Ahead of the Champions League group-stage draw, Adidas unveiled the new match ball and it looks like they pulled it off the roof of a primary school.
Adding a strange twist to this year’s design: word scribbles.
Adidas is letting fans create and submit third kit designs for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Flamengo, Juventus, Milan, and Man United. Anytime you ask people on the internet to design something and then publish the results on your site, you’re asking for trouble and this is no different. Man United’s template seems to be getting the most prank submissions, with dozens of Harambe designs in the gallery (a few of them pictured above), but there are so many more — including one featuring a picture of a guy’s ballsack (which is definitely not pictured here). A sampling…
This season is the first under Man United’s record kit deal with Adidas. It’s also their worst in the Premier League era. Louis van Gaal’s tactics have sucked the joy out of the team’s play and goals scarce that one of the most popular chants at Old Trafford this season has been “We’re Man United, we want to attack!”
Adidas has released the new platinum Messi 15s to mark Leo’s fifth Ballon d’Or win. Platinum because “gold is for winners, platinum is for the greatest.” Perhaps a reference to the special “rare gold” Mercurials that Nike made for Cristiano Ronaldo after he won his third Ballon d’Or last year?
Everyone not named Louis van Gaal is unhappy with Manchester United’s style of play and that includes Adidas, who began a record £750 million deal this season to be the club’s kitmaker. They’ve got absolutely no problem with the sweet, sweet cash they’re generating together, though.
To match the size of their record deal with new kitmaker Adidas, Manchester United will offer XXXXL shirts next season. Their shirts for the 2014/15 season, the last made by Nike, were only available to more rotund fans up to size XXXL. But thanks to Adidas, supporters can now spend the summer keeping hydrated exclusively by drinking melted ice cream and still fit into a top originally intended to be worn by a world-class athlete.
Both Nike and Adidas have released new footwear made to represent, be promoted by, and cover the toes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, respectively. This is an event that seems to happen every other week, but this time, both releases appear to be efforts to reinforce the most simplistic and problematic perceptions of the two biggest names in football.
Normally the one-off cup final match balls are boring variations of the design that’s been used throughout the tournament, but for this year’s Champions League final in Berlin, Adidas decided to add ferocious multicolored bears.
Adidas has launched a new campaign entitled “There Will Be Haters” starring Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Karim Benzema and Luis Suarez to promote their new collection of boots. Suarez’s inclusion is notable since he is the only non-Real Madrid player of the bunch and the company pulled ads featuring him after he bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during last summer’s World Cup.
