From Sam Roberts : What’s in a name, Myles?
For someone who claims the only history they’ve learned is the history politicians don’t want you to know, you’re doing a good job of regurgitating the story Adidas want you to believe on the new Adidas Tango 12 ball.
It is clearly a truly outstanding ball and has a very reliable flight in the air.
However, it is a Tango in name only.
After the controversy with the Adidas Jabulani at the 2010 World Cup Adidas knew they needed a winner for this tournament.
The original Tango from 1978 was comprised of 20 hexagonal panels (take a look on wikipedia!), while the new Tango has 32 differently-shaped panels.
The construction is an ingenious one and is ironically based more on the woeful Jabulani than the original Tango. The new ball is everything Adidas tried to achieve with the Jabulani, but failed.
In a classic branding exercise, which could be studied by marketing and advertising students in years to come, the only feature of the original Tango transferred to the Tango 12 ball is the stencilled black ‘Triad’ paint effect creating white circles within the grouped triads.
Great look, great reliability and bugger all to do with the original Tango – apart from its name and some artful black stencils.
Thanks Sam, says Myles.
In 14 years of blogging I don’t think I’ve been accused of “regurgitating”.
Did you know that Mrs Merkel has flow to the Ukraine to see the Greece-Germany quarter-final? How diplomatic is that?
Still, she is a proper football fan.
Rob Hughes has met Merkel and told me that she was a football fan long before she went into politics.