The Archive Research Project (A.R.P.) is a groundbreaking collaboration between Umbro and award-winning designer Aitor Throup. It is set out to utilise Umbro’s rich heritage and archive to offer up something very modern through research and design.

Aitor Throup famous for designing for Stone Island and C.P Company, debuts his archive project collaboration with Umbro.

“ARP is based on encapsulating all of the football specific performance construction studies we have done. We have extensive research in terms of the archive and heritage, but more importantly we wanted to define a new, football-specific, language of design,” says Throup.

“We started with maybe 10 or 11 iconic pieces and have filtered it down to six” he says. “Some of the archive you couldn’t not choose, the Aztec was worn by the England team in 1966 and the Alf Ramsay jacket, which he wore in that era, is iconic by definition”. As well as being chosen for their status, Throup also selected a number of pieces that connected with him in a more personal way. “The drill top was integral to the 90s, with that triangular insert neckline, everyone wore them. And the Barcelona short is important to me, as its the short I have played football in for years,” he says.