Milan: Italy’s jewel, fashion capital of the world, and home to Calcio royalty AC Milan. Basically, a dream combination for those tasked with designing their kits.
When both, the resident city and the club itself, have a such rich history and lineage to draw inspiration from, the resulting kits often turn out to be absolute beauties.
Of course, the club’s traditionally stylish blend of Red and Black helps nail down the vision for the primary kit, but what if there was an alternate route there for the taking?
By alternate, we don’t mean the increasingly colourful designs their sponsors Puma have been coming up with for the secondary and third kits. But instead, a more unorthodox rendition of the Rossoneri’s home kit.
Fortunately, we were saved the trouble of racking our brains and visualizing an alternate look, and it’s all thanks to a concept kit creator who goes by mrc__design on Instagram.
Their vision for an off-beat Milan kit actually lines up with a proper industry trend: Blackout kits.
As the name suggests, the core idea is for a blacked-out look – black base, dark accents, greyed-out logos, and a ‘stealth’ vibe all around.
The design trend has been utilized by kit-makers for many of Europe’s top clubs, Puma themselves released a special blackout kit for German outfit Borussia Dortmund just a few days ago.
This makes it all the more surprising that Milan hasn’t had a proper blackout kit yet, with the closest attempt being the third kit from the 2021/22 season, but even it featured splashes of red through the middle.
The concept we’re focusing on today goes all-in with the idea and presents a proper look at a blacked-out version of the AC Milan kit.
As seen below, the creator seems to be using Rossoneri’s current home kit as the base template for the design.
To achieve a blackout look, the kit has been doused in black and a charcoal-grey shade, with almost silver-coloured accents used at the back.
Milan’s signature stripes alternate between black and grey here, with the various logos being a more luminescent grey colour.
The player name and number, as situated on the back of the kit, are also present in a colour not unlike the one used for the logos.
Overall, the kit ticks all the boxes for a blackout-themed look, and it certainly radiates the aforementioned ‘stealth vibe’.
While we may not see Puma attempt such a design with Milan’s kit anytime soon, this concept provides a pretty solid early look.
