Template History - Hummel Denmark 1986 How the Danish national team kit ushered in the golden decade of football shirts

The World Cup is not only the quadrennial appointment for footballers, fans and national teams waiting to play for immortal glory in a few decisive matches. It is also an irresistible showcase for technical sponsors who can launch a world premiere, literally, of new designs and templates that will go on to define the brand aesthetic in the following seasons. Every World Cup has had its template, its sportswear brand with which to associate the sweetest or harshest memories. When Hummel presented the jerseys for the Denmark national team in 1986, the disruptive effect of the chosen design created a wave that changed the aesthetics of football jerseys in the following decade. The jersey worn by Netherlands in the 1988 European Championship, won by the oranges thanks to the prowess of Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit, and signed by adidas, is often used as the kit from which all the other crazy templates from the early 1990s descended, but it was Hummel's imagination that set the new tone. 

Despite an inglorious end, the Danish national team indelibly marked that World Cup and the template designed by Hummel also became widely used for club teams, in England with Southampton, Aston Villa and Coventry City, but also in Italy with Pisa and Verona. This new model set a benchmark for all other brands, which from that point onwards began to break the mould previously used in football shirt design, giving life to that crazy and vital decade. All thanks to the Danish national team and its sponsor Hummel, a historic partnership that is still going strong today for the World Cup in Qatar.