takes inspiration from football, and we see this with football jerseys on catwalks, high fashion brands creating football-inspired products, so for us it’s key to create jerseys that are wearable on and off the pitch"
Those stripes are so iconic. What’s it like to lead that process and how much of a challenge is it to take something so precious and move it forward?
The chance that we have, with these colours being so iconic and fitting so well together, it’s like 50% of the job is already done. The only thing that we want to do is to add a modern twist to the traditions. This is why we did something for the first time, that has never been done before and integrated this pattern into the red and black stripes, to bring freshness and cultural relevance.
You’ve spoken about the cultural relevance of the city coming through the design of the jersey. How important is it for clubs to really reflect who they are and the city they represent through their jersey?
AC Milan is much more than just a football club. It is it represents the city of Milan. It also represents Italy in a way. And the best way too. To showcase this is it’s important to go and look at what the city is and what they represent. We wanted to take in that information, all the things you see and experience in the city and use that to actually change the way we design kits now and in the future.
Talk us through that off the pitch element. How much does how wearable they are away from the pitch come into the process?
Yes, for sure. It is very important for us. Fashion and football have never been so close to one another. Football takes inspiration from fashion and also fashion takes inspiration from football. We see football shirts on catwalks and high fashion brands creating football inspired products. So yes, for us it’s key for us to create jerseys that are also wearable on and off the pitch.
You talked about football and fashion crossing over. What other trends have you seen come into the space?
Yeah I think it’s all about bringing football outside of football. So bringing football jerseys into fashion, linking these products to world’s outside of football. Also using new colours that are more lifestyle driven, I think that is the direction it goes. You might see something along those lines next year with something very, very nice.
That's a nice little tease for the future. On the subject of the future of football and AC, the relationship with Roc Nation and Jay-Z is an exciting one…You need to get Jay-Z in this jersey…
For sure. That would be such an amazing platform for us. I think with this amazing jersey that we have created for this season, the chance for something like that has never been so good. The relationship Roc Nation are building with AC Milan and with us as a brand, we hope that Jay-Z wears it very very soon.
While they are a club with so much history, do you get a sense that they are progressive, forward thinking club all the same?
Yeah, having worked with them for a long time now, they are always coming back to their culture which references fashion a lot. Milan being a capital of fashion is always something they come back to. As we are doing with this jersey, they are club that always wants to open the scale of the targets not only within football but outside too.
There have been great steps to really reflect each city that Puma has a club in. What does the future look like for Puma and football design?
You know what? I think the change that we want to bring to the industry is to bring exclusive design and bespoke designs to match unique stories for each of those clubs we work with.
There’s been a backlash in the past across the whole of football for template designs. Puma has actively moved away from this by giving clubs a bespoke treatment. Have you found that appetite from the audience to want more interesting kits has let you as designers off the leash?
Yes, for sure. And we as a brand want to push in that direction. We’re very happy with how everything came out and for all our clubs, all over the world, we have exclusive stories behind their kit releases and the inspiration behind their designs. This is not done by all brands. It’s great to have this opportunity to express ourselves and the culture of our clubs through design.
Pick up the AC Milan 20/21 home shirt at prodirectsoccer.com
