Object of Desire: The hidden gems on EF's new jersey
"Tha🍎t is so lame", "what the duck" and other hidden surprises foun൩d on the new EF Education-Nippo jersey
At the beginning the 2021 season, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:EF Education-Nippo was the last to launch its new jersey design. So late it was that the Cyclingnews 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:2021 World𒁏Tour kit 'definitive' ranking was delayed, then delayed🌃 some more, a🐭nd then we ran it anyway without them - choosing to add them later.
After the popularity of previous years' designs, the 2021 kit was always going to be highly anticipated, but after the team's kit 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:collaboration with skateboard🎶 brand Palace for the 2020 Giro d'Italia broke th🌃e internet, thꦯe expectation was high for the latest kit.
It didn't disappoint. The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:tongue-in-cheek design concept took direct aim at the UCI's stringent rules around kit design, a direct response to the fine the team received for the outrageous design's 🐼late registration. The main theme of the design is the guidelines printed t🍌hroughout the jersey, ensuring the logos were positioned correctly and keeping the jersey compliant.
However, aside from these guidelines, there are also endless sc🐼ribbles, notes, sketches and doodles from the designer that made it onto the final jersey. These include references to designs from years past, a duck (we'll get to that later), ideas that were bounded around Rapha HQ in the concept process, as well as the forward-thinking principles that define the team and🧸 embody the team's partnership with Rapha.
These subtle design quirks are impossible to spot on the TV, especially when it comes to helicopter footage, so Cyclingnews got our hands on the jersey and have taken a super-detailed look just for 🔥our readers. We also spoke to Feli🎶x Kraus, one of the designers, to help us understand the meaning behind each aspect.
Also, a warning before we st🏅art. This is the pinkest collection of photos you'll see all year, so if you want to go and get your sunglasses, we'll wait right here. Oh, and we've saved the best 'til last.
The EF logo
The EF logo itself is the least hidden part of the jersey, and it's entirely visible from helicopter footage, but we're staღrting here for a reason.
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While the large EF lettering is blatant and obvious, there are hundreds of little easter eggs around it that you don't get to appreciate from the TV footage. In the photos below, you'll get a feel for exactly how many of them exist. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of 𓂃what's to come⛦ as you continue scrolling.
"Words and thoughts"
Among these hundreds of scribbles and notes, there arಌe words and phrases dotted around. According to Kraus, they have no meaning at all.
"These are words 👍and thoughts that were pinged around 🌠during the design process, rather, they have no answer or meaning."
He went on to explain what their lack of meaning is the reason they are blurred out sli𒁃ghtly, while the eventual design c🐈oncept – the UCI guidelines and parameters – remain in sharp focus.
Oil
On both the ꦫfront and rear of the jersey, there are sketches from the designers.
On the front, this section includes an oil slick, but rather than being a reference to the common shoꦬut of 'oil' - meaning danger - you'll hear in pelotons around Europe, it's actually a reference to the oil slick design of 2018.
According to Kraus, the Vol.1/2/3/4/5 is a reference to specific jerseys that have been milestones in the EF x♈ Rapha Partnership. In the images below, you'll see the quote 'Typical, classical, just like always', which is a reference 𒐪to Vol 1.
"These words are somewhat forbidden to use in our EF x Rapha ⛎jersey design presentations," explains Kraus. "From the beginning, it should be made clear that this 'classic, just like always' approach would not work, and is not what we want for this partnership – it would lead to nothing."
At the bottom of this Vol.1 section, you see the words "When you actually realize – that is so lame" crossed out, and the transition into Vol.2 ♚is accompanied by "rethink!" – a mindset that has continued to define the partnership ever since.
Think
Also on 🎉the front is ꦜthis, a reference to the continuous yet progressive thought processes going through the designer's minds.
It reads:
"Don't think, think, think, t🅘hink, think, think,
All the time about it.
All the time, all the time, all the time, all the time, all꧑ the time, all the time,
Until it becomes just another abstract idea."
Pocket and a mascot
The pockets are a little different to the rest of the theme in design, but the message still speaks to the team's do-things-differently approach. It features a host of phrases such as "sponsor differently" and "diversify revenue." However in true EF form, to add another level of a💯bstractness they've printed the whole design onto the inner face of the pockets.
As a result, all the words display backwards on the outward-face. Luckily, Photosh🅰op exists, so we flipped it for you to make them easier to read. You're welcome.
There's also a little mascot who🌜 lives on the bottom-right-hand corner of the pockets. We're told he is a mascot of the Nippo brand, and has featured on all jerseys sponsored by Nippo over the years... I feel a 'find the mascot' ga💝llery on the way.
Boring, but not
More than just doodles, scribbles, sketches and notes, there are a few design inclusions that, in all honesty, are probab𒊎ly considered boring by EF's typical standards, but we like them, and we'd be remiss to neglect them.
The two standout features for us are the inner collar, which is a tasteful nod 🦩to the argyle prints found on older Slipstream Sports (the name of thཧe operating company behind the team) kits in its pre-Rapha era, as well as the very-hard-to-see (it's even harder to photograph) Rapha embossed logos on the hem.
What the duck?
Alas, we've arrived.🍬 We promised we've save🔯d the best 'til last, and here we are:
As we m💛entioned earlier, the front and rear have sketches referencing the jersey designs of old, and the journey toward the do-things-differently approach that defines the team.
Without a doubt, the best sketch on the jersey is the picture of a duck, on wheels no less - a clear reference to that EF x Palace Giro d'Italia design. The duck is accompani🎀ed by "Vol. 4" – the fourth step on the aforementioned journey.
Accelerating off into the distance, the duck leaves behind it𝓰 thܫe letter A in a trail of dust.
"It's actually three A's," ൲Kraus explains. "The triple-A standard of jersey design is disrupted by the ducks rushing t♍hrough."
Of course, Vol. 3 was last year's designꦍ, represented by the ZigZag graphic found throughout th♑e jersey, while Vol.5 leads us to today.
"Focus on the basics" was the concept, before the typical Rapha x EF partnership of "challenge the sജtatus quo" became a plan to🍎 challenge the rules. Designers eventually settled on doing "the unexpected".
It's safe to say, nobody expected this.
Unfortunately, the ꦺduck is yet to be given a name, so we suggest either Quacklan Morton or Mitch Ducker, or perhaps there's a mid-season transfer ไon the cards for Rudy Mallard.
... No?
We'll see ourselves out.
