From Shevchenko’s No 7 to Napoli’s kit: Armani’s impact on football 🤵 | OneFootball

The fashion designer Giorgio Armani has died at the age of 91. One of the most well-known Italians in the world, he revolutionized men's fashion starting in the 1980s.

However, Armani was not just one of the most iconic names in Italian and global fashion: he profoundly influenced the world of football, redefining its image, its relationship with elegance, and the value of branding.

The Image of Footballers

Giorgio Armani began to have contact with the world of football during the 2000s when his brand started to manage the image of several players off the field.

Champions like David Beckham, Kaká, and Cristiano Ronaldo, even if not always tied to the fashion house, began to embody the ideal of an elegant, well-groomed, and modern man promoted by the designer through his clothes.

In short, he was the first to see the potential of footballers as true style icons, capable of setting trends, lifestyles, and attitudes.

Entering Sports... and Sheva

Having realized the potential of sports, in 2004 Armani created the EA7 line within his company to offer sports clothing and accessories. The first major springboard was actually basketball, with the purchase of Olimpia Milano.

Yet, the name chosen for the line, according to some rumors, has to do with the round ball: the designer allegedly admitted it was a tribute to a player who wore the number 7 jersey for Milan at that time: a certain Andriy Shevchenko, with whom the designer shared a strong friendship.

So much so that Shevchenko met his future wife at a party organized by Armani himself.

Elegance Azzurra

Through EA7, Giorgio Armani was part of the triumph of the Azzurri at the 2020 European Championship: starting from the tournament held in 2021, the fashion house produced the formal uniforms worn by the Azzurri during the victorious campaign crowned by the triumph at Wembley.

The uniform was a tribute to Enzo Bearzot, with a light blue jacket with a mandarin collar and soft black trousers, perfect for exporting the elegant and spontaneous image of Italian fashion abroad.

Armani would later open similar collaborations, such as the one with Juventus, which began in 2022, with the fashion house being named the official supplier of formal suits for the men's and women's first teams.

The Napoli Jersey

Surely the most famous collaboration related to the world of football for Armani's fashion brand is the one with Napoli, for which EA7 has been the technical sponsor since the 2021/22 season.

A jersey that Armani has managed to transform over the years, making it increasingly elegant and helping to further blur the line between the world of fashion and sports.

No longer just technical clothing, but objects of worship and urban identity: a transformation that we see increasingly taking hold and of which Giorgio Armani was one of the absolute protagonists.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Christopher Lee - 2006 Getty Images