Ivory Coast 2012 Home (Medium)

The elephant stretching across this shirt was never meant to be decorative filler. Puma gave Ivorian artist Ernest Düku the job of creating the national team’s 2012 graphic and his idea combined the elephant with patterns inspired by traditional clothing. Düku explained that he wanted to capture the animal’s force and power, essentially turning Ivory Coast’s nickname, Les Éléphants, into something the players could actually wear. 

Puma did the same with nine other African teams, pairing each country with an African artist and even exhibiting the original artwork and kit-development process at London’s Design Museum. It meant this wasn’t simply another mass-produced international shirt: its defining graphic came directly from an artist representing Ivory Coast itself. 

Then the football gave the design an almost ridiculous story. Ivory Coast reached the 2012 AFCON final without conceding a goal: 1-0, 2-0, 2-0, 3-0 and 1-0 before another 0-0 in the final. They eventually lost to Zambia 8-7 on penalties, meaning a team featuring Drogba, Yaya Touré, Gervinho and Kolo Touré went through an entire Africa Cup of Nations without allowing a single goal in normal or extra time and still didn’t lift the trophy.