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I’m a person that prefers long sleeve jerseys to short sleeve. I could lie to you and tell you it’s for functional reasons, but it’s really about the style. I just like the way it looks—Doesn’t Fernando Torres seem like a football Fonzie when he’s sportin’ long sleeves on the pitch? That said, I was pretty happy to have the Puma long sleeve Italy home jersey on my desk ready for review.
The jersey is, of course, the same Italy blue as it’s always been. The collar has the same design that looks like it was once a real collar that had been popped and cut off about an inch from the shirt. I suppose there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, though. It also has the green white and red lining the top for an added touch of Italian flair. What I really like about this long sleeve jersey is the shoulder and collarbone area. The shoulders have these sweet little white curves on the front that start from the collarbone, and they swoop down to their end around the elbow. What also adds to these curves is that they are stitched to appear underneath the blue of the shirt, as if they were ripping open the blue part. At the end of the curves, in the middle of both arms, Puma has stitched their recognizable logo in classy fashion. There has to be a word for it that I just don’t know, but the logo adds a little somethin’ somethin’ to the jersey.
The back of the shirt also has the same idea, but the white curves follow the shoulder blades instead of the shoulder itself, you know, for continuity. The chest of the jersey of course has the Puma logo and the Italian crest, which I think we can all agree is pretty suave. The torso also has this subtle design that I think is meant to mimic the muscles of the most cut human being on earth (hint: Chuck Norris). My only beef with this design is that it sort of looks like the face of a Predator, pre duel with Schwarzenegger. Even so, I think the design combined with the shoulder/collarbone look produces a good looking jersey. Most of the time with the subtle torso designs, it pretty much looks like a series of curves and intersecting lines, so I don’t really think people will mind this one too much. It adds some style and modernity to the jersey, which I think is a pretty solid buy at $79.99. It’s a little on the thin side, so you’ll need something underneath if you want to wear it on a cold day, but, other than that, this jersey is a standard, quality Puma shirt that will definitely last and provide awesomeness for years to come.
Written by: Kris Dyer, soccerprose.com
