Forget Jerseys — Its Time to Start Dressing Like Football Managers
There's more to Umbro's footballing archives than its maximalist, much-lauded retro football jerseys. It also has a lesser-known history of tailoring, made for the managers who call the shots on the sidelines.
Inspired by “the elegance of some of football’s most iconic managers,” the brand is recreating some iconic manager-wear together with Italian fashion label LC23. It's going back to the days when sidelines were filled exclusively with crisp suiting and shiny dress shoes.
This includes bringing back its beige-colored full-length coat, a throwback to the Umbro coats worn by Louis Van Gaal and his coaching team at Ajax during the ‘90s.
Crafted from fabric by Olmotex, a family-owned Italian mill, the double-breasted trench coat features a removable collar with handmade crochet detailing and is further decorated with embroidered Umbro branding.
The coat is an Italian-made piece of unequivocally high-end suiting. And that’s only the beginning of the Umbro x LC23 collection.
A 12-piece drop entirely made in Italy, the collaboration also comes with a matching suit made from fabric by Marzatto, another Italian textile manufacturer. Plus, there’s a tie and branded tie clip to complete the formal look (though the collection falls short of providing a matching crisp white shirt to go with it all).
Alongside all the tailoring, there are some more sporty player-inspired pieces. A patterned ‘90s-style away shirt is knitted entirely from cotton and a pair of Umbro sneakers, based on its Speciali football boot, comes with interchangeable tongues, including one with hand-crocheted detailing.
The full football-centric, craft-focused collection arrives on LC23’s website on April 10 at 16:00 CET, available in very limited quantities. And it’s yet more brilliantly reimagined football clobber to add further weight to Umbro’s growing coolness.
Fresh from celebrating its 100th birthday, this heritage label has launched back-to-back bangers in 2025. First came brilliantly bizarre chainmail football shirts, then shape-shifting deconstructed tracksuits, and now it’s moved on to Italian-made suits. Its football-inspired experimentations are rapidly multiplying.
