Built for the City

Football kits are increasingly becoming a canvas for the places clubs call home.

We’ve seen cities, landmarks, landscapes, food, music and local traditions all find their way onto shirts, but SPAL have taken a slightly different route for 2026/27, looking upwards and into the architecture of Ferrara for inspiration.

The city carries an extraordinary architectural legacy, particularly from the House of Este era when Ferrara became a major centre of Renaissance art and culture. Those influences remain all over the city today, including the distinctive arches, pillars and hanging architectural details that have now found their way onto SPAL’s latest creation.

Rather than simply slapping a famous building onto the shirt, though, Erreà have actually worked those architectural forms into the stripes themselves.

That feels like an important distinction.

The familiar light blue and white remain unmistakably SPAL, while illustrated pillars sit within the stripes and introduce a more elegant, almost classical feel. It raises the question of whether this is where some of the most interesting club kits are heading: less about putting a landmark on a shirt and more about turning the visual language of a city into the design itself.

SPAL aren’t the only club exploring this idea, either. Across the game, we’re seeing more brands and clubs dig deeper into local identity rather than relying solely on colours and crests to tell us where a team comes from.

Here, the approach feels particularly appropriate.

Ferrara’s architecture is part of what makes the city what it is, while SPAL’s stripes are part of what makes the club what it is. Bringing the two together doesn’t require either to dominate.

The gold detailing adds another touch of prestige, while the return of SPAL’s historic badge after a year away gives the shirt another connection to the club’s own past.

It’s therefore doing something rather clever.

The city provides the architecture. The club provides the stripes. Erreà has found a way to make them occupy the same space.

Could we be seeing more kits move in this direction, with architecture becoming another major source of inspiration for football design?

This one certainly makes a good case for it.

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