Zeus' signature on Salernitana's salvation We interviewed Amilcare Elvo, the Campania-based company's Designer Sport Performance, to learn the secrets of the Granata miracle

Salernitana's salvation, between the improbable and the miraculous, has been one of the most beautiful stories to follow in this last part of the championship, with the Campania team leading a crazy chase until the final celebration, despite the defeat in the last game of the season against Udinese. Accompanying the Pisciaiuoli on the granata shirts was Zeus, the technical sponsor who has been making the team's uniforms for three years now. A partnership that reinforces the bond between the team and the territory, ever stronger after this last season together.

We decided to interview Amilcare Elvo, Zeus' Designer Sport Performance, to find out more about these jerseys.

Hi Amilcare, how did you get involved in technical and sportswear to the point of creating Zeus?

The Zeus brand was founded in Torre Annunziata in 1999 and exports its products around the world to more than 50 countries. It is currently the technical sponsor of football, volleyball and basketball teams including US Salernitana, Frosinone Calcio, FC Crotone, Callipo Calabria Volleyball, the Cameroonian Federation and the Hungarian Volleyball Federation, and in the past it has been the supplier and technical sponsor of Italy Hockey and federations of the calibre of RFEVB Spain Volleyball.

Personally, I've been doing this since I was a child, when at school during the more boring hours of literature rather than maths, I used to have fun elaborating and re-elaborating the Serie A football shirts of the time, and being the height of the 90s and 2000s, there was a lot of fun to be had. 

In those years I remember the first Kappa Kombat model, rather than the Mizuno jersey of Batistuta's Viola and the much-loved Lotto uniforms of my Napoli team, of which I am a huge fan. I have a collection of more than 300 jerseys from all over the world, including the Norwegian league, and strictly match worn.

I am currently Designer Sport Performance for the brand Zeus, where together with my team, we design, develop and present sportswear lines for teamwear and licensed.

How did the collaboration with Salernitana come about?

The collaboration with Salernitana was born from the idea of creating a strong amalgamation with the territory, being based just a few kilometres from Salerno, and at the same time being a technical partner of one of the biggest clubs in the south. This partnership, which has been going on for three years now, makes us particularly proud, also because it has seen both parties involved in some truly unique projects.

For our first season, we worked together with the club on an entire collection that, between Linea Gara and Merchandising, included more than 150 items produced with the Granata Centenary logo and to which the square responded with great enthusiasm. At the same time, we launched a limited edition reproduction of 1919 pieces of one of the Granata's most historical uniforms, with the old logo of the Cavalluccio by maestro D'Alma and a two-tone white/celeste collar with laces.

What has the football shirt become and how has the football aesthetic evolved in your opinion?

In the current era we are faced with a total change of direction of the football shirt product. Up until the arrival of Kappa's Kombat model in 2000, it could be considered a collector's item for niches of big fans, but it would get lost shelved in the corners of cupboards. With the Italy jersey, we began to think of the sports uniform as a product with a very high technical performance, and all the brands began to challenge each other in technological blows, with many of us fans enjoying it.

Over the course of these years, the product has begun to leave the field to arrive on the streets, on the catwalks and on the biggest artists of the world music scene where the milestone of the turning point is surely Nike's collection for Nigeria after Balenciaga had officially 'endorsed' the football shirt as a streetwear piece. As a purely technical article we now realise that home jerseys rather than fourths in collaboration with big designers are the future of this world, where we will see more and more fashion brands on the scene rather than purely performance sports multinationals.

The world's biggest clubs, as PSG teaches us, are increasingly global brands that range from clothing, to travel, to music, distorting what is the true nature of a football club, and putting profits and branding ahead of sporting success, trying to appeal to the general public rather than the warm heart of the fans.