
When clubs change social colours 'The jersey cannot be touched'
Football clubs do care a lot about brand recognition as they’re always looking to increase their fanbase around the world thanks to their immediate recognition. Jerseys are the perfect tool to do so because no matter how much they dare on shapes, dimensions of vertical and horizontal stripes, shades and nuances, neckbands, and details, the colors don’t change. They always stay the same, it’s how it is supposed to be because they are instantly recognizable. Or at least this what fans hope because sometimes clubs have decided to go against their own fanbase, and they transformed the club’s identity by changing the colors.
In Serie A the most successful case belongs to Lazio as they, from October 14th 2000 to January 14th 2001, wore a white jersey rather than the usual sky-blue to celebrate the club’s hundredth anniversary. Fans remember with pleasure this shirt as Lazio in 2000 won the double, Scudetto and Coppa Italia. Those successes forced the club to make a choice as they did not expect to have two patches on the jersey. So, for the 2000/01 season they moved the PUMA’s logo to the center in order to put the Scudetto’s patch on the left with the Coppa Italia one on top of it.