Leaked pictures suggest that Napoli could be set for what would be the most important football-fashion moment of this season, with a potential collaboration with Marcelo Burlon appearing to be more than just on the cards and in fact actually imminently set to drop with two special edition shirts.
It looks as though Marcelo Burlon could well be the latest fashion designer to take his creative stylings into the world of football, with leaked photos joining reports from Italian media outlet, Il Riformista, of an upcoming collaboration with Napoli. It looks as though the hook up is already well established, with what looks like two special edition shirts adorned with Burlon’s County of Milan label’s unique bird stylings.
Napoli are well known for being adventurous with their shirt designs, with President Aurelio De Laurentiis more than happy to sign off on some pretty wild looks, such as the camo shirt from the 2013/14 season, or the 2014/15 ‘denim’ design, or the crazy 2018/19 animal-adorned shirts… you get the idea. Anyway, it looks as though they’re set to get another animal on their shirt, this time in the form of the signature County of Milan bird, which dominates the two upcoming special edition shirts. If it’s not Marcelo Burlon’s bird, then the club better be prepared for some lawsuits in the near future…
There are no official details about this release, but from their presentation it would look as if Napoli will be hoping to use them on pitch. The shirts are still produced by Kappa, and the first sees a black base with the bird design dominating the upper portion. The Napoli badge on the shirt is recoloured in black and white, similar to what the club displayed across their social media after the death of Diego Maradona last November, and this prompted Il Riformista to suggest that it may be a tribute to the club legend. The second shirt then features a yellow base with the bird graphic in blue, adopting the classic colours of the club.
Adding more weight to the validity of this story is the appearance of the shirts on actors and models around the Diego Armando Maradona stadium, snapped by local fans during what looked to be a publicity photoshoot. This all but confirms that the shirts are genuine, while also suggesting that we’re not far away from an official unveiling.
In what was either an instance of clairvoyance or coincidence (we're going for the latter!), concept designer SETTPACE predicted a similar move for the fashion label into football, pitching a team up between Marcelo Burlon: County of Milan and Inter recently as part of his fantasy collaboration series. The design shares a startling similarity to what has been produced for Napoli... guess a big bird across the shoulders will do that though. Close SETTPACE, just 658km too far North…
Eyes on this space to see how this story develops in the coming weeks...
