For those not ITK, Kappa, the famed Italian sportswear label, is the greatest when it comes to designing football kits.
Whether we’re discussing the early nineties Italian national team, football’s most fashionable club, Venezia FC, or everyone’s now-favorite Greek side, Athens Kallithea, it's all bonafide proof that Kappa knows its onions when it comes to remarkably good jerseys.
Now, though, as we approach the midway point of the 2023/24 campaign, Kappa has added another on-pitch masterpiece to its ever-growing arsenal of them. It's canvas? Spanish second division side Real Valladolid.
The kits in question, which come equipped with a beautifully-shot lookbook (as has become customary for every stellar Kappa release nowadays), is a play on Valladolid's signature purple and white: the home stripes and the slightly darker, more decorated away kit.
Typically, Valladolid's new strips have everything we’ve come to expect of a Kappa kit: a retro collar, minimalist branding, and nostalgic takes on traditional colorways.
This, though, is just the latest in a deluge of outstanding on-pitch kits to have come off of the Kappa conveyor belt in recent years. Kit that could conceivably be worn away from the sports, as much as they could while watching or playing it.
Perhaps most famous are Kappa’s Venezia jerseys, which began rolling out in 2021 with the help of German graphic design studio Bureau Borsche.
Venezia, who were at the time in the Italian first division but have since been relegated, became renowned as being one of football’s most fashionable clubs such was the popularity of their kits, which have been equally as impressive in the proceeding seasons.
Then there’s Athens Kallithea, a similar story with a similar line-up. Purchased by the creative minds behind the Venezia uprising, Athens Kallithea too garnered a cult-like overseas fanbase following its takeover in 2021 for its style-savvy looks which sold-out instantaneously following their release.
That, though, isn’t all: There’s Lack of Guidance for Red Star FC x Kappa; Drôle de Monsieur for AS Monaco x Kappa; and that’s before even mentioning Kappa’s hugely extensive archive that features stalwarts like AC Milan 1989, Barcelona 1997, and virtually every skin-tight Italian national jersey in the early 2000s.
Put simply, Kappa reigns supreme when it comes to designing kits. That being said, its more recent jerseys – the fashionable, street-ready ones – are most certainly some of its best ever.
We're all Valladolid fans now, aren't we?
