The football merchandising scene has turned into a slew of kit releases, special collections, fashion crossovers, off-field apparel drops and basically everything in between.
Leveraging the financial potential of the game is a lucrative prospect, one that sportswear brands are utilizing to the max these days.
While this does mean that fans get regular offerings of club-centric apparel, the quality of these releases is usually all over the place.
An outlier to this trend has been North London outfit Arsenal, who along with sponsors Adidas, have set a high standard for their merch drops.
Even when the Gunners were toiling away in uncertainty and poor-league finishes, their apparel releases remained top-notch, and naturally, that has been the case for the ongoing season as well.
Adidas and Arsenal have already released an exquisite Jamaican-inspired pre-match top and the classy all-white kit for their ‘No more Red’ campaign this year, and these are on top of the Gunners’ home, away and third strips.
To keep the merch-train chugging, the dynamic duo have returned with another special collection, with the focus on this occasion being on La Republique itself: France.
When you think Arsenal, you think Theirry Henry, Arsene Wenger, Patrick Viera, Robert Pires, Emmanuel Petit and the numerous other iconic Frecnhmen that donned the famous Red and White.
The French revolution at Highbury changed the face of the English Game, in came Wenger with a dash of Football science and dietary discipline, he recruited names loaded with flair in Henry, Petit, Pires and Viera, and he paired them with European talents with similarly tricky feet.
The result was a decade of scintillating football, the ethos of which now stemmed deep within the core principles of the Football club.
And of course, the famed period also saw them pick an honour that is beyond imitation, the honour of being ‘Invincibles’.
2023 marks 20 years of that iconic run, and to commemorate the Frenchmen at the forefront of the ‘Invincibles’, Arsenal have teamed up with Adidas to drop a stunning collection featuring numerous odes to the nation.
Composed of a tracksuit, jacket, hoodie and a t-shirt, the entire collection bears a navy blue base, borrowed straight from Les Bleus, alongside golden accents for added grandeur.
The standard round-neck t-shirt, as spotted on the newly signed Jorginho, features the Tricolore (colours of the French flag) running along the sleeves and filling in for Adidas’ signature three-stripes.
The sponsor logos are dipped in gold, while the club crest is present with a golden outline.
These primary design features can be found all across the collection, and their elegance really lies in the simplicity of what’s on display.
Like a Frenchman in Arsenal colours, there’s a certain je ne sais quoi at play here, it’s special, it’s unique, and it just fits.
Overall, the collection gets top marks from us, and if it has caught your intrigue as well, the apparel can be purchased through Arsenal’s website.
