The latest from Manchester City in Sierra Leone.
Manchester City have been making inroads into Sierra Leone, a country that is the twelfth-lowest-ranked country on the Human Development Index and eighth-lowest on the Human Poverty Index. City have established a network of supporters groups in the country, and have been working with Umbro to give much-needed soccer equipment to many of these impoverished people.
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.
Kim Jones is a British menswear designer, who graduated from Central St Martins and quickly developed a cult following for his fresh and innovative designs.
Alongside his own collections, Kim Jones designs a range of innovative casual clothing and trainers for the high profile sportswear brand, Umbro. The Umbro and Kim Jones collaboration is widely hailed as a major success by retailers and customers alike. The Umbro Kim Jones trainers and casual footwear have a unique quality that is both aesthetically and practically appealing… And the World Cup collection, which includes shirts, hoodies, casual pants, tees and sweats has a clean and attractive nostalgic feel.