Designer KidSuper in interview on special World Cup kit | OneFootball

"This is definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment"

After being born in New York in 1991 and studying math, he became known for his exceptional fashion designs and is, above all else, a huge soccer fan! Colm Dillane, better known as KidSuper, has already seen a lot in his career to date, with his designs making it to Paris Fashion Week, but working with PUMA on the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup was something altogether new.

Colm Dillane has designed special jerseys for all seven PUMA teams taking part in the World Cup, which started on Saturday, including our The Sound of Salzburg kit with its Edelweiß flower pattern! The brains behind our jersey visited us at our New Jersey base to take in a training session and speak to us in an interview about the background to this special project, which made its debut in our 2-1 win over CF Pachuca.

Interview with Colm Dillane aka KidSuper

Thanks so much for coming along to visit! Could you please tell us how Colm became KidSuper?

"When I started making clothing – back than it was just T-Shirts – I was 14 years old and looked really young for my age. So I was always coming into high school selling my t-shirts and everybody was calling me ‘kid’ and ‘little kid’. Because I was such a hustler and trying to make stuff happen, KidSuper kind of came – it was actually Super Kid at first and one day I switched it to KidSuper because I thought it would be a cool and interesting brand name. It stuck and I really like, because it makes me want to be a superhero – that pushes me to do amazing things!"

Would you ever have imagined you would design a soccer jersey - or indeed several? "It’s just insane, truly insane to me! I always wanted it though. I grew up playing soccer, in high school, in college and even after college. And I even won one of the skills challenges against some players after the training session! I pushed hard for this and it's crazy that it is real and even crazier that it’s for seven clubs at the World Cup!" Was it your idea or PUMA's to make something special for the Club World Cup?

"I have been working with Puma for five years and so for each meeting I would be like ‘Hey, we should do more soccer stuff’ and ‘Hey, I am the most soccer-loving fashion designer’ or even ‘the best soccer playing fashion designer’. So after years and years of going back and forth with that, we finally started doing some soccer projects, and they decided to do this big project with me, which was just incredible."

What did you associate with Salzburg before the project, and how has that changed?

"During the collaboration I did a lot of research on Salzburg, of course. So prior to that I just had a basic image of Austria, but I didn’t know too much about the place. When I got to research all the different aspects of Salzburg and the music, the culture and all that stuff, I presented a couple of concepts, and it was the Edelweiß flower that really struck out. I thought the white color of the flower would be a very good print for a jersey because it is simple and still beautiful."

Colm Dillane aka KidSuper

How difficult was the design process until everyone was satisfied with it?

"It took a long time actually, and longer than most people think. There was a lot of back and forth, and I presented very different concepts. There was the one with the flower, but there was also one based on the Salzburg nightlife, one based on the music of Salzburg and so it took a lot of discussions with PUMA and the teams. I probably designed 60 jerseys in total for the whole thing, for Salzburg there were around seven designs. I think you guys picked the correct one, though!"

You have already achieved plenty in your career - where would you place designing the World Cup jerseys in it?  "I think this is definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment where I don’t realize it all right now, but I think in retrospect it will be just amazing. Even just in training, when I saw five of the players wearing my cleats that’s just such a cool thing to see!" How different is this project from your other work?

"I think there actually is a little bit more pressure when designing sports kits because there are so many people looking at it and also feeling connected to the jerseys, so you really want to honor and respect them, and really hope the fans also enjoy the design. When I am designing just for KidSuper I don’t have to face this much scrutiny. I made sure to make it about the brand of the clubs, but to also bring myself into the design. Of course, I could have gone simpler with some graphic vector designs but I really wanted to make it something special and even collectable." Will we see you wearing our jersey beyond the World Cup? "For sure! I bought a lot of them for my own store to sell but I think I will keep a lot of them to myself. My store has a little KidSuper soccer field that we just built in it, and we will do tournaments there, so we will wear the jerseys for them."

Second match v Al-Hilal free on DAZN!

We made the perfect start in our new Club World Cup jersey. Our second test comes late on Sunday night (midnight Austrian time) against Al Hilal SFC. This along with all other matches in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is being broadcast for free worldwide by streaming service DAZN. You just need an account (which can also be registered with a subscription).

register now!