Atletico Madrid Unveil Special Nike 120th Anniversary Kit
If not for those three Basque students that got inspired by their childhood club Copa del Rey win in 1903, there is no Atletico Madrid today. And in acknowledgement of the club’s foundation and history, Atletico Madrid and technical partner Nike unveil a special 120th anniversary kit set to be worn against Mallorca this Wednesday, April 26. While the Los Colchoneros are now associated with wearing striped shirts in red and white, this had not been the case for the first few teams of Madrid’s another prominent football club. Such is the inspiration for the look of this special Nike kit release.
So for their 120th anniversary shirt from Nike, Atletico Madrid takes a timeout from their usual red and white striped look and presents a kit with a straight-up half-and-half design in blue and white. The blue shade also occupies the sleeves while white colours the sleeve cuffs and round collar. The design symbolises the club’s origin story, as one glance of Atletico’s throwback pic from their early years would suggest. Aside from that, doing a before-and-after also displays the evolution of football shirts in general. Gone are the days when shirts had polo collars and loose-fitting profiles.
Whether the reason for the blue-and-white kits was Blackburn Rover-inspired or simply adopted the colours of the Biscayan team that partnered with the three student founders, the Atletico Madrid Nike anniversary kit states one fact, and that is that the club continues to be relevant in domestic, regional and even global football.
Based in Basingstoke, England. Chester is Senior Editor at Football Shirts, a Manchester United fan, Chester works freelance at a variety of print magazines after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Sunderland University.
