January 2025 Recap
And the plan for 2025
Since 2020, I’ve been sharing Romanian football stories, in English, on Instagram using visuals and football shirts. For longer stories that don’t fit on Instagram, I’ve been writing on this blog.
Instagram isn’t the best place for every detail of Romanian football, and sometimes the stories aren’t quite big enough for a full blog post. That’s why I’ve compiled some of the top highlights from my January Instagram feed into short drafts here on Medium, for those who prefer reading outside of Instagram.
50 Days Until the Kit Launch
The countdown begins! With just 50 days to go until the new Romania kits are launched, the anticipation is building — and so is the uncertainty.
In the past, Joma has delivered Romanian shirts just one to two weeks before the start of a Euro or World Cup qualifiers campaign. For instance, in 2023, the shirts arrived in Bucharest a mere 10 days before the match against Belarus on March 28. They were announced officially on 20th of March 2023. This gave their marketing team just two to three days to do something for announcing it.
If history is any guide, it’s safe to assume that the 2025–2026 kits will be revealed just one week before Romania’s first World Cup Qualifiers match against Bosnia, scheduled for March 21.
As someone who had the incredible honor of designing these kits, this timeline is both exciting and nerve-wracking. One thing I learned during the process is that Joma doesn’t use testers. This means no one — apart from maybe two or three people at Joma — has seen or felt the final product yet.
The first batch will head straight to Bucharest in March, and that’s when we’ll all discover how the shirts truly look and feel.
This uncertainty has kept me on edge. Back in March 2024, when I handed off the design in Toldeo at Joma headquarters, I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve from a design perspective. I presented sketches, digital mockups, and detailed instructions, drawing inspiration from my collection of Romania shirts. Ironically, Joma didn’t have any samples of the Romania shirt during that meeting, so I had to rely on references and my imagination to communicate the concept I wanted.
Now, with just 50 days left, I can’t help but wonder: Were my instructions clear enough? Did any limitations force changes to the design? What about the materials — did they match the quality I envisioned?
This project has been a labor of love, blending vision, concept, and direction to create something every Romanian fan can feel proud to wear. But the unknowns have made the wait feel even longer.
Once the kits are officially launched, I’ll be sharing a detailed look into the process on this blog, including the timeline and behind-the-scenes insights. Until then, I’m hoping the final product lives up to the dream.
I wrote some personal thoughts this Janaury on this topic:
-> Why I Am Excited About the Romania Football Shirt 2025–2026
When Fantasy Meets Reality: Designing Romanian Football Kits
Who would’ve thought? The most liked post on my January Instagram feed isn’t a rare collectible or a piece of Romanian football history — it’s a fantasy shirt I made up in Photoshop.
Since 2020, I’ve been sharing my passion for Romanian football shirts on Instagram. With over 300 shirts in my collection, I’ve celebrated the designs, stories, and history that make them special. But after a few years of regular posts, I hit a wall — I ran out of shirts to showcase. That’s when I decided to switch things up. Armed with my design background, I began creating concept kits, reimagining how Romanian football shirts could look. And honestly? I love it. It’s an opportunity to offer a fresh perspective on Romanian football kits.
This summer, the iconic Nike Total 90 template is making a much-anticipated comeback. A design that once graced legends like Ronaldo in Brazil’s 2004 shirt, it’s one of the most beloved football kit templates in history. Its bold, circular chest panels and futuristic vibe captured the essence of early 2000s football. I couldn’t resist imagining how this classic template might look if it made its way to Romanian football. If Nike’s Total 90 revival finds its way into the 2026/27 or 2027/28 seasons, it’s likely we’ll see it worn by teams like FCSB and Farul Constanța, given their partnerships with Nike. So, I fired up Photoshop and got to work, simulating how these kits could look.
I wrote a blog post about it:
-> Nike’s Total 90 Template and Its Romanian Football Legacy
The result? A post that brought my Instagram over 5,000 views, with 69% of viewers coming from non-followers. It reached 3,300 accounts organically, bringing in 20 new followers without a single share outside my feed, in just one day. For a niche topic like Romanian football shirts, those numbers are remarkable. It shows the power of blending nostalgia and imagination in a way that resonates with fans. And also says that FCSB brand still sells. I feel most of the new followers that came on my page were fans of the team.
Two weeks after I posted it on my feed the stats are still going up with 6,270 accounts reached, 87.7% viewers coming from non-followers and brought more than 50 followers.
Football shirts are already a niche topic, and narrowing that down to Romanian kits makes it ultra-specific. Yet, this small space holds immense potential.
My journey into concept kit design has not only kept my passion alive but also connected me with a broader audience. It shows that even the most niche ideas can resonate deeply if they’re executed with authenticity. For Romanian football fans — and fans of design — it’s about more than just the game. It’s about the stories these kits tell, the pride they inspire, and the way they blend art, culture, and sport.
Sometimes, the best designs aren’t just found — they’re created.
Reviving the Past: Romania in the Adidas Tiro 25 Kit
After seeing how much engagement my fantasy kits brought to the community, I decided to create more. It seemed like a great way to connect with fans while showcasing my design skills. Oh boy, I was wrong.
This summer isn’t just about Nike’s Total 90 making a grand return. Adidas is also diving into nostalgia by reviving a classic design from the early 2000s: the Tiro 25 teamwear line, announced in December 2024. This design takes inspiration from Adidas kits of the 2006/07 season, most famously worn by Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool when they reached the Champions League final for a second time. The Tiro 25 is essentially a modernized version of those iconic shirts, blending timeless simplicity with a fresh, contemporary touch.
As I often do, I fired up Photoshop to imagine how Romania might have looked in this Tiro 25 shirt template. Historically, Romania has only ever played in template shirts when sponsored by Adidas. Naturally, I figured that if we were still an Adidas nation in 2025, the Tiro 25 would have been a perfect fit. The design strikes a balance between modern style and retro vibes, making it an excellent homage to Romanian football history.
I simulated the design and posted it on Instagram one Sunday morning in January. But within 10 minutes, the post was automatically taken down due to “copyright infringement” reasons. Frustration doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. I spent days navigating Instagram’s support system, hitting dead-end links, and receiving automated responses that led nowhere. The experience left me sour, questioning whether Instagram is the right platform for creative expression. Their support system, I’ve learned, is anything but supportive.
After accepting that I wouldn’t be able to share the Tiro 25 concepts on Instagram, I decided to try other platforms. I posted them on Reddit and Medium, and to my surprise, the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Even Footy Headlines, a go-to source for kit news, reached out to say they’d share the designs on their X (formerly Twitter) account. It was a rare move for them, as they typically don’t post concept kits, but they felt these designs deserved the spotlight.
Their post on X gained excellent engagement, reigniting conversations about Romanian kits and their iconic colors. One comment stood out to me: “Would buy all 3”.
This entire experience has been a rollercoaster of frustration and validation. On one hand, the obstacles with Instagram made me reconsider how I share my creativity. On the other, the warm reception on Reddit, Medium, and X reminded me that Romanian football kits still hold a special place in people’s hearts.
So, while Instagram may not have been the right platform for this project, the Tiro 25 designs found their audience elsewhere. And for me, that’s what truly matters — continuing to share the beauty of Romanian football kits with those who appreciate them, no matter where they are.
I also wrote an article on this matter in January:
-> Adidas and Romanian Football: A Forgotten Connection
OnRomanianFootball 2024 Recap
I originally wrote this 2024 recap in December as a blog post, but it ended up as just an Instagram post on my feed. However, I’d like to share it as part of this month’s recap now.
January–May: My collaboration with the Romanian Football Federation for the national team’s shirt design began in January and concluded in May, after UEFA officially approved the kits.
March: I traveled to Madrid with Romanian national football team the game against Colombia and had design talks with Joma Sport in Toledo. This experience helped me capture the vibe and spirit that paid off in May.
May: I designed the hotel branding for Romanian national team where they stayed during the Euros.
May: I designed the logo for FRF Intelligence Centre Datathon. This event united football and data enthusiasts to explore advanced analytics for performance improvement, featuring top experts and partners like Google Cloud and FIFA.
June: I toured Germany during the Euros and was thrilled to see many fans choosing to brand their shirts with the Brâncuși font I co-designed in 2023.
July: After the Euros, I added 4 match-issued shirts from the tournament to my collection and finally wrote the story about how the Romania national football team came from a sketch
August: I published one of my most popular blog stories, “Romania’s Lookalike Football Shirts”, showcasing research from my work on the new shirt design.
September: We launched KitLegit a mobile app that helps collectors and businesses identify fake shirts, supporting football lovers worldwide.
October-November: I took Romania national football team shirt to Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara, returning it to this iconic stadium after 54 years.
November–December: I’ve focused on writing more for my blog and working on the design of the font that will feature on Romania’s new shirts.
Other articles I wrote this year on Medium:
What is Next?
February will be a bit of downtime, but from March through spring, the focus will be on how successful — or unsuccessful — the launch of the new Romania 2025–2026 shirt turns out to be.
In June, the shirt will make its tournament debut at the Euro Under-21 Championship. Summer will be the perfect time to see how many people wear or buy it, and as we move into autumn, it’ll all come down to whether team will qualify for the World Cup wearing these shirts.
Will cover these topics on Instagram and here on the blog.
I post stories about Romania match worn shirts on Instagram. If you want to get in touch with me you can find me there as onromanianfootball:
https://www.instagram.com/onromanianfootball/
