With the Reds at new kit launch
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It’s a drab and wet Monday morning in Liverpool, but deep inside the bowels of Anfield the contrast couldn’t be any greater.
Click on the image below to watch a free video behind the scenes at the kit launch
Several of the stadium’s plush hospitality suites are ablaze with colour and activity as adidas get ready to snap some of the Reds’ biggest stars in the away strip they’ll be sporting on the road in 2011-2012.
With training done and dusted at Melwood, a clutch of our leading lights prepare to turn their hand to modelling, for an afternoon at least.
It’s more hair spray than Deep Heat, but nevertheless, today’s top-secret shoot is an important date in the LFC calendar.
The centrepiece of it all is an all-new glossy Standard Chartered-sponsored away strip.
Coloured ‘solid grey, bird silver and red’, the kit features engineered fabric with a ‘single-stitch pinstripe’ in which a shiny silver yarn shoots through the grey body.
If ‘imposing’ was on the designer’s manifesto, it’s a box that’s been emphatically ticked.
With the equipment set up, adidas kits and footballs laid out, and refreshments stocked up, the only thing missing is the footballers.
In their absence, the crew take a brief moment to down tools and tuck into some of the treats on offer.
Their respite is soon brought to an abrupt halt, however, by the news that Jamie Carragher has just pulled up in the Centenary Stand car park.
And with that declaration, Anfield is suddenly buzzing again with frenzied chatter and activity.
Having been a part of all the club’s photoshoots with adidas since the mid-2000s, Carra’s as comfortable with the drill as he is at defending a corner.
A quick-fire change and the vice-skipper has donned the strip he will be sporting at the likes of Old Trafford and the Emirates next term.
As he surveys the kit in a giant mirror, it seems like an ideal opportunity to gauge Carragher’s initial reaction.
“It looks smart and I’m sure when the team run out in it next season we’ll look good – but the most important thing is that we win in it,” he responds.
“Solid grey? They can call it what they like – it looks the part to me!”
With Carra positioned in front of the cameras, Steven Gerrard is next to arrive – the prompt for even more harried activity from the crew.
Once suitably attired, the skipper is soon staring down a lens too, posing for the promotional material that will help market the new strip on videos, posters and billboards right around the globe.
“It’s comfortable and it looks good,” he remarks when quizzed by .tv about the kit. “That’s the main thing when you’re out there playing – that it’s really comfortable.
“I think comfort and looking right are the two most important factors in a new kit, and I really like it.”
Gerrard’s name and iconic No.8 will decorate the backs of literally thousands of these new jerseys when they fly off the hangers en masse next month.
“It’s very flattering to see my name on the back of someone’s shirt,” he tells us.
“It was especially so when I saw the first person with my name on their shirt when I was a young kid – a couple of games into my career and someone already had ‘Gerrard’ on.
“It was a tremendous feeling for me and I’m still really proud and flattered to see a lot of fans with ’8′ on their shirts.”
Liverpool strips are a staple component of any young Kopite’s wardrobe – but will Stevie be kitting out his children in it?
“Well, I’ve got two girls and Alex doesn’t really like them in football kits,” he laughs. “But I’m sure adidas will be kind enough to supply me with a few.”
One man whose kids will definitely have the jersey is Dirk Kuyt, who stops to chat with .tv after simulating scoring goals for the cameras.
“My kids will be putting their order straight in!” he says. “You always look forward to the new kits coming out, and I especially like this grey one.
“It looks very nice and I can’t wait to play in it.”
Something Messrs Kuyt and Gerrard do agree on is what makes for a good kit.
“The most important thing is that you don’t feel it,” says the Dutchman. “That the quality of the shirt and the shorts is good – and that’s always the case with adidas.
“The second thing that’s also important is that the kit looks nice and impressive. This does to me, so I’m very happy again.”
While adidas’s dark grey offering is in direct contrast to the white away top the players have sported on the road this season, Pepe Reina is greeted by a familiar sight as he appears at the shoot.
The club’s custodians will wear the home goalkeeping outfit they have been decked out in during 2010-11 as their change kit for the new term.
Reina, though, is pleased with the decision. He’s a fan.
“I like grey,” he muses. “Let’s see if it brings us a bit more luck this year!
“It is important to feel comfy and right with the colour. There’s been no problem at all, that’s why we repeated it for one season more. I think we are really happy with the grey.”
There will be a new home ‘keeper’s strip in 2011-12, however, coloured black and orange.
Before anyone knows it, a bustling afternoon is soon reaching its conclusion, though for adidas it’s another important step on the long road from drawing board to shop floor.
The sportswear giant’s marketing campaign for the kit will be headlined ‘All Together’ – a nod towards the unity that exists between Liverpool and their supporters.
It’s a tagline that certainly strikes a chord with Gerrard.
“I think it’s the most important thing at this football club,” he says. “We believe we are all as one – the fans, the supporters and everyone who works for Liverpool.
“We try to stick together and usually when that happens, it comes out on the pitch in the results.”
The new away shirt is launched on Thursday, May 12. Pre-order from the official Liverpool FC online store at www.liverpoolfc.tv/store or in all official Liverpool FC Club stores.
Here are some more great photos from the shoot
Source : Liverpool FC
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