The Secret to Umbro’s Rebrand? Pure Experimentation
No sportswear brand is doing it like Umbro. The British heritage label is on a tear, reinventing its sportswear heritage through inventive means.
But it hasn't done this all by itself, it's with the help of thoughtfully selected collaborators. The most recent being the Tokyo-based fashion brand beautiful people.
A high-end label known for its shrewd choices of textiles and deconstruction of everyday clothing, beautiful people has infused its expertise with the sporty DNA of Umbro.
Take, for example, the quintessential Umbro tracksuit. Once meddled with by beautiful people, this classic piece of warm-up gear becomes a shape-shifting piece of deconstructionism.
The jacket transforms from a high-necked, hooded track jacket into an oversized coaches jacket when reversed and turned upside down. Meanwhile, the pants can be unzipped, reconfigured, and frankensteined back together with an extended crotch or an upside-down pocket at the heel.
It’s basically a tracksuit within a tracksuit, able to change form at your choosing. The same can be said for Umbro and beautiful people’s double-ended tank top: Two styles of sleeveless tops stitched together at the bottom and designed to be layered atop each other.
There is also some old-school football clobber in the mix (this is Umbro, after all), but as you might’ve expected by now, it’s anything but conventional. Thanks to beautiful people, a classic polo-shirted Umbro football jersey has become a delicately see-through piece of knitwear.
Now, it’s not that Umbro is the first brand to turn football jerseys into knitwear (this has actually become a bit of a trend), it’s the finesse of this top that’s noteworthy: The toying with different knits, the reserved colorways, and its sheer fabrication.
At a time when fashionable football shirts have become commonplace, I can’t recall another one with a construction quite like this. And I certainly can’t recall any form-shifting tracksuits like those from Umbro and beautiful people.
Umbro is making a bit of a habit of this: Transforming sporting garb through never-seen-before experimentation. I mean, who else is creating football jerseys out of chainmail?
Many of the weirdest, genre-bending Umbro designs (like balaclava-wielding jackets or jester-inspired hats) have come courtesy of its Slam Jam partnership. The Italian company has almost single-handedly made Umbro cool again.
Slam Jam has changed perceptions around Umbro, given it a fashionable relevance not seen since its street culture heyday in the '90s. Now, beautiful people is building on that, one abnormal tracksuit at a time.
