Modern football has given more and more space to unusual football jersey designs. While back in the day the teams were wearing opposing colours for the people watching on tv to be able to tell them apart, now it’s all a show off competition. Let’s discover AC Milan’s latest kit in collaboration with Off-White!
The tale of four jerseys
When football first rose to fame, every team had two jerseys. AC Milan, for the games on their own stadium, used to sport their iconic red and black vertical stripes. The away kit was a clean white with some black and red accents that became a symbol following their success in european competitions while wearing it.
In modern football the situation has evolved with more teams adhering to both national competitions and european ones. These teams came with their own colours, usually inspired by the team’s crest. Such multitude but also other factors like weather conditions, created the need for a third kit. The purpose of this was to solve any situation in which the other two options would still clash from a colour-way point of view. A good example would be AC Milan playing Nice (red and black stripes) on a snowy field (white), which would prohibit them from wearing any of their home or away jerseys.
Still, bigger teams such as AC Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona and others close deals with different companies for even a fourth alternative kit of the season. This 24/25 season only we’ve seen multiple teams debut special jerseys. We’ve had Manchester City and Oasis reunite for a fourth kit, Coldplay and Barcelona uniting for a special El Clasico shirt and, of course, AC Milan and Off-White collaborating on a fourth jersey for the Milanese team as well.
Welcome to dreamland
The concept behind the AC Milan fourth kit is dreaming. Off-White, the Milan-based brand found by Virgil Abloh, came up with this idea by referencing the year 1963. It is a significant moment in time that ties the collaboration to dreams for a couple of reasons.
In 1963, Cesare Maldini was raising the club’s first Champions League cup to the sky, wearing red and black colours. Ever since, AC Milan has proved no dream is big enough if you are passionate about it. The second major event of 1963 is Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. This is a direct tie to shared values of AC Milan, Off-White and Puma such as justice and equality.
Not only this, but the collaboration was released in February, in concordance with the Black History Month. The kit comes in two colour-ways inspired by the panafrican flag. This is a huge statement in regard to black excellence. It is a big awareness step that all the brands involved are taking, in a time when topics such as racism and violence still find their way inside the stadium and on social media.
Common DNA
Off-White became the official style and culture curator partner of AC Milan back in 2022. It was a really big milestone for the club that was riding a wave of excitement right after winning their first Scudetto in 11 years. The new-found partnership meant players and staff would be dressed by Off-White in their pre-game pitch walk and interviews. But that also meant aligning the values of AC Milan and Puma with the ones of Off-White.
Soon enough, the first capsule collection signed AC Milan x Off-White was made available for the fans to enjoy. The collection included a varsity jacket, the star of the show, hoodies and caps. Then, the two partnered again for a collection celebrating the 125 years of AC Milan history, back in December 2024.
It was only a matter of time until Off-White, Puma and AC Milan would hop on the journey of creating a jersey as well. There already were some speculations last spring, but the delicate period that the club was going through made for postponing the operation. And this February, the project finally took flight and fans got their hands on the long-awaited 4th kit of the season.
Polarising fans
While the majority of the AC Milan supporters welcomed the addition with open arms, more hard-core fans expressed their concerns against the initiative. Just this weekend, during yet another embarrassing display from the team, the stadium booed the team and the jersey for its resemblance to Portugal’s national team kit.
Despite that, the numbers say that the collaboration was a success. Off-White’s first football kit went on to be sold out in under a month since its release. Not only this, but apparently the display on Sunday upped the sales. Data regarding the fans that bought the jersey says that 70% of the buyers are in their 20s while 75% of the sales come from outside Italy.
This data is a testimony to the power of marketing and the work that AC Milan’s team is putting into communicating with their fans through social media. There is no secret that nowadays the younger generations use social channels to stay informed, so building a connection through Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and others is the way to get access to the younger fanbase.
Not only this, but such a successful collaboration is justifying the fact that more and more brands are fighting to bring their visions to the football pitch. We’ve seen a bunch of high end maisons trying to penetrate the football industry. Off-White is just an example, but there are also the likes of Dior (backed by PSG), Louis Vuitton (partnering with Real Madrid) and Moncler (Inter’s partner).
In our ever-changing modern world, the intertwined relationship between fashion and sports is growing stronger and stronger. This is a speech that could be applied to lots of other teams and their partners, but also completely other sports as well, such as tennis and Formula 1.
Featured image: AC Milan.
