Bringing together two of the world’s favourite past-times, Spanish sports brand Meyba has teamed up with musical icons The Beatles to push the boundaries of sportswear and produce a line of football shirts, t-shirts and track tops inspired by the iconic band.
Founded in the 1940s by Josep Mestre and Joaquim Ballbé, Meyba has grown to become one of the leading sportswear brands in Spain. The company is certainly no stranger to innovation, working with a whole host of partners over its history to create all sorts of sportswear.
Among its partners of the years is Spanish football giant Barcelona, with Meyba serving as the club’s first branded kit supplier. During the 10 years of the partnership, Meyba-branded shirts were worn by some of the greatest players ever to play the game including Diego Maradona, Michael Laudrup and Ronald Koeman.
Its latest partner comes from an unusual background in the form of The Beatles, one of the world’s famous and most-loved bands that has been in and around the charts all around the world since the 1960s.
The two football shirts are only available on a limited-edition basis.
Seeking to draw on something of a gap in the market, Meyba linked up with the band to produce several items, including two eye-catching football shirts that have been designed to mimic actual football shirts worn by players and fans around the world.
Scoring a winner at Abbey Road
The first officially licenced Meyba x The Beatles range draws inspiration from the epic back catalogue of music, film and images from the band. This initial collection very much focuses on monochrome, in line with the famous Abbey Road album artwork that has inspired all manner of works since its release back in 1969.
For those not familiar with the iconic album, the cover features an image of the four band members – Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison – walking across a zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios in London. Such was the impact of the album, and indeed the band, that fans still make the trip to the location to recreate the image over 50 years later.
Focusing on the football shirts, both designs feature the zebra crossing image in one way or another. Each shirt has a ‘The Beatles’ badge on the front where traditionally the logo for a football would appear, while iconic ‘The Beatles’ wording is placed in the middle of the shirts in the style of sponsorship branding.
“The famous zebra crossing and classic black and white The Beatles ‘Long T’ logos are used as inspiration in number of methods and formats across the collection,” Meyba said. “We have paired this globally recognised iconography with classic Meyba cuts and current fashion shapes and styles to create this iconic one-off collection.”
The first design is a little more simplistic, with the front featuring a diagonal sash design. On the back, the zebra crossing scene features at the bottom of the shirt, while a large number four, in homage to the ‘Fab Four’ members of the band, replicates the numbers worn by actual football players.
Both designs are inspired by the famous Abbey Road album cover.
The second design in the series is the more eye-catching of the two, with the zebra crossing scene appearing all over the shirt in a pattern design. Again, the front features the logo and sponsorship-style branding, and the back a number four, complete with the wording ‘The Beatles Abbey Road’.
Warming up or cooling down?
Also featuring in the range are standard t-shirt designs, as well as a third sportswear option in the form of a track jacket, similar to those worn by footballers when warming up at the start of games or siting on the substitutes bench. The jacket features a smaller number four on the front, alongside branding for The Beatles, while the lining is inspired by Beatles ticket stub imagery.
Speaking about the range, Jonathan Jones, global head of marketing for Meyba, said that the collaboration showcases how two major areas such as football and music can come together to produce innovative piece such as those developed here.
The shirts have been designed to mimic actual football shirts.
“The worlds of football, music and fashion have never been so closely aligned,” Jones said. “Working with Apple Corps on this The Beatles collaboration is the pinnacle of this movement.
“We used our heritage and forward-thinking design to create a never seen before collaboration that will appeal to music and football fans around the world.”
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