Remember Dryworld? They came along in 2016, briefly supplied Fluminense, Goiás and Atlético Mineiro within the confines of Brazil, as well as Watford and Queens Park Rangers within the confines of the English M25, and then they were apparently gone.
Well, they’re back - as far as being a football-kit supplier in the aficionados’ collective consciousness - with a curious range marketed with the upcoming Qatar 2022 World Cup in mind, and with the endorsement of Brazilian legend Ronaldinho.
The Canadian sportswear company’s “Ronaldo by D” collection is actually billed as being designed by the virtuoso, with the standout pieces the alternative/pseudo playing shirts for several sides who have qualified for the soon-to-begin mundial.
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The usual suspects feature - current champions France, Argentina (!), England, Spain and, of course, Brazil - with the selection augmented with designs for the USA, Mexico, Belgium, Portugal, Canada and hosts Qatar. A team of eleven, each featuring personalisation referring to our Ronnie in the sublimated number 10s on the back and front, along with the inclusion of the player’s name.
If you can see past the obvious issue of an Argentina shirt carrying the name of a rival country’s hero, and the jarring use of exonyms in the print of “BELGIUM”, “SPAIN” and, most incongruously and unnecessarily, “BRAZIL”, the aesthetics of the releases are not bad. adidas’s Belgium shirts carried the brushstroke effect as late as earlier this year and, particularly on the Mexico and USA versions, the colour proportions work well.
The Qatari flag lends itself to striking kit design and it's been tastefully applied here, a France shirt with so much red and white and Ronaldinho’s name could be right up a PSG fan’s street, and the Portugal model is - we assume coincidentally - a more elaborate version of what the Portuguese will wear in the Middle East.
Owing to the comfy stretch of the fabric, the cut is quite forgiving, though the less svelte amongst us who fall between two sizes should probably go up rather than down to account for the slightly shorter length compared with the major manufacturers (and, of course, when in Ron…). Beyond this, the shirts don’t appear to be excessively engineered, but we’ll assume a company with “dry” in their name have wicking via their “180 GSM Coolmax” technology mastered.
The sublimation is neat - albeit not perfectly lined up at the seams - and the heat-applied Dryword Ds on the chest and upper back suggest quality. This can’t necessarily be said for the crests carrying Ronaldinho’s silhouette - it would have been nice to have had bespoke versions in colourways changing for each nation - but this kind of thing can today be easily covered over, and the hem label that adds nothing can be easily removed.
At £43 each - with further reductions available - there is value, and while on average the countries’ official releases are superior, not every one of them has been met with unanimous acclaim. Alternatives are being sought, and, if nothing else, it’s fun to fantasise about our favourite international football teams with a peak Ronaldinho working his magic in attack.
