Napoli have created this unique habit of releasing more than the basic three matchday kits over the last few years and appears to be going down that same road towards the start of the 2023/24 campaign too. This time, they appear to be trying to profit from the fascination around Halloween on October 31.
Halloween is not a recognized holiday in Italy but it is becoming more and more common for people to celebrate the occasion by dressing up in some cosplay attire or for the kids to go trick and treating.
Napoli’s shirt manufacturers EA 7 Emporio Armani are aware that a lot of Napoli fans in Italy, and around the world, would love to represent their club by wearing an alternate version of their kit which can match the ‘creepy’ vibe of Halloween.
They’ve already been obsessed with celebrating special occasions with kits, even releasing a Valentine’s Day kit, one for Christmas and one to commemorate Diego Maradona’s passing.
Napoli are also one of the few clubs in Europe to have ‘celebrated’ Halloween by releasing a unique jersey for that specific occasion in October in recent years. They’ve done the same by releasing a wicked ‘Halloween’ kit this time. It is a predominantly black jersey with black and grey design skulls printed all over the attire.
This interesting Halloween kit actually pays homage to the Fontanelle Cemetery, which has become an iconic site in the city of Naples.
The cemetery is a heritage site for the city and has been intact since the 16th century! Armani has decided to pay homage to this place by implementing the skulls into the kit as a homage to the macabre attraction of the cemetery.
The skulls are actually inspired by the ‘Stacked Skulls’ of the cemetery, where hundreds of skulls of victims of the Black Plague are stacked on top of each other in the place. This was done due to the lack of space in the cemetery when the Plague hit the city and bodies of the dead were sometimes thrown into the cemetery without a proper burial.
There is a weird devotion within some people when it comes to the skulls. Since the 1800s, local women have made it a tradition of cleaning these skulls and assigning them names to ‘assist’ their souls reach heaven. Wishes are often requested of these skulls by some women and this still exists to this day.
Armani has been able to pay homage to this heritage site of Naples by implementing these creepy-looking skulls to look ‘cool’ and ‘cold’ in their kit. The attire has a real goth vibe to it and has a similar ‘unique’ sense as the previous Halloween kit of 2021 had.
Judging by the reaction on Twitter, it seems even a lot of non-Napoli fans have fallen in love with this wacky kit and how brilliant it looks. With that being said, this kit isn’t exactly the cheapest one you’ll get either.
It has been given a starting price of €150, which is much higher than the 2023/24 home kit. Napoli are likely to debut this kit later this month, possibly in their upcoming Serie A game against Fiorentina at the weekend itself.
