Umbro’s latest link-up lands with a wink and a warm rush of nostalgia, as the double diamond invites British designer Adam Jones into its world for a capsule that treats heritage not as something to be preserved behind glass, but as raw material to be re-cut, re-stitched and reimagined with irreverent charm.
This is Umbro x Adam Jones: a limited-edition collision of deadstock, domesticity, and footballing folklore – all filtered through Jones’ unmistakably sentimental lens. Jones has built his name on the fringes of British fashion, blending humour with a deep affection for the textures and quirks of everyday life. For this collaboration, the spark came from close to home: the eccentric off-duty uniform of his grandfather. Think dress shirts and cardigans slipped over grey joggers, or sweatshirts smartened up with tailored trousers and polished shoes. A lived-in mix of utility and unintentional style, it offered a portal into a peculiarly British kind of swagger – unbothered, practical, and quietly iconic.
That ethos is stitched throughout the collection. Familiar motifs are pulled from memory and pushed into new territory: argyle knits washed in football-terrace sensibility; lace doilies sliced and repurposed as football shirts with an almost ceremonial delicacy; shiny striped short shorts glinting with echoes of the game’s golden years. Elsewhere, dress shirts and polos are deconstructed and spliced into hybrids that feel both smart and slouchy – comfort brought forward into the contemporary.
“These pieces are made up of garments from traditionally different environments,” Jones explains. “Starched shirt collars opposite the pique cotton polos of the terraces, now clashing as they vie for attention. That was my goal when I started working with Umbro. We wanted to push boundaries whilst also having fun with it, and that sentiment permeates throughout the collection.”
It’s a project rooted not in performance metrics, but in culture – the kind of culture built in pubs, parks and living rooms long before kick-off. “Football is about performance and sport, but it is just as much about the joy of the culture,” says Helene Hope, Umbro’s Global Head of Brand Marketing. “Adam’s playful vision speaks to that core community beautifully, reframing the gravitas of peak performance with light-hearted irreverence.”
Umbro x Adam Jones is a love letter to the football community’s eccentricities – a reminder that style at its best doesn’t come from polish, but from personality. Here, nostalgia isn’t a trend; it’s a lived experience woven back into the game’s fabric, one doily, one collar clash, one gleaming pair of short shorts at a time.
The Umbro x Adam Jones collection is available on adamjones.studio.
