2018/19 Soccer Kits

[BJ Sands]

https://twitter.com/RickSpur/status/976877645895004160

 

[upperV03]

^Those are both fakes (pretty decent ones, though). It’s already been reported that the shield will be gone on next season’s kits, so that’s pretty much a dead giveaway. Plus, the navy jersey has horizontal lines to simulate the knit detailing on the torso of Nike’s new 2018/19 authentic jerseys, but the replica jerseys don’t have that. And since the jersey has the silver replica tag instead of the gold one that appears on the authentic jerseys, that’s another dead giveaway that those are fakes.

[Digby]

3 hours ago, upperV03 said:

Depressingly beautiful...

 

I'm not sure if this is me trying to be a black cloud or a silver lining, but at any rate, I don't like the half-effect at all! It's not terrible on the away due to the tonal effect, but the home just looks really strange, busy and unbalanced to me.

[aawagner011]

4 hours ago, Digby said:

 

I'm not sure if this is me trying to be a black cloud or a silver lining, but at any rate, I don't like the half-effect at all! It's not terrible on the away due to the tonal effect, but the home just looks really strange, busy and unbalanced to me.

I agree with you. I think both are pretty decent but not great. They seem trendy and not ones which would be remembered as classics. I’m not a fan of the royal blue and the fade from red to blue is bizarre. Combined with the diagonal stripe pattern, it’s too busy. The navy one works a bit better, but I’d have preferred these kits if the stripes were a little more traditional.

[Bayne]

The red stripes fading into blue doesn't work for me. Looks kind of like someone in illustrator using the gradient tool but they don't know how colours work.

[MJWalker45]

Italy wearing a tribute to Davide Astori as well as 120th anniversary scroll for upcoming friendly vs Argentina.

[aawagner011]

So...about that US kit that's supposed to launch today.  It's already lunch time on the east coast and still no announcement. Are they just going to quietly reveal it during the Friday evening rush hour news dump and hope no one notices?

[MJWalker45]

44 minutes ago, aawagner011 said:

So...about that US kit that's supposed to launch today.  It's already lunch time on the east coast and still no announcement. Are they just going to quietly reveal it during the Friday evening rush hour news dump and hope no one notices?

They could be waiting until later in the day when they can hit both coasts at once when both are fully awake. 

[Conrad.]

 

[ffdb38]

https://news.nike.com/news/usa-soccer-federation-2018-collection

[aawagner011]

The blue US kit is much better this go around than the white one. Also, it drives me crazy how they describe the blue fade on the red stripes as a subtle nod to prior sash kits. They conveniently forget that every single sash kit before this one, the sash went the other direction. The white is way too busy, while the navy kit is a bit more toned down. I’d give the white kit a C- and the navy kit a solid B.

 

Side note- Germany is playing Spain right now (ESPN3) and Germany’s kit is absolutely perfect. Thankfully adidas has stopped their monochrome phase and it’s a proper teal green with white shorts and green socks. Spain in their traditional kit.

[MJWalker45]

7 minutes ago, aawagner011 said:

The blue US kit is much better this go around than the white one. Also, it drives me crazy how they describe the blue fade on the red stripes as a subtle nod to prior sash kits. They conveniently forget that every single sash kit before this one, the sash went the other direction. The white is way too busy, while the navy kit is a bit more toned down. I’d give the white kit a C- and the navy kit a solid B.

 

Side note- Germany is playing Spain right now (ESPN3) and Germany’s kit is absolutely perfect. Thankfully adidas has stopped their monochrome phase and it’s a proper teal green with white shorts and green socks. Spain in their traditional kit.

I'll have to watch this later but you brought up a very important point. The manufacturers went out of their way to make sure that you could tell teams apart without taking into account that we already can figure that out by how they dressed the last 100 years! Since they appeared to have sat down this time and actually listened to fans, we will be getting a very well dressed World Cup this year. 

[Digby]

Interesting details to me:

 

 

The icon on the left only exists inside the tag of the neckline, but the PR speak claims it's NASA-inspired, which makes me wonder what, generally using NASA/the space program as design inspiration for the US NTs would look like. Not only could it be fresh from a design perspective, but it might just be a smart move at a time when the more nationalist iconography can be seen as political, no matter how innocuous. This icon, in particular, would have made a much more interesting base for the new USSF logo than the generic shield they came up with. Gimme some rocket art for the next generation.

 

 

We also, yet again, have a new typeface for the names and numbering. On its merits I like this a lot, these numbers are bold and clean and balance a modern look with classic sport styling. I absolutely HATED the fat, soft typeface used on the raglan sleeve kits so good riddance to that. Having said that (and not to be "and such small portions" about it), but as I said in the World Cup thread, I think consistency in typefaces is a good way for teams to build a brand particularly when they're putting out new kit sets every six months, and this is, by my count, the sixth different typeface the US teams have used in the past five years. That's way too many! This poor guy did this whole thing for a typeface set that would stand the test of time and it got tossed just like that. I don't see what's useful about churning through typefaces.

 

Lastly: interesting to see "home" and "away" designations gone away in favor of "association" and... er, "light" and "dark". May as well given the way these teams wear these kits, just interesting for it to be formalized.

[seasaltvanilla]

This Spain-Germany match looks great.

[upperV03]

43 minutes ago, seasaltvanilla said:

This Spain-Germany match looks great.

Yeah it does, although as much as I love their secondary, I’d prefer to see Germany match up against Spain in their classic white/black/white kit combo if they were to meet in the World Cup. Obviously they wanted to debut the new secondaries in today’s match since they were just released, but in an actual competition I’d hope they’d stick with the classic homes in matchups like this where there isn’t a clash. Also, since both of those teams are in the WC, this would be more fitting in the dedicated World Cup thread.

[Scratcher]

I don't think FIFA would allow one team in navy shorts and the other one in black ones

[upperV03]

13 minutes ago, Scratcher said:

I don't think FIFA would allow one team in navy shorts and the other one in black ones

I think they would, especially with how stark the contrast is between Germany’s white shirts and socks and Spain’s red shirts and black socks. 

[Webfooter]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

Interesting details to me:

 

 

The icon on the left only exists inside the tag of the neckline, but the PR speak claims it's NASA-inspired, which makes me wonder what, generally using NASA/the space program as design inspiration for the US NTs would look like. Not only could it be fresh from a design perspective, but it might just be a smart move at a time when the more nationalist iconography can be seen as political, no matter how innocuous. This icon, in particular, would have made a much more interesting base for the new USSF logo than the generic shield they came up with. Gimme some rocket art for the next generation.

 

 

We also, yet again, have a new typeface for the names and numbering. On its merits I like this a lot, these numbers are bold and clean and balance a modern look with classic sport styling. I absolutely HATED the fat, soft typeface used on the raglan sleeve kits so good riddance to that. Having said that (and not to be "and such small portions" about it), but as I said in the World Cup thread, I think consistency in typefaces is a good way for teams to build a brand particularly when they're putting out new kit sets every six months, and this is, by my count, the sixth different typeface the US teams have used in the past five years. That's way too many! This poor guy did this whole thing for a typeface set that would stand the test of time and it got tossed just like that. I don't see what's useful about churning through typefaces.

 

Lastly: interesting to see "home" and "away" designations gone away in favor of "association" and... er, "light" and "dark". May as well given the way these teams wear these kits, just interesting for it to be formalized.

Have a feeling that typeset got tossed because of what happened to the men's team last year and they wanted something new.  While I like the new graphics for this year, I do agree that US Soccer needs to find an identity and stick with it longer than Nike's latest ad campaign.

[upperV03]

7 minutes ago, Webfooter said:

Have a feeling that typeset got tossed because of what happened to the men's team last year and they wanted something new.  While I like the new graphics for this year, I do agree that US Soccer needs to find an identity and stick with it longer than Nike's latest ad campaign.

The new typeface was almost surely designed in conjunction with the new kits, so it would’ve been used regardless of whether they qualified or not. The same can be said for the new typefaces for England, France, Brazil, etc. Even the Netherlands has a new typeface that’ll be launched with their new kits, and they’re obviously in the same boat as the U.S.

[pepis21]

Greece:

 

Slovenia:

 

Finland home: