Either the reference is too clever for us or something just slightly with the new Ireland jersey.
Umbro unveiled the jersey the Boys In Green will be wearing at Euro 2016 on Friday and we are big, big fans.
But we also noticed something unusual about the advertising.
Fixture details & the #euro2016 sleeve badges will be available from April once the kits for each game are confirmed pic.twitter.com/yzfHhgGcP2
— Umbro Ireland (@UmbroIreland) March 4, 2016
We have no issue with the jersey itself, but the numbers 53.331 N, 6.2283 W in the top left corner of every image intrigued us. These co-ordinates are also inside the collar on every shirt.
As cartophiles we instantly recognised that they were latitude and longitude figures, but for what?
Our first instinct was that it was the location of the Aviva Stadium, which we quickly found out was not the case. By using Google maps, we discovered that the Aviva is located (roughly) at 53.3351 N 6.2283 W.
We then decided to check out the coordinates they gave us, which admittedly should have been our first step. Searching 53.331 N, 6.2283 W on Google Maps brought us to an apartment complex called The Sweepstakes on the other side of the river Dodder in Ballsbridge.
At first we thought there might be some sort of connection between this apartment block and the Irish team or the new jersey’s conception. Perhaps the marketing campaign deliberately used an obscure reference to trip up smart arses like ourselves.
However, a Google search of the term “Aviva Stadium Coordinates” may have given us the answer. According to the top result, which comes from that super unreliable source lecturers constantly warn you about known as Wikipedia, it’s coordinates are 53.331 N, 6.2283 W.
You can’t pull the wool over our eyes, Wikipedia. You missed the mark by about 700 metres.
Update 10/03/16 –
Crisis averted. Umbro have got in touch with us and informed us the coordinates are correct on the jerseys themselves. It seems that pesky second five went missing for the advertising.
