MLS Kits 2019

[AnPheitseog]

6 minutes ago, upperV03 said:

Ha! Yeah, I can’t say I’m surprised, but still disappointing that they went all-white vs. all-black instead of all-grey vs. all-orange.

 

Anyways, here are all of the matchups from yesterday:

 

Of note:

 

- Colorado/Columbus was an absolutely gorgeous matchup. Two solid kits, and a great clash of colors.

 

- NYRB wore their grey shorts with the red kits for just the second time. Still not a fan of this look, as the red/grey/red combo is just a worse version of the red/white/red, which I would consider to be their best available combo.

 

- The Whitecaps had their annual Pride Night and wore the new Pride pre-match tops and had special rainbow jersey numbers:

The Pride number look a LOT better and are a lot more visible than the regular ones. I like it.

[PrimalCookie]

The Pride numbers are far more readable than the regular ones.

[upperV03]

Yesterday’s matchups:

[upperV03]

Last night’s matchups:

[upperV03]

All of the matchups from the last three days:

 

Notes:

 

- The Revs wore their new navy clash shorts for just the second time.

 

- The Loons wore the pride pre-match tops and had rainbow jersey numbers:

[Gothamite]

Holy .

 

Top to bottom, this is a very good-looking league. 

[upperV03]

Tonight’s lone matchup:

[PaleVermilion81]

I wonder what Montreal would've looked like with white shorts/blue stripes? That could've been a good look for them.

[Gothamite]

Good look at the Pride numbers.

 

 

The horizontal color stripes break up the way our eyes read them, making the numbers a lot less legible than solid colors would be.  But the colors themselves looked great against NYC's sky blue.

 

[upperV03]

^And here’s what their matchup with FCC looked like:

[Gothamite]

An all-white kit looks good in a matchup with pretty much anything. 

 

I mean, I understand why fans want their teams to have more distinctive change kits, but I also understand why the league seems to like these. They guarantee a solid matchup. 

[upperV03]

Yesterday’s matchup:

[PaleVermilion81]

On 6/7/2019 at 10:27 AM, Gothamite said:

An all-white kit looks good in a matchup with pretty much anything. 

 

I mean, I understand why fans want their teams to have more distinctive change kits, but I also understand why the league seems to like these. They guarantee a solid matchup. 

 

For me it's that every team's white kit is white jersey, white shorts, and white socks and the only main difference is that the 3 adidas stripes are a team color. I'd just like something more done with these white kits to make each one more visually unique. Like for example Montreal has white and blue striped socks, and I like that Portland will wear green shorts with their white jerseys sometimes, and that both LA Galaxy and Chicago have unique chest designs on their jerseys that add in a nice splash of color (and Vancouver minus their horrible solution to the numbers on the back). Basically just something to break it up so every team's white look isn't the same.

[MJWalker45]

1 hour ago, PaleVermilion81 said:

 

For me it's that every team's white kit is white jersey, white shorts, and white socks and the only main difference is that the 3 adidas stripes are a team color. I'd just like something more done with these white kits to make each one more visually unique. Like for example Montreal has white and blue striped socks, and I like that Portland will wear green shorts with their white jerseys sometimes, and that both LA Galaxy and Chicago have unique chest designs on their jerseys that add in a nice splash of color (and Vancouver minus their horrible solution to the numbers on the back). Basically just something to break it up so every team's white look isn't the same.

I'd like third kits. That's the reason everyone seems to have an all white kit in my opinion. It works for baseball and basketball but that doesn't mean we need it in MLS. 

[PaleVermilion81]

59 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I'd like third kits. That's the reason everyone seems to have an all white kit in my opinion. It works for baseball and basketball but that doesn't mean we need it in MLS. 

 

Problem is Adidas won't do third kits in MLS. 

[Gothamite]

2 hours ago, PaleVermilion81 said:

 

For me it's that every team's white kit is white jersey, white shorts, and white socks and the only main difference is that the 3 adidas stripes are a team color. I'd just like something more done with these white kits to make each one more visually unique. Like for example Montreal has white and blue striped socks, and I like that Portland will wear green shorts with their white jerseys sometimes, and that both LA Galaxy and Chicago have unique chest designs on their jerseys that add in a nice splash of color (and Vancouver minus their horrible solution to the numbers on the back). Basically just something to break it up so every team's white look isn't the same.

 

I understand that objection, but I’m not sure I totally agree with it. The white kits create really good-looking matchups. 

[Digby]

So, I agree generally with the idea that all-white kits are a safe but reliable bet for aesthetically pleasing matchups, with these caveats:

 

1. I don't love white against light blue. Luckily NYCFC uses the navy shorts and a pretty saturated light blue, so this isn't too bad. But I always remember being the hardest game to follow my life was LA Galaxy at SKC, in the latter's all-sky-blue era, at sunset.

 

2. FCC's white away kit is so cheap looking as to never look good.

 

3. I think what gets to me about MLS's current change kit era is that it does strip clubs of their identities to some extent. As it stands, there's very little distinction between Atlanta and Minnesota and Colorado for kits that they're each wearing half the time. It's the mix of American-style all-white with global-style standardized league numbers and shared manufacturer templates that leaves little room for team-specific traditions. Like, everyone in the NBA wears an all-white jersey but no one is going to get the Celtics and T'Wolves and Rockets all mixed up. We've talked many times about how the crests and colors make MLS well-designed on the whole, but this jersey trend of recent years I think lets that somewhat down, and lends to the feeling that individual teams don't have a lot of identity, and you're just kinda seeing Generic Atlanta MLS vs. Generic DC MLS or whatever other cities.

[upperV03]

Yesterday’s matchups:

[crashcarson15]

My biggest issue with most every club having an all-white change kit is that it misses so much of the soccer aesthetic. To me, soccer is turning on three matches in one day and seeing a diverse set of kit matchups, whether the visiting club is in their primary or change kit.

 

Judging by this thread, a majority of MLS matches this season feature an all-white kit. That’s not diversity, it’s an Americanization of the sport’s aesthetic.

[MJWalker45]

14 minutes ago, crashcarson15 said:

My biggest issue with most every club having an all-white change kit is that it misses so much of the soccer aesthetic. To me, soccer is turning on three matches in one day and seeing a diverse set of kit matchups, whether the visiting club is in their primary or change kit.

 

Judging by this thread, a majority of MLS matches this season feature an all-white kit. That’s not diversity, it’s an Americanization of the sport’s aesthetic.

Part of that may be an attenpt to help newer American soccer fans pick out who's home and away, but they have enough devices to do that like the scorebug and the update bars that display kit colors. I also don't like teams switching between the home and away kit for home games. Columbus is really bad about this. Man United would never wear their pink kit at home and neither should the Crew wear an alternate kit at home.