The brand responsible for dressing some of the most dazzling teams in European sports history – including that Napoli team – is back. We spoke to Frank Brandoff, the owner and head of NR Classico, an offshoot and partner of Italian sportswear legends NR, to discuss the brand’s revival, its iconic lineage, and what the future may hold.

“NR is more than an old sportswear brand,” Frank Brandhoff, the head of NR Classico, reflects. “It is the epitome of Italian taste and aesthetics.”

But when Nicola Raccuglia–a former footballer who began his career in Palermo–birthed the idea of moving into shirt manufacturing after his retirement, the marriage of sports and fashion was only a peripheral idea.

“During his football career, Nicola saw that special sportswear can give something extra to a player and a team,” Frank explains. He adds that Raccuglia’s obsession with workmanship, the type of materials, the crispness of the colours, and the elegance of the design, was driven by his affection for the game. “Out of that love,” he adds, “he designed truly stylish sportswear.”

The pedigree of the brand’s back-catalogue is one that speaks for itself. “The fact that the football greats of the ‘70s and ‘80s wore our NR clothing still fills us with pride,” Frank beams across.

By the early 1980’s, the silhouettes of many Italian sportswear brands like Kappa, Diadora and Fila had come to dominate the landscape of European football. The financial and sporting might of Serie A was unparalleled. It was the place to be.

Even fans from other countries were obsessed with the images that came out of Italy during those years. 

Before English teams were banned from Europe in 1985, fans turned their away days to Milan, Turin and Rome into pilgrimages; an opportunity to return with bags full of premium sportswear that had begun to permeate the chicest corners of sports entertainment. 

Among those brands, NR stood tall. The famous ‘nr’ (always in the lowercase typeface) donned the chest of every player from Sampdoria to Fiorentina, from AC Milan to Roma. It sits in the highlight reels of Socrates to Baresi, from Baggio to Giannini. 

The sharp v-neck collars and the deeply vibrant colours became so ubiquitous that in the 1983-84 season, seven out of 16 clubs in the Italian first division had their kits made by NR. It had become the Saville Row of Italian sportswear. 

It would not be hyperbolic to say that, in redefining the aesthetics of the Italian football landscape–just years into the widespread availability of colour television and a change in marketing approaches–NR helped Serie A become the richest football league in Europe. The brand’s prominence marked a cultural shift. 

But Frank is honest about the impact that a certain Napoli side, led by a certain Diego Maradona, had on catapulting NR to a whole new level of prestige. “The most iconic silhouette from that period was that of Maradona’s Napoli,” he admits. “We are proud of all of the shirts we made but indeed, Napoli’s shirt, worn by one of the greatest players of all time, obviously stands out.”

In fact, the enduring image of those Maradona years–now engraved into the walls of Naples like hieroglyphics–is a factor that helped resurrect NR as a brand. After struggling to scale-up in the same way that the behemoths of the sportswear world did in the mid-1990s, NR as a brand became open to the failures of any family-run business. It was leased to a Japanese textile company at the turn of the century and subsequently failed shortly after.

Finally in 2017, after almost two decades in the wilderness and a lengthy battle by Nicola and his family—with whom Frank worked closely to secure the brand and naming rights—NR was reborn. The synchronicity of NR’s rebirth and the rebirth of Napoli is not a coincidence. “The spirit of NR lives in Naples,” Frank warmly admits, “through the murals and images and artwork of Maradona and those title-winning years.”

The brand became indelible. “This was obviously a very important period for Napoli but certainly also for NR. Walking around Napoli and seeing all the murals of Maradona in NR’s iconic shirts gives us a lot of pride!” It’s an unavoidable quirk of the city that the glory years of NR happen to be frozen in time; anywhere you find a shrine to Diego, NR is present.

‘Napoli fever’ and the joy of that third Scudetto has heightened interest in NR Classico even further, with the return of a certain piece of football culture history just far too tempting to overlook. “We are now producing the rain jacket of Maradona’s iconic warm-up, a Napoli training shirt and a Maradona memorial shirt,” Frank promises with excitement.

But that sense of nostalgia, however strongly linked it may be to a golden era for the Napolitani, is not confined to the city of Naples. “There are great shirts from that period that disappear under the radar.” 

Most recently, NR Classico has dedicated itself to maintaining that sense of beauty, with a view to returning the brand to its rightful place at the very peak of Italian sportswear. The contemporary, limited edition products use the same Italian craftsmanship that first inspired the maestro Nicola Raccuglia when he started out. “We have full confidence in the future, to bring NR back into the picture in full force – back where it belongs.” 

In the revival of NR, Frank has unearthed gems that are still incredibly popular today, particularly in the era of the ‘vintage’ football shirt. “NR’s shirts are still something of an addiction for many people,” he adds, looking for a way to explain the lust for sportswear that has not seen a football pitch in a very long time. He searches for a simpler way to describe the phenomenon: “It’s not just nostalgia.” And then he finds it: “They are simply some of the most beautiful football shirts ever made, with timeless class and elegance.” 

It’s hard to argue with that.

Shop the latest collection of NR reissues at their website, and follow the Instagram: @nrclassico.