PUMA Sudamerica Collection

[aldola18]

Puma consistently produces beautiful and unique kits for their African national teams that pull from the colorful and rich cultures of those nations. You can see this with their kits for Ivory Coast, Senegal, Ghana, and others over the years (the most recent iterations of these teams are below). 

 

Ivory Coast: https://footballfashion.org/wordpress/2020/10/06/ivory-coast-2020-21-puma-home-and-away-jerseys/

Senegal: https://footballfashion.org/wordpress/2020/10/06/senegal-2020-21-puma-home-and-away-kits/

Ghana: https://footballfashion.org/wordpress/2020/10/05/ghana-2020-21-puma-home-and-away-kits/

 

I wanted to do something similar for another region of the world where unique and vibrant cultures coincide with a love for soccer, South America. I'll be creating kits for each of the 10 CONMEBOL (South American national team federation) teams using their classic looks, but upgraded with cultural and national imagery in the style of Puma's African kits.

 

C&C is welcome as I have some doubts over how well I captured this theme for some of the teams.

 

First up is Argentina:

 

While Argentina has used white shorts with their classic sky blue and white striped tops in recent years, I've opted to revert back to black shorts as they used for most of their history. A sublimated 'Sun of May' motif is used within the white vertical stripes of the shirt. The 'Sun of May' sits centrally in the flag of Argentina and refers to the May Revolution of 1810, which marked the beginning of the independence from the Spanish Empire. 

 

The away kit is a customary dark blue with a sublimated abstraction of a man and woman dancing the tango, the world-renowned national dance of Argentina. 

 

[johnrafael]

While you have a point, I honestly feel it lacks in PUMA-ness. It doesn't have that feeling of cutting-edge technology that Puma use in their works. This plain jersey, with no cuts and this simple collar, reminds me a lot more Nike catalog options than Puma, whose jerseys barely have collars.

 

Concept itself was nicely thought, but could be more developed. The half sun pattern makes me remind too much of 2018 jersey, the feeling of small chevrons running down the jersey is too strong for me.

 

Minor complaints: Puma logos are too big. Arial makes your presentation look shi**y. National team jerseys require numbers on front.

[aldola18]

Thanks JohnnyRfl, appreciate the feedback. Agreed on the lack of Puma-ness. I think a lot of it is the template I'm working with, but I've attempted to make it a little less plain by adding a side panel cut and the shoulder yoke used on their most recent template, which I think helps. 

 

I couldn't make the half sun pattern work in a way that I was satisfied after a few attempts so I switched the approach and used a sublimated Sun of May image in the top right and bottom left corners. 

 

I also reduced the Puma logo and added a logo to the arm. Admittedly, I have very little interest in typology so I tend to overlook it and go simple, hence the poor choice in Arial. I've updated to a different look, but likely won't spend any more time on it. For this reason, I also avoided numbers on the front (since a typology would be needed), but I've noticed a lot of national team kits are 'released' without numbers despite their in-game use.

 

[aldola18]

Question for anyone who wanders by: what's the best method to post images? It seems entering a link to Imgur no longer works.

[jaytavo305]

Interested to see what you got here, I love the idea. I'm not sure the best way to upload an image but I hope somebody can help and we can see your designs!

[johnrafael]

Seems the image was deleted from the album. I'd suggest you to try a different uploader, like postimages.org. DeviantArt or Flickr are good too.

[aldola18]

 

[aldola18]

Bolivia  - The home kit utilizes a sublimated wing pattern of the Andean condor, the national bird of Bolivia. The away kit incorporates the rainbow colored square emblem of the Wiphala, which is commonly used as a flag to represent the native peoples of the Andes

 

[aldola18]

Brazil - The home kit has a sublimated feather pattern in the shoulder panels, a reference to the feathered dress and masks of samba dancers during Carnival. The away kit incorporates a cosmic design highlighted by the Southern Cross constellation seen in the central blue disc of the Brazilian flag.

 

 

[aldola18]

Chile - The home kit has a floral pattern of the copihue, a bright red elongated tulip shaped flower that is the national flower of Chile. The away kit is an attempt at re-design of the current Nike away kit. Instead of the rectilinear and jagged patterns of the ancient Lautaro flag of the native Mapuche peoples, I've opted to highlight the eight-pointed star used centrally in the flag.

 

[jaytavo305]

Very good stuff so far. My favorite is Bolivia's away, and I love the attention to detail in all of them. Nice

[Guest darkpiranha]

Great looks, and fantastic presentation.  

[aldola18]

Thanks for the positive feedback.

 

Colombia - Both the home and away kits use a diamond-like pattern reminiscent of the colorful geometric patterns found in Colombian textiles while also mimicking the ruffles found in la pollera colora, a traditional dress worn in certain regions of Colombia.

 

[aldola18]

Ecuador - The home kit uses their classic tricolor ensemble of a yellow shirt, blue shorts, and red socks, with an additional element of tricolor utilized with the blue and red bands across the chest. These bands also contain geometric patterns found in the Otavalos Andean culture. The away kit is less inspired and uses a simple horizontal pinstripe pattern that gradients through the yellow, blue, red tricolor. I feel like this one is weaker than the others so I may revisit it.

 

[aldola18]

Paraguay - The home kit utilizes the red and white stripes of traditional Paraguayan kits, but introduces a blue ornamental element within the white stripes that is inspired by the very intricate Nanduti lacework of the Guarani. The Guarani being the native peoples of Paraguay, but who continue to heavily influence Paraguayan society as more than 90% of Paraguayans speak some dialect of Guarani. The away takes the blue, white, red, cross found on the Paraguayan emblem and centers it on the badge.

 

[aldola18]

Peru - Both the home and away kits use a vertical sublimated Incan textile pattern underlaying the traditional sash seen on Peruvian kits. The rectilinear shapes seen in Incan design inspire the rectilinear stepping on the underside of the sash and on the shirt cuffs.

 

[aldola18]

Uruguay - The home kit uses white horizontal stripes across the chest evoking the blue and white stripes of the national flag. The away kit is an attempt to evoke the attire of the Uruguayan gaucho, with alternate colored sleeves and triangular chest shape symbolizing the cowboy vest and kitschy neck scarf imagery with blue and white stripes.

 

[aldola18]

Venezuela - Lastly, for the Vinotinto ("wine-colored") I wanted to maintain their rich wine colored home kit with gold details while utilizing a sublimated v-shaped pattern that mimics the scales of the Orinoco crocodile, a reptile native to the Orinoco region of Venezuela. The away kit uses one of the enlarged v-shapes complimented by the red, blue, and yellow of the national flag. 

 

[vtgco]

I've waited a while to say it but these are really nice! I love what Puma has done for African teams, and these jerseys are on par with that.

 

The Bolivia Wiphala away, the Ecuador home, and the Brazil flag away are probably my favorites.

 

Not quite feeling the Venezuela away; it's got too many colors with the bright red added. I'd also rather see a full-on chevron rather than a pointy arrow.

 

Also for Uruguay's away, I don't really like the blue triangle underneath the scarf. You could also maybe make the shirt brown like the vest in the image.

 

Anyways, really good work here! I love to see nice locally-inspired designs instead of the templates.