Generations come and go, but you just have to close your eyes to find yourself on a green pitch with a thousand lights all around you, the ball on your foot and the goal wide open in front of you. Then that joyful mad rush, the billowing net.
Always wearing that second skin, a colour filled with hope. A far-reaching passion that unites Italy like nothing else. Fans of fierce opposing teams in the Italian league, clinging to the same flag. Sound like a cliché, but it’s always been like that. Football’s changed. But the Italian shirt is still the same. That blue, embodying a sense of belonging, identity and the spirit of a fearless, creative country, is still the same. A country that always somehow manages to rise up from its ashes, even when everything seems impossible.
Why Does Italy Wear Blue?
A story spanning over 110 years, during which the Italian shirt has meant a great deal also to Italians all over the world.
A long, blue trail that knows no boundaries where supporting Italy is concerned. The smell of home, of Sunday lunches, of kids’ games on dusty fields with stones for goalposts. Horns sounding in the streets and red, white and green flags at the windows. So why then are Italian players called the “Azzurri”? Why isn’t the shirt in the flag’s three colours?
The History of Italy’s National Jersey
The reasons are rooted in history. To understand this we have to take a step backwards, to Italy’s first match with the blue shirt in 1911, after the debut in white, which was then to feature on the away strip.
There is no single version as to the reasons for the choice of colour. Some say that it was a homage to France, others that it all simply sprung from a practical need, that of making the players fully visible during a match in Milan, with snow around the pitch.
The most likely version is however that the blue is seen as a homage to the House of Savoy that reigned in Italy at that time. The fabric band over the noble shield, red with a white cross, was in fact blue. The cloth was a symbol of devotion to the cloak of the Virgin Mary, one of the distinguishing features of the dynasty. So, blue shirt with red shield with white cross.
The Azzurri: Italy Football Colours
So many stories, so many champions, so many events in Italy linked to the colour blue. A shirt which, on closer inspection against the light, contains every mood from over a century of life in Italy. Fascinating blue fragments that bring together different generations and histories. But, why are Italy called the Azzurri?
Times of desperation and others of rebirth. From the triumphs of the thirties, to the disappointments of the fifties. The 1966 nightmare of Korea and then on to the European triumph in 1968, a year of radical change, with the Olimpico stadium lit up by torches, the match of the century in 1970 in Mexico against Germany, the fresh slump in 1974 and then the team that raised hopes first in Argentina and later in Spain, with the 1982 win. The start of the golden double decade of Italian football, when the blue shirt was an expression of the best league in the world, with the magical nights of the nineties right in the middle.
The 2006 World Cup win was the last, brilliant thriller from an incredible generation. Then years of ups and downs, culminating with the final, unexpected and therefore even better win in the 2020 Euro championship.
adidas, a New Era
The time for a new era is already here and adidas has truly shaped the new Italian national team shirt. A team that are heirs to a glorious past that they launch into the future. Revolutionary concepts for a team and a country that have never been ordinary.
A long and complex process, which most likely has never been seen for a football shirt before. A design that speaks to everyone: from older Italy fans, their eyes filled with so many wins, to the new fans, even those who've never seen Italy take on a leading role in the World Cup.
The Italy of football is a combination of many things. Bygone flavours, bread and wine, defence and counterattack, greatness and hope. The highest heights – including the top of the world four times over – and the depths. Exactly like a country capable of keeping tradition and modernity together, a remote past and a dazzling leap towards the future.
Who better than adidas to take up the challenge? The brand for which “Impossible is Nothing”, the brand that encapsulates the history of modern sport. Both historic and state of the art, able to bring together elements of sophisticated minimalist design and modern technologies.
A perfect marriage. The name adidas recalls the essence of sport at its purest. The name Italy recalls football, a product of tradition from one of the all-time most iconic and winning national teams. One of the great homes of football.
The New Italian Football Jersey
The strip to be worn by Italy with renewed pride from 2023 is already the subject of great interest and great expectations. What will the new Italian strip be like? Will it be the traditional blue shirt with white shorts and blue socks?
Or will it be an all-blue look, like in Berlin in 2006? Will the shirt be dark and stylish or slightly lighter? What will the crest be like? Will the stars of the four World Cup wins also make an appearance? A lot of people see it as an opportunity for change, a promise of success of the new generations, in life and in football, in miniature.
It’s often been said that a football match is a lifetime condensed into 90 minutes. This is exactly right. It forms the basis of its timeless appeal. In the same way that the national shirt is the essence of a country transfused into its textile fibres. Distilled drop by drop and transferred into the design features and colours.
Made in Italy creativity
The adidas designers asked themselves about the true Italian DNA. The incredible variety of landscapes, obviously, which cover the nation - from snowy peaks to the bluest waters of an almost unrivalled sea.
However there’s something that unites the country, from north to south, even more: marble. An unexpected and remarkably interesting answer. What’s more visible in Italy than marble? From dazzling, light-filled Sicilian palazzos to the Renaissance cities and the splendour of Piazza San Marco in Venice or the Duomo in Milan.
An uninterrupted common denominator that brings together epochs and latitudes, from ancient Rome to modern metropolises. But there’s more. Marble symbolises talent, but also strength and beauty that survive for centuries. It’s art. In essence, everything that has always been a part of Italy.
To develop this concept, the adidas designers used real slabs of marble. They worked it and put it to the test, and went deep. An artisan quest, like that embodied in Renaissance workshops. It’s unlikely that any football shirt has ever been the product of such painstaking work, a far cry from “industrial”, bordering on pure art. It produced totally new and highly sophisticated graphic motifs. An almost textural choice for a consistency that appears as if it can be touched and felt. A work that comes from the talent of skilful hands, a mixture of creativity and ingenuity.
The colours of Italy Home Kit
The Italian national team will be guardians of age-old traditions and history, yet at the same time projected into the future. With the iconic blue of the home shirt, together with the tricolour details, the new adidas national shirt is wholly focused on sustainability.
Yarns of recyclable polyester make for a potentially infinite lifespan. Fibres and fabrics which, instead of ending up in landfill, will go on to make other garments, telling stories of sweat, sacrifice, successes and new cups raised to the sky.
Another real gem is the font used for the lettering and shirt numbers, including that on the outside of the collar, inspired by Roman road engravings. All that’s left is to wear it, in front of the TV cameras, on the terraces or on the pitch, to dream again of new pursuits that will go down in history.
Italy Away Kit
The away shirt also feeds off tradition to launch itself into the future. The off-white colourway is in fact a marble white with an essence of football of years gone by and the dust raised by boots.
And a draw to the past – Italy’s debut match in May 1910 saw the Italian players dressed in white.
The new shirt encapsulates all the industry’s cutting-edge features and technologies, offering top performance and comfort to the Azzurri on the pitch. History and the future come together against the skin once more. The essence of adidas, the Italian DNA.