8 September saw Manchester United kit supplier Adidas roll out the launch campaign for the club’s black and white striped third kit led by an Instagram post by club icon David Beckham and followed up by further social content including a duo of offbeat videos.
Former Unted winger, Class Of 95 star and England skipper Beckham kicked off the campaign with an Instagram post.
“Love the new United shirt,” the 45-year-old wrote on Monday, with United responding on Twitter on Tuesday: “Thanks for the seal of approval, Becks — we’ll take it from here. Presenting our new @adidasfootball 2020/21 third shirt, out now.”
United then posted further tweets with players from its mens and women’s teams and models wearing the top accompanied by a set of slogans including ‘Ready to stand out’, ‘Earn your stripes’ and ‘Never ignored’.
Ready to stand out.
#ReadyForSport.Our new third shirt by @adidasfootball, on sale now: https://t.co/4xh5r5QfCh#MUFC pic.twitter.com/9hQHcBJMqf
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 8, 2020
The social posts and club imagery was followed by a pair of social films from UNIT9 and The Marketing Store and UNIT9 featuring a diverse line up of talent including the entertainer and social media star Harry Pinero, plus rappers Sam Wise, Aitch and Dutchavelli and DJ/Producer Cuppy.
The sportswear giant claims the hacked stripe shirt is intentionally divisive and the films both seek to reinforce this idea by demonstrating that ‘when you think differently, you get different results’.
The first film, with its choppy cuts and retro footage, is amplified across Adidas’ channels and is built around an exchange between the rappers Dutchavelli and Aitch standing next to a food truck as they discuss the idea behind the third shirt’s design with humour.
The second film follows a similar format and is fronted by entertainer, host and social content creator Pinero, with musicians Wise and Cuppy and ran on the artists’ personal social platforms.
“To bring this larger than life kit to the screen was a huge project especially whilst adapting to new COVID shooting rules. The first time I saw that mash up of zig zagging lightning bolts and stripes, I knew it would require something slightly surreal, with a unique on-screen language to launch it into the world,” said Director Tom Brown.
“Early on, we decided to lean into the adidas design ethos of taking heritage concepts, cutting them up and reassembling them with a new flavour. We made the line ‘hacked and modernised’ our mantra and the ‘remix’ style was echoed through everything from the whip pan dialogue to the camera movement and VFX.
The campaign was created for Manchester United Relationship Director Hayley McDaid and Adidas Director Sports Marketing Tom Braithwaite, Senior Comms Manager Ramy Camel-Toueg and Creative Shoot Producer Alex Plummer by a team at UNIT9 which included Executive Producer Andrew Davies, Producer Harry Starkey-Midha and Production Manager Eolande Diaz and a group at The Marketing Store led by Senior Account Director Mike Wolverton, Creative Director Steve Guilfoyle and Business Director Chris Bennett.
Comment:
Beckham may be as mainstream as it gets, but the talent in the short films adds to the deliberately divisive and think differently approach, look and feel and offers some fleet-footed comic back and forth creating the breakbeat rhythms which underpin each spot.
Loud, brash and bold, the kit has certainly caused quite a stir on social media with fans, as ever, quick to weigh in: some compared it to a prison uniform and others to a zebra.
The Adidas designers said the first team players reacted positively to the shirt, nut accept that some fans may find it ‘difficult’ to like. It is based on the various stripe patterns connected with United and Manchester throughout the years and is the result of a two-year process by Adidas product designers Inigo Turner and Chris Barnard.
Both Inigo and Chris are lifelong United fans admit that while Adidas don’t consult with players over future designs (partly due to the sport’s unpredictable transfer market), the designers revealed the reaction from the United squad was very positive overall.
The wavy black and white monochrome design is trimmed in red to link to the club’s identity and completes Adidas’ 20/21 season line-up for the Red Devils following the release of new home and away shirts.
Links:
Manchester United
http://www.facebook.com/manchesterunited
http://www.instagram.com/manchesterun…
Adidas
https://www.youtube.com/user/adidas
https://www.instagram.com/adidas/
UNIT9
The Marketing Store
https://themarketingstore.com/
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