NWSL Kits

[vtgco]

I quite like it as well. Probably my favorite NWSL logo of a busy year, since it's well executed unlike Angel City and not generic like the Current's logo is...

However, I agree with the takes online; it's sad that it basically seals the grave on the return of the old Boston Breakers :(

 

I'm hoping they won't go with a solid-color pink jersey, because two pink teams in SoCal would be odd, and Angel City needs a pink jersey more than the Wave does. A yellow to pink gradient would be okay though :)

[Digby]

5 hours ago, vtgco said:

I quite like it as well. Probably my favorite NWSL logo of a busy year, since it's well executed unlike Angel City and not generic like the Current's logo is...

However, I agree with the takes online; it's sad that it basically seals the grave on the return of the old Boston Breakers

 

Trust me, I'd love to have NWSL in Boston again and think it's a no-brainer of an expansion spot ... but the last incarnation of the Breakers did not meet professional standards and, it turns out, were running a visa fraud scheme through the team. I think that brand was already buried.

[vtgco]

3 hours ago, Digby said:

 

Trust me, I'd love to have NWSL in Boston again and think it's a no-brainer of an expansion spot ... but the last incarnation of the Breakers did not meet professional standards and, it turns out, were running a visa fraud scheme through the team. I think that brand was already buried.

Oh wow, I had no idea... And I suppose this story is yet another of the many reasons the Sky Blue name & ownership deserved to go.

I guess it's fair as long as the Red Stars and Courage keep carrying on the historical names, then!

[Digby]

Yeah, with the rebrand and moving to a real stadium, Sky Blue made it out okay. The Breakers were a real mess playing in a barely-acceptable stadium at the end. I've had hopes that, absent the Revs ever playing in or near Boston, an NWSL team could maybe find a smaller-but-closer stadium to play in and really fill the city team role. But I don't know what stadium fills that role and who'd want to run the team.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

I'd be surprised if SD doesn't go navy and white with their kits.  Most teams ain't using bold colors these days on their uniforms.  But it seems kinda silly to have all those colors in the crest and not use them on the kits.  I ain't getting my hopes up.

 

I do hope the league allows for 3rd kits, LA and SD could really use them well.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

I just realized we should be getting three new kits in the next two months: ACFC away and SD Wave!

[MJWalker45]

And a new home or away for the rest of the league. Speaking of, Chicago is working with a firm to find a primary shirt sponsor.

[vtgco]

16 hours ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

Games start in two weeks and STILL no kits for Wave FC of NWSL.

Looks like someone just posted their Challenge Cup kit on Reddit, from a player's Instagram:

Sounds temporary like last season's KC kits (when are those new ones coming?)

 

 

Also, the Thorns wore a green practice jersey today in preseason against the Reign, and they totally need to do that as a real secondary jersey sometime:

Has the sorta text-less partial logo thing that Orlando's done for their training tops too; I like it!

[upperV03]

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Thorns in the green tops last night. A bunch of fans were freaking out that they were actual jerseys, but they are just the new training tops for this season. They’ll have green shorts to match for training as well. They’re actually only the second club in the world to receive the new 2022/23 Dri-Fit ADV training gear from Nike behind Barcelona, and it’s the technology we’ll see on the rest of Nike’s top teams around the world next season.  I’ve been wanting the Thorns to wear green in some form since their inception, so I’ll take it even though it is just for training. I do wish the green was more of a forest green than olive, but again I’ll take it. 
 

Their actual jerseys (replica versions) have leaked, too:

 

I like the black shirt well enough, though I still think it’s a downgrade from the rose print shirt and I still wish they’d go back to red-heavy primaries. I like the cuff striping on the white, but the rest is pretty underwhelming and I don’t like the light gray/blue color or the crest treatment. I’m sure the full kits will look better, and they should be revealed soon. I’d like to see red shorts for the secondaries, that’d improve them immensely IMO.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

The last thing this league needs is more Navy

[Digby]

Not sure about the way the crest is recolored on that Thorns away... just looks odd. Otherwise both the designs are fine, shame their sponsor has apparently rebranded to a Times New Roman generic wordmark.

[vtgco]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

Not sure about the way the crest is recolored on that Thorns away... just looks odd. Otherwise both the designs are fine, shame their sponsor has apparently rebranded to a Times New Roman generic wordmark.

Agree that the ad wordmarks are a downgrade; one of the few times more ad text would be an improvement, like the old "Health Services" subtitle below "Providence"...

 

That recoloration on the away is weird enough on its own, since only one element is red (why is the rose not the thing that's red?) But it's made especially bad since *nothing* on the kit matches anything else's coloration! That unnecessarily outlined Nike swoosh, the black on the cuff that appears nowhere else, the stripeless collar... What's going on?

 

On 3/6/2022 at 8:43 AM, upperV03 said:

I like the cuff striping on the white, but the rest is pretty underwhelming and I don’t like the light gray/blue color or the crest treatment. I’m sure the full kits will look better, and they should be revealed soon. I’d like to see red shorts for the secondaries, that’d improve them immensely IMO.

Yeah red shorts would help, and red socks for the home kit too! At least it'd distract from the details on the away :P

You're right that that home kit would probably look good in red with black vines, or with the spaces between the vines filled in to make alternating red/black hoops like the Timbers' old black and red kit.

 

Anyways, you two are Portland fans, right? Any thoughts that new wordmark on the side panels? I can't decide if it's cool or over-designed.

 

On 3/6/2022 at 9:30 AM, CaliforniaGlowin said:

The last thing this league needs is more Navy

I agree, but it could just be a temporary like the Loyal's orange so I'm not too bothered...The best first step to solving that is the Spirit going back to red shirts IMO.

I'm honestly more worried about all the black now with Orlando, Gotham, Louisville, Portland, Angel City, and Chicago all wearing black so often...

 

Lastly, the Reign are releasing a new kit next week. I'm surprised since I vaguely remember hearing grumblings we would just stick with our two existing bespoke kits...

 

[upperV03]

1 hour ago, vtgco said:

Agree that the ad wordmarks are a downgrade; one of the few times more ad text would be an improvement, like the old "Health Services" subtitle below "Providence"...

 

That recoloration on the away is weird enough on its own, since only one element is red (why is the rose not the thing that's red?) But it's made especially bad since *nothing* on the kit matches anything else's coloration! That unnecessarily outlined Nike swoosh, the black on the cuff that appears nowhere else, the stripeless collar... What's going on?

 

Yeah red shorts would help, and red socks for the home kit too! At least it'd distract from the details on the away

You're right that that home kit would probably look good in red with black vines, or with the spaces between the vines filled in to make alternating red/black hoops like the Timbers' old black and red kit.

 

Anyways, you two are Portland fans, right? Any thoughts that new wordmark on the side panels? I can't decide if it's cool or over-designed.

I mean their name is the Thorns so if there’s one element that should stand out on the crest, it probably should be the thorns instead of the rose. That said, I’m not a big fan of how the crest is recolored on the white shirt, either. I actually think it would’ve been cool to just have the thorns around the rose on the white shirt instead of the full badge. In that case I probably would’ve gone ahead and made the rose red to match the thorns, but just having the thorns bigger would’ve made a big difference in it of itself.

 

As for the wordmark, I like it. I think it could be called over designed, but I think the “thorns” are pretty well integrated into the type. It certainly has more character than the Agency derivative that’s used in the badge. Not necessarily something I’d want to see used all over the place, but a nice complement to the badge and I like it being used in the side panels on the shirts. Here’s a better look at it:

[upperV03]

The authentic versions of the Thorns’ new shirts have been put up for sale by our local soccer shop (not the team store, though):

 

Both look better with the engineered knit fabric, but still not the best. I actually like the black shirt for the most part, but I was expecting more. Don’t much care for the white shirt, but red shorts would save it for me. I’m hoping the black kit has socks with the same stripes as the shirt. From what I know, these kits were actually supposed to be for last year but they decided to carry over the 2020 kits instead since they were hardly used in ‘20.

[vtgco]

Here's Carolina's new home jersey:

 

Would love to see gold replace all the white, especially since the white and gold on the collar bleed together.... But otherwise it's alright I guess...

 

 

17 hours ago, upperV03 said:

As for the wordmark, I like it. I think it could be called over designed, but I think the “thorns” are pretty well integrated into the type

Thanks for the closeup! Looking at it more closely, the awkward serif on the C in "FC" and the overlapping "TH" feel questionable but I agree that the little thorns work well!

[DrJack]

3 hours ago, upperV03 said:

The authentic versions of the Thorns’ new shirts have been put up for sale by our local soccer shop (not the team store, though):

 

Both look better with the engineered knit fabric, but still not the best. I actually like the black shirt for the most part, but I was expecting more. Don’t much care for the white shirt, but red shorts would save it for me. I’m hoping the black kit has socks with the same stripes as the shirt. From what I know, these kits were actually supposed to be for last year but they decided to carry over the 2020 kits instead since they were hardly used in ‘20.

I don't actually have any real issue with the whites, especially if they pair them with red shorts.  Or white shorts/red socks...
And I do like the design of the black jersey, but I agree with you that the team needs to be primarily in red.  It's a shame not to have a primarily red kit for the fourth(?) year in a row.  I'd love to see it reversed, with black thorns across a red base.

[upperV03]

42 minutes ago, DrJack said:

I don't actually have any real issue with the whites, especially if they pair them with red shorts.  Or white shorts/red socks...
And I do like the design of the black jersey, but I agree with you that the team needs to be primarily in red.  It's a shame not to have a primarily red kit for the fourth(?) year in a row.  I'd love to see it reversed, with black thorns across a red base.

I’d keep the badge colors the same as on the real thing, but otherwise that looks great with the red and black swapped. Red/black/black is my ideal kit combo for the Thorns’ primaries and also what they entered the league with (I’d also consider their 2019 primary kit red/black/black bc the shirt looked mainly red in action). 
 

In any case, here are a couple more looks at the black shirt:

 

Happy to see the thorns carried over to the back, even with the gap for the numbers. I’m hoping they go with red names/numbers this time, but I’m expecting white again.

 

As for the secondary, here are prediction mock-ups of the full kit (with both white and red shorts options). I definitely prefer the red shorts:

[Digby]

I didn't realize the Thorns ditched green and the monochrome crest is their primary look. I do like the idea of having some green in there as an alt look, like reverse Timbers.

[upperV03]

5 minutes ago, Digby said:

I didn't realize the Thorns ditched green and the monochrome crest is their primary look. I do like the idea of having some green in there as an alt look, like reverse Timbers.

Yeah, they ditched the green in the crest in 2019. The “official” crest is now the red and white monochrome version, but the black and red version is used just as much and what’s primarily used on Nike training gear and apparel (and obviously the last black jerseys and the new ones). I wish they kept the original, full-color crest.

 

I’m encouraged by the new green training gear, though, and hope they find ways to use some green again. I would really love a green kit eventually, or even just some green accents on an official kit. Wouldn’t be surprised to see it worked into the next kits (either in 2023 or ‘24). 

[upperV03]

Another note on the Thorns; all of this year’s training gear and Nike retail gear uses the partial crest designs. I fully expect them to use these designs more and more and it wouldn’t even shock me to see them do what the Timbers did and promote the partial crest (without the team name) to primary status. At the very least, I’d actually love to see them use the thorns around the rose as the jersey emblem.