New England and U.S. Shirts: Verdicts

By Tom Dunmore • Feb 4th, 2008 • Category: News & Notes • 2 responses

The past week has seen the two countries I’ve lived my entire life in, England and the United States, both unveil new national shirts. I’m slightly more pleased with England’s retro look, as to me, the United States continue to fail to build any identity with their kits.

The new England away kit was unveiled today (hat-tip: The Offside):

(See also photos and comment at Football Shirt Culture).It reminds of their 1980s Admiral kit in the styling:

England 1982 kit

I’d say it’s a winner, but then, I still have horrible nightmares about the days when England’s second shirt was grey instead of red. What do you think?

Meanwhile, last week the U.S. revealed theirs:

New USA shirt

This shirt has elicited wildly contrasting verdicts, with some calling it a preppy golf shirt, and others appreciating its simplicity. I don’t think it solves what Slate last year called “the U.S. soccer team’s growing uniform crisis”.

In other national team jersey news, France has a new away kit, Portugal has a new home shirt, and South Korea went to considerable lengths with their Nike launch video for their new look.

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Tom Dunmore is the editor of Pitch Invasion.
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2 Responses »

  1. Chris O on February 5th, 2008 at 1:35 am:

    I’m not quite sure what to make of that USA shirt! It looks very ’80’s’ and smart with it, but I feel it lacks a certain something. Not quite sure what though!

    As for the new France (2nd) and Portugal shirts, again they look smart but don’t seem to have any real spark to them. It’s something that they have in common with the welter of Puma strips currently on show at the African Nations Cup - style in subdued form.

    Oh and thanks for telling me about the new England 2nd strip - I saw it here first! To be honest, I noticed a ‘coming soon’ image on the FA’s website that suggested the kit was being launched on February 12th, so I feel justified in feeling so surprised that it came to light a week earlier.

    If you go here, you’ll get a clearer view of it…

    http://englandstore.thefa.com/stores/fa/default.aspx?portal=D4N4C664

  2. Sven on February 5th, 2008 at 2:49 pm:

    Altough it looks great, I think the USA shirt has a “tennis” look and it lacks a football look. Maybe thats what you’re missing ChrisO. Nike does a good job this year but the portugal shirt isn’t very promising. It could be a good design for Morocco though. France always has good shirts and the England shirt is a victim of high expectations. The korea kit.. ai..ai..ai..

    Tom, Thanks for the Football shirt culture tag. I think it’s the first ever :-)

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