Real Madrid and adidas Bring Back Yohji Yamamoto's 2014/15 Y-3 Dragon Jersey, on Sale Now From $140

Real Madrid and adidas have brought back the Y-3 dragon jersey. The black third kit Yohji Yamamoto designed for the 2014/15 season went back on sale on Thursday, November 5, announced by the club with a reel captioned "an icon returns" and a story on its own site. The club says the collection is available now at Real Madrid stores, adidas.com and selected adidas stores.

It's a straight reissue. Real Madrid's store calls the short-sleeve shirt "a 1-to-1 bring back of an iconic design": the white Henley collar, the three white stripes on the shoulders and the grey dragon winding up the front around the sponsor's name, and, in the store's photo, Yamamoto's signature inside the collar. According to the club, the two-headed dragon stands for power and ambition and the bird beside it for agility.

Real Madrid

The pieces and prices

Four pieces are on Real Madrid's US store. The short-sleeve jersey is $140 and the long-sleeve version, which the store describes as the Authentic Third Long Sleeve Jersey, is $200. A black full-zip track top with white stripes and pink and white shoulder panels is $150 (the store lists it as a long-sleeve jersey, but its description and photos are of the track top), and the matching track pants are $125. The club's own list is the same: short- and long-sleeve jerseys, a jacket and track pants.

Real Madrid

Our read

Twelve years on, Real Madrid treats the dragon kit as a collector's piece, and says so in its announcement. A faithful remake at $140 cashes in on that, and it tests how far a club can lean on its back catalogue the way sneaker brands lean on retros. If it sells, expect other clubs with a cult kit in their past to try the same.

What it doesn't do is bring Yamamoto back. The club presents this as a reissue of his 2014/15 design, not a new Y-3 collaboration, and its announcement doesn't name a new piece by him. It lands a few weeks before Yamamoto receives the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Fashion Awards on November 30, which makes the timing look good, though the club's announcement doesn't mention the award.