The Napoli players have turned into Robert Downey Jr. The new training kit looks like actual armor

The days when Aurelio De Laurentiis enjoyed creating extravagant kits for the SSC Napoli now seem to be a thing of the past. Only those who haven't yet erased the trauma of the all-over spiderweb jerseys or the one featuring the infamous PNG-format reindeer will still remember them. And then there was the special kit designed by Marcelo Burlon and Kappa for the 2020/21 season, or the Valentine’s Day kit released in 2022/23, with that kiss à la Fabrizio Miccoli. In short, over the last three seasons, the owner's imagination seems to have toned down a bit, finding a balance between creativity and a much cleaner design — which, as seen last season, has even coincided with the winning of trophies.

But the nature — and genuine madness — of a man who has always stood out for his uniqueness (a film producer, after all, right?) can’t really be restrained. And so, for the second consecutive year, he’s chosen to unleash his unstoppable creative energy on the training kits. If last year that imagination poured into the main kits and Coca-Cola-branded training jackets, this year — just as the team’s summer training camp gets underway — a new shirt has appeared that resembles the shell of a suit of armor. Aurelio De Laurentiis this time seems to have taken inspiration from the Marvel blockbuster Iron Man.

The first images have recently surfaced showing Alessandro Buongiorno and Luca Marianucci wearing the new design — both in the tank top version and the t-shirt one. The timing of the release — in full pre-season and fresh off an emotionally charged scudetto win — is perfect. Just as perfect is the space these kits occupy: Home, Away, and Third kits will probably remain relatively subdued this season as well, while the training kits — limited to social media posts and midweek training footage — are the ideal canvas for bolder design experiments. Designs that, at the very least, spark conversation. And still, credit where it’s due: maintaining the affection of those who were once fans of ADL’s over-the-top aesthetic — from camo kits to the denim ones — also means embracing a visual language that, like it or not, was part of Serie A’s aesthetic history in the 2010s.