rated excellent on trust pilot | worldwide shipping | pay in 4
rated excellent on trust pilot | worldwide shipping | pay in 4
by Phil Delves February 28, 2022 3 min read
If you like football shirts, it’s important to have a global perspective.
One of the great joys of the past few years has been the rise in both visibility and interest when it comes to kits from outside of Europe. Platforms like Twitter were relatively quiet on the shirt front not so long ago, but now (if you follow the right people!) you can very easily keep up to date with the weird and wonderful world of kits with a truly global perspective.
That Fluminense 3rd shirt looking as good on the pitch as it will on you 🟢🟠
— Football Shirt Collective (@thefootballsc) April 13, 2021
🛒https://t.co/u4hAEfvbwI pic.twitter.com/haLHzhhBjx
Many of the best designs each year hail from South America, or more specifically Brazil. Brazilian club sides are no strangers to most of us, and even the names of teams like Flamengo, Cruzeiro and Grêmio will no doubt conjure up glorious images in your mind of dazzling kits and legendary players.
One such team, Fluminense, are famous for their distinctive colour scheme of garnet, white and green. I look forward to the team’s shirts every season, and in 2020 their third shirt is easily a contender for kit of the year.
The third shirt doesn’t boast the familiarity of the team’s iconic colour scheme, but instead Umbro have introduced a simply beautiful teal and tangerine colourway. I don’t remember ever seeing a shirt with this particular combination, but I’ve been completely obsessed with the look since its release.
This shirt is much more than just a fresh lick of paint though. The design is part of a wider collection of shirts from Umbro which play to the brand’s strengths. Well crafted details can be found in abundance, including a gorgeous subliminal pattern made up of diamonds and some lovingly crafted cuffs which feature club specific detailing alongside Umbro’s logo.
A simplified variation of the Fluminense crest works beautifully as a plastic application, and if you look further down the kit an additional patch can be found signifying “125 years of football” in Brazil.
The 2020 Fluminense third shirt was one of my favourites across all teams last season. BNWT and just £40 in the sale, sizes S,M,XL and XXL available.
— Phil Delves (@phildelves) August 6, 2021
👉🏽 https://t.co/PJ91E7Ijvv pic.twitter.com/ymFuk9V2Gj
Umbro have been consistently brilliant in Brazil, and the effort that goes into their designs in the country far exceeds what you often see from other major brands. If anything, I wish we saw more of the sauce Brazilian clubs seem to get over in Europe, as we’re missing out big time.
You can pick-up your own Fluminense 3rd shirt on our marketplace, shipped first class from the UK. Order here.
What makes a football shirt good? It’s a purely subjective question, right?
Whilst there are indeed a lot of subjective elements when it comes to shirts, there are still factors to consider. Sometimes, a design is notable for its unique aesthetic. The colourway, pattern or construction may have gone where no shirt dared to go before it, or it might simply be a particularly good utilisation of a classic approach. Other times, a legendary player elevates a design to immortality, even if the design in question would’ve been hard to pick out of a crowd before.
Our series FSC Approved will be a lovingly curated list of shirts that deserve to be in the conversation as good, possibly even great football shirts, no matter who you support or what your taste in shirts is. Old classics, new contenders, if it’s FSC Approved it’s as close to a certified banger as you can get.
As Head of Content, Phil is the creative playmaker of the team, covering every angle of football shirt news in our blogs and weekly Newsletter. Whether it's telling your fakes from your authentics, or deep dives into the newest football shirts designs, Phil will have all your football shirt content needs covered.
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