Here Is What Inspired Juventus' 19-20 Home Kit - Kit Designer Interview
As Juventus continues to cause a stir because of the club's new 2019-20 home jersey and its revolutionary design, espn.com took investigations a step further to conduct a conversation with the design director of Adidas' football department, Inigo Turner. Let us find out why exactly Inigo Turner rubber-stamped Juve's 2019-2020 home shirt.
Dealing With Negative Feedback & Adidas' Take On Football Kits
"We prefer when it's well received. Obviously when you do something that's quite bold, there will be a reaction at least to begin with. Sometimes jerseys take a little longer to become a favourite. It could be that the team needs to wear it a little bit and then people will go, 'Yeah, now I'm really used to it. I really like it.' Everybody has an opinion.
"We're really aware [of the reception the shirt is getting]"
Modern zebra. pic.twitter.com/6uqmEwQbkw
— Emilio Sansolini (@EmilioSansolini) 12. Mai 2019
"We also think that to stay in these traditional shirts all the time would also be a little bit predictable and not push things forward. It's something that we're compelled to do at Adidas: drive forward the look of football on the field. That becomes increasingly difficult with lots of regulations, with number boxes needed and other things.
"If you think back to some of the most iconic shirts in history, those old Man United away shirts, the 'bruised banana' Arsenal shirt, all the iconic shirt everyone remembers now ... I think if we'd had social media back then the reaction would also have been fairly strong. But these are the jerseys everybody loves, the ones that are remembered and held dearly in a lot of people's affections."
Adidas Juventus 19-20 Home Kit - Adidas' Design Inspirations
After commenting on Adidas' general strategy of pushing boundaries and relying on causing reactions - whether positive or negative does not matter in the long run - Turner now touches on the inspiration behind the pink line, and, most importantly, how Adidas perceives the halves look.
"Pink was one of the very first colours the club wore. The first kits they wore were pink with these black neckties. It's a foundation colour, one of our nods back to an authentic story. While I think we've done something very disruptive, we also reference something that's from the heart and the origins of the club. It's important that we make those historical references and bring those stories into the kits. We're not educators but we make reference points to a club's rich history."
First ever Juventus club shot - via Wikipedia
"We tend to throw our net quite wide in terms of ideas," Turner explains. "I think about when the team lines up in the kit before the game and the camera pans across the team or you get the wide-angle shot. What you see are black and white stripes. It's different thinking. Also behind the goal, if Juve are attacking the goal and you've got thousands of people wearing that shirt you have a very different-looking black and white stripes. It's much bolder. They come together in a different way. It's a very confident statement about bringing everybody together collectively to create the stripes."
What do you think of Inigo Turner's statements concerning the shirt's inspirations and Adidas' overall strategy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.
