In contemporary football, whether one likes it or not, the success of football clubs has many faces, and is defined through different methods and even different units of measurement compared with the past. On one side there are successes on the pitch, which obviously continue to be primary, to make the difference, to drag everything else along. On the other, in parallel, the clubs of our era must also work in other directions. They must offer an appealing image, they must position themselves as real brands. Sporting brands, but brands nonetheless. Starting from these preconditions, there are few teams/clubs that have followed as virtuous a path as the one taken by Napoli. In recent years, in fact, the club owned by Aurelio De Laurentiis has not only won two league titles, but has also launched a genuine communications revolution. One that, at the bottom, bears the signature of Valentina De Laurentiis.
For the first time, in effect, Napoli has managed to design and then build a brand identity that is entirely consistent with its own history, with the dna of its own public, with the needs of our time. And now this work, not only creative but also purely commercial, is bearing fruit. These are abundant fruits, appreciated across the board: as people say in cinema, a sector particularly dear to the De Laurentiis family, both the public and the critics have embraced this new way of presenting itself. Of being and representing Napoli. To fully understand the moves made by the Azzurri club in recent years, we interviewed Valentina De Laurentiis, the spiritual and also project-oriented guide of this new era. She spoke to us about kits, brand identity, the past, the present and the future. And she put Napoli and Naples at the center of everything, because this is the foundation of all her work.
For 15 years Napoli has been an elite team, one that sits near the top of the table and regularly takes part in European competitions. Throughout this period you have made pioneering choices in terms of identity, style, also looking at commercial strategies. Then came the acceleration of recent years. Can we say there is continuity between these two major phases in the club’s recent history? And, if there are any, what are the differences?
My father is certainly a visionary, someone who has never been afraid to put himself on the line. He has always had cutting-edge ideas that have allowed the club to evolve from every point of view. To build something great you need time, consistency and deep work. It is the courage to go beyond what you know that makes every transformation possible. In recent years we felt the need to take one more step: not only to make the team strong, but to contribute to the city’s rebirth. Naples has a light of its own, one that needed to be seen, told, valued. Over the last three, four years we have chosen to focus on this: telling the magic, the poetry, the soul of a community that sings and vibrates at every hour of the day and night. We wanted to feel even closer to the people, to those who live Naples and to those who live for Napoli.
When and how did Napoli’s rebranding process begin? What were the key points you started from to give the club a new image?
The rebranding process stems from the need to represent the pride of being Napoli and took shape in a reinterpretation of the logo, with its traditional Napoleonic N reworked in a more minimal and contemporary version. The essential was freed from accessory elements, focusing on a cleaner and more elegant look, in a monochrome variant. We started from a clear idea: Napoli is not just a football team, but a cultural symbol. From here came the goal of building a visual and narrative language capable of speaking not only to fans, but also to a wider audience made up of creatives, international brands and lovers of style and beauty.
What are the key points of this new visual language?
We started from three concepts:
• Identity – strengthening the bond with the city, making the soul of Naples visible in every detail: from the logo to the kits, from the materials to the stories.
• Style – raising the bar in terms of design and innovation, collaborating with excellence from the worlds of fashion and lifestyle to create a contemporary image.
• Experience – making people experience Napoli not only during the match, but every day, through products, events and projects that tell a way of being, even before a way of supporting.
In short, we contributed to the evolution of Napoli from a sports club into a cultural brand, capable of inspiring, uniting and proudly representing a city that has much more to say than is often imagined.
The most disruptive choice, looking at recent years, was certainly the one relating to the self-production of kits and technical material. How did this idea, never seen before in Italy, come about and how was it developed? Did you have a reference point that inspired you?
The idea of self-production was born from a need for freedom and vision. After so many years with the usual sports brands, we realized that we needed a more personal identity, consistent with what we were building as a club and as a city. We wanted to be able to decide every detail, to tell a story that was ours alone, without compromises or limits imposed by external logic. We did not take inspiration from any specific model: it was a breakaway choice, born from the idea that a club like Napoli could become a creative laboratory, capable of merging sport, design, culture and territory into a single visual language. From an operational point of view it was an enormous job: from researching materials to defining the collections, through to building a complete supply chain that would guarantee quality, innovation and distribution. But the result was extraordinary, because it allowed us to control every aspect of the creative and production process and, above all, to build a direct relationship with our fans and supporters. When we began this adventure there was Covid: there were barely four months left before the start of the championship and not everyone, inside the company, agreed. For many it was a gamble. Companies in China were working with half their staff and delivery times would have been impossible to meet. So we decided to rely on Made in Italy, choosing Italian companies and fabrics to make the first kits needed to start the championship. It was a race against time, with a small but extraordinarily determined group of people. Sometimes you do not need an army to do something great: you need vision, courage and the ability to believe fully in your ideas. It was an act of faith in Italian excellence and Neapolitan determination: two forces that, together, can move everything, even in the most difficult moments. In the following years we increasingly refined the production process, keeping the creative part in Italy and selecting the best partners internationally.
What was the impact of all these new ideas?
The impact was immediate: we transformed the kit from a simple sports uniform into a design object, an identity symbol. That year, 2021/22, we released 13 kits, including the Halloween one, an absolute novelty in Italian football. We dared with “outside the box” ideas, such as the kit with the reindeer or the one with the kiss, which I still see worn at the stadium today. All of this opened up enormous margins for growth, both economic and cultural. Today we are only at the beginning of a path that can lead Napoli to become an independent global brand, capable of dialoguing with the worlds of fashion, lifestyle and art, while keeping its popular and Neapolitan soul firmly intact. I still feel like a startup in development: we are growing, experimenting, trying to improve every day. Despite the results, we maintain that curious and dynamic spirit that pushes us to evolve continuously. We want to improve more and more for our fans, who are the true pivot of everything. They are our daily inspiration. Every choice, from the design of a kit to a new project, is born with the idea of giving them something that makes them proud and makes them feel part of something unique.
How has your work changed from a creative and practical point of view? Do the ideas for all the kits you have worn in these years come directly from you?
My role is precisely to bring together ideas, inspirations, projects and design. I work with a small internal creative group with whom we develop the concept of each kit, defining the story, symbols and vision to be conveyed. Once the project has been developed, we bring it to the Armani group’s work table, with whom there is a constant and very constructive dialogue. Together we evaluate materials, cuts, technical and color details, until we arrive at the final version that then goes into production. Self-production has given us much more freedom: today we can dare more, experiment, be quicker in turning an idea into reality. It is intense but exciting work, because every kit tells a piece of Naples: sporting, cultural, emotional, symbolic.
When we present the kits, Napoli’s task is not only sporting, but also cultural and social; we go in search of places that not everyone knows: it means redeveloping and enhancing wonderful places in the city and its province, often forgotten or abandoned. This too — and above all — is Napoli: a team that has brought light back to a city that needed to be seen, loved and told in its deepest truth. For us it is essential to do this, because Naples must become a living map of incredible places to discover, a continuous journey through history, art, nature and passion.
More or less at the same time — or in any case very shortly after — the beginning of self-production, Napoli completely changed its approach from the point of view of brand identity. As a result, the strategies relating to merchandising also changed. Where did this further turning point start from? And what does it consist of?
It all began from a simple observation: there was no Napoli product around. And when you found it, it was often not up to the value of the club and the city, too similar to a “market-stall product”. It seemed unfair to me toward our fans, who deserve to be able to wear something they can be proud of, both at the stadium and in everyday life. This awareness was the starting point for the turning point: creating an authentic, carefully crafted, quality product, capable of telling the beauty and identity of Naples with the same language as the great international brands. We are now in our fifth year of self-production and every season represents a step forward: we improve materials, details, service and, above all, engagement with the fans. Seeing them proud to wear our brand is the most beautiful confirmation that we are moving in the right direction.
In recent years, Napoli has entered into collaboration agreements and strategic partnerships with major companies of global recognition. All of this, however, without forgetting the connection with businesses and also the culture of the community it represents. How can these two souls be made to fit together? Can both policies be carried forward?
I believe the two souls can coexist perfectly. In fact, it is precisely from their union that the strength of our project is born. On the one hand, collaborating with major international companies allows us to bring Napoli onto global stages, to dialogue with a new audience and to show the value of our vision to the world. On the other, remaining connected to the territory is fundamental. Naples is a universe of talent, craftsmanship, culture and passion. Collaborating with local entities, artists, creatives and companies from our community means never losing contact with the roots, with what makes our brand truly authentic. Our goal is to unite the world and Naples in a single narrative: to bring the city into the world and the world into the city. It is a delicate balance, but it is what distinguishes us. Our strength comes from identity: when it is this powerful, it can dialogue with anyone, anywhere.
What should we expect in the coming months and years? Looking beyond the pitch: where and how can Napoli still grow?
In these five years we have put down solid roots in Campania, building a strong and recognizable base. Now the goal is to embrace all the Neapolitan fans and supporters who live around the world, to make them feel part of one big family, even thousands of kilometers away. We want to bring Napoli wherever there is an Azzurro heart: through new stores, international collaborations, events and projects that tell not only the team, but the soul of an extraordinary city. The future, for us, is to continue growing as a global brand without ever losing our roots. Naples has such a strong and universal identity that it can speak to anyone: you just need to find the right language to do it. Because in the end Napoli is not just a club: it is an emotion that crosses borders, cultures and generations. It is a way of feeling, of living, of belonging. And it is from there that we will continue to build everything.