InterviewSamples, subtlety and secrets: Meet the lifelong Red designing Liverpool's adidas kits
"You need to have, in theory, all football jerseys of the planet from the last 50 years in your head."
That's the mindset Jürgen Rank brings to work every day as the person overseeing all football club kit designs at adidas.
But the memory of Liverpool's previous strips come more naturally to the senior design director of football apparel than most others.
"To have Liverpool back is a big, big thing for me as it's my club in England," Rank tells Liverpoolfc.com from adidas' global headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
"I'm born in the '70s and Liverpool was pretty big. On German TV they didn't show much English football but they showed around half a minute on Sunday and there was obviously a lot of Liverpool content in it.
"I think that was what brought me to Liverpool and obviously the club being successful. My favourite goalie was Sepp Maier, a German goalie from the national team, but then the other one was Ray Clemence."
Rank has been at adidas since 2004 and was part of the design team responsible for the kits produced during the Reds' previous partnership with the manufacturer, which lasted from 2006 until 2012.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his favourite shirt he has designed is his first Liverpool one – the home strip used from 2006 to 2008 and the uniform for many famous Champions League nights.
He explains: "Being a Liverpool fan and then having the privilege to do it, back then it was super-exciting. There was a call, 'Hey Jürgen, we need to talk – there's a new club coming.' 'OK, which club is it?' Then they said, 'It's Liverpool.'
"That was amazing – and a lot of pressure as well at the same time! Definitely the 2006 jersey, the home one, is my favourite."
With the meticulous process required for producing a shirt, Rank and his team normally work two years in advance, under a cloak of secrecy. That means 2026-27's work has been signed off and they'll now be focusing on 2027-28.
It starts with a concept check to ensure alignment with the club and the story they want to tell. They move on to initial sketches. A first sample is produced from those outlines and then more feedback provided – this stage is repeated twice before eventually moving towards finalisation.
"It's a lot of work," Rank says. "It needs a lot of people. Design is just one part in it. So you have the sports marketing people, you have the product marketing and development people, you have the people on the ground – and everyone gives input.
"In the end, it's a designer's job to bring those ideas alive and to translate all the ideas into, hopefully, a beautiful football shirt.
"It's very important that you know, 'What is the club? What is the club vision? What does the club stand for?'
"You know there are clubs which are just looking into the future and want to develop or innovate them into a new direction and don't want to be associated with the past. Then you have clubs which are really proud of the history.
"You just need to figure out what is the vision of the club and what are the values of the club, and you need to make those values visible on the jersey."
Now Liverpool are back in the adidas family, subtle links to the 2006-08 kit are in this season's home edition, while there is a special story behind the crest on the away strip.
The badge that appears on the cream-coloured shirt was originally created for the 2012-13 campaign, but consigned to the recycle bin after the association came to an end.
However, Rank, who had drawn inspiration for it while walking through the Anfield museum, held onto the designs – unsure if they would ever see the light of day.
"We put this crest asleep until the moment to bring it out again, and now it was the time," he says. "It's a very nice story with the crest shape. It's taken inspiration from Anfield's first Main Stand with the curve.
"It's really taken from Liverpool and put on to the away jersey, so it's bringing Liverpool to the away games and other cities.
"That's the idea behind that one, and I think that's a very nice story personally as I had the privilege to design the crest, but even more the story behind it and the shape.
"It was one of the first things that was shooting through my mind, 'We need to bring the crest back.' Then we presented it to Liverpool and there was a positive reaction and some were even remembering it.
"Now bringing it back, maybe sometimes it's a lesson of life: you just have to wait for the right moment."
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