From technical object to cultural symbol, the football shirt continues to evolve far beyond the pitch. And adidas is proving it with Circle of Nations, the project that at the Brand Centers in Milan and Rome turns the launch of this year’s FIFA World Cup Away kits into a narrative woven from sport, design, and identity. Of them all, though, it is Italy’s jersey that immediately captures attention, because it manages to translate one of the most recognizable codes of our collective imagination into a new language, suspended between fashion and football: a vision that, while we wait for qualification, we hope to see worn on the pitch by the players very soon.
For this new away jersey, adidas looks to traditional Italian tailoring, drawing inspiration from the elegant tailored jackets the National Team wore during some of its most iconic celebratory moments. The result is a shirt that leaves behind the idea of a simple sports uniform and moves toward a more refined aesthetic, built through an all-over blue and white pattern that recalls the textures of tailored fabrics.
Strengthening this impression are the details: the sleeves, logos, and numbering are defined by navy blue and gold accents, while the collar features the “Italia” monogram, designed as if it were custom embroidery. It is a small yet decisive element, one that gives the jersey an almost intimate sense of belonging, turning it into something that speaks not only of performance, but also of identity and collective memory.
It is precisely from this symbolic dimension that the intervention by RESSENTIA begins, the Italian startup involved by adidas to reinterpret the Away kits through its proprietary fabric crystallization technique. In the case of Italy’s jersey, the shift from jersey to sculpture amplifies even further its connection to formal elegance: the fabric is shaped by hand and fixed into a light three-dimensional form, capable of preserving folds, tension, and movement as if the athletic gesture had been frozen in time.
Within the installation, the Italian jersey becomes much more than just a garment to wear. It turns into an object that brings together two traditions that are only apparently distant: on the one hand football, with all its emotional and popular weight, and on the other the tradition of Italian elegance in dressing, made of proportion, detail, and construction. It is in this overlap that the project finds its most interesting point.
Circle of Nations brings six different national identities into dialogue, but Italy’s jersey seems to have a particular ability to sit on the border between sporting heritage and fashion language. It does not rely on aggressive imagery or on a purely technical narrative; instead, it chooses the path of composition, texture, and cultural reference. In doing so, it gives football an unexpectedly sophisticated image.
After the installation experience, the jerseys return to their original form and become available for purchase inside the Brand Centers. But in Italy’s case, the transition works even better, because the whole operation seems built to reinforce the aesthetic value of the product itself. So it is not just a jersey to cheer for, but a piece that works on the national imagination through precise and immediately recognizable visual codes.
With this new away jersey, adidas is therefore trying to rewrite the idea of the Italian football kit, moving it toward a more refined territory, where the reference to tailoring becomes a style statement. And among patterns, embroidery, and historical references, Italy’s jersey ends up telling something that goes beyond the tournament: a distinctly Italian way of turning even sport into visual culture.
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