Pharrell Designed Jerseys For These Iconic Soccer Teams, and We Can't Enough of the Tie-Dye
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Redesigning iconic sports jerseys can be tricky business, but trust Pharrell Williams to get it right. The artist and creative director of Human Race just collaborated with Adidas to create hand-designed jerseys for five legendary European soccer clubs: Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal, and FC Bayern Munich. The brand also created jerseys for Romance FC, a women's and nonbinary football club in London. We took one look at the results and fell in love.
These clubs boast recognizable jerseys as it is, but Pharrell reimagined them in raw and unique ways. Designers used hand-drawn techniques as the basis for each jersey before joining with the Adidas team, melding the artistic look with a high-performance jersey.
"The most important part of the process with this collection was to learn of each club's legacies and how each defining moment of their histories were captured and preserved from a design and aesthetics perspective," Pharrell said in a press release. "Each of the new jerseys are symbols of the five [clubs'] collective memories which have been brought to life through the most personal, creative, and unique design process we have — by hand."
The jerseys aren't just for show. Arsenal, Manchester United, and Real Madrid will be wearing the new designs for pregame warmups, while Juventus sported theirs during a match on Oct. 25. FC Bayern Munich is planning to wear their new jerseys during their next game in Germany's domestic cup. Unfortunately for fans, several of the jerseys are sold out at the moment, so we'll have to content ourselves with admiring them from afar. Check out all six versions ahead!
Arsenal
Modeled by Arsenal player Lisa Evans, the Arsenal jersey features a distinctive zigzag pattern with a yellow and blue paint-bleed effect.
FC Bayern Munich
The iconic FC Bayern Munich red jersey was reimagined with acrylic paint, inspired by a classic Bayern jersey worn from 1991 to 1993.
Juventus
Modeled by Italian player Sara Gama, a defender for Juventus, this eye-popping pink jersey features cool tie-dye effects and handmade logos across the front.
Manchester United
Modeled by US national team forward and new Manchester United player Christen Press, the icy Manchester United jersey was inspired by the club's "snowflake" away jerseys from 1990 to 1992, incorporating "a design born out of the city's house era of the late '80s."
Buy the Manchester United Human Race Jersey ($100) from Adidas.
Real Madrid
Modeled by Swedish national team member Sofia Jakobsson, who also plays for Real Madrid, this jersey features a smoky dragon silhouette created with a hand-drawn water technique.
Romance FC
Romance FC, a women's and nonbinary club based in London, are now sporting jerseys inspired by Adidas jerseys worn by Holland in 1988 and Germany in 1990. "We took the design into a new territory by creating it in this looser and fluid way, then created it in a unique colour for Romance FC, playing with dark colours predominantly and accents in floor to give it a sporty and performance feel that is equally at home on the street," Adidas design director Inigo Turner said, according to the club's website. As Romance FC pointed out, "Who says you can't play with the big guys even though your league is local and intermediate?"