Recreating an original football jersey is a task that requires a lot of patience and a keen eye. Fabrics and printing techniques have changed. Graphic artworks are not existing anymore. The fans and collectors are extremely discerning customers.. and rightly so.

To recreate the fabric print on this jersey we purchased a size XL original shirt from the 1990s. This allowed me to have the maximum surface area to find a repeat for the pattern. Then I made multiple hi resolution scans of the jersey and located an area of repeating pattern. Of course there was no full repeat appearing in a clear space on the shirt. Therefore I had to figure out a square size to repeat. I then had to work with multiple sections of my scans to fill in the gap.

After that I adjusted the contrast and changed the scans to black and white. This way I could really see the pattern more clearly. The next step was to manually trace the pattern. This was the only technique that I felt would create a replica that was a fitting tribute to the original. Using several layers I finally created a repeating pattern that we could use to recreate the red fabric used on the original jersey.

I then worked together with my colleague Stephan Pöhlmann and our development and marketing team to create the Adidas, Arsenal and JVC sponsor badges.