MLS kits 2023

[4_tattoos]

I have a soft spot for Austin FC since they have the same colors as the youth club I played for as a kid. I was hoping they would move away from stripes with their new jerseys as stripes has been done to death in MLS and in the sport in general. Not only did they keep stripes on the new jerseys, but somehow they managed to take a simple design overboard. I didn't think it was possible for an article of clothing to be a try hard until I saw these earlier today. At least the back of the jersey is green now.

 

I really like Portland's new jerseys. Only small change I would have liked to see would be the Adidas stripes on the shoulders being gold instead of white. Don't remember which one of you guys said Portland should maintain plaid pattern as a permanent element on their primary jerseys going forward, but I co-sign on that 100%!!!

[MJWalker45]

I love this comparison.

 

 

[seasaltvanilla]

3 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

The new Austin FC kit reminds me of dazzle ships, which is a naval camouflage:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OaS-q5-O4bs/TpEqYm9wIXI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/IpcYewvCn44/s280/Dazzle%2B10.jpg

 

 

Austin is years late and did it worse

 

 

 

If you're going dazzle, go dazzle. Austin just looks like there was a printing error with the scale of the stripes.

 

[WBeltz]

I think NYCFC, Portland & Colorado ran away with the best for the first round of reveals. Austin is nice, but they either should’ve done full dazzle camo or pick one of the patterns they used on it and had that be the whole shirt design. 
 

Are the next reveals tomorrow or is there a break then Friday it starts up again?

[upperV03]

SKC looks like it’s gonna be an absolute snoozer:

Not bad at all, but so similar to their last primaries. They’ve really lost their way with kits recently, unfortunately.

[officeglenn]

6 minutes ago, WBeltz said:

Are the next reveals tomorrow or is there a break then Friday it starts up again?

 

Dallas, DC, SKC, Galaxy and RSL all scheduled for tomorrow. Others could pop up as well.

[PK22]

As an Austin fan, unfortunately, it was 1 step forward and 2 steps back with this design. 

 

The striping pattern is too extreme on the front, so that is bad

But hey, at least they heard the criticism of their first kit and made the back of the jersey verde, so that is good.

But they are using white numbers on the jersey instead of black, which looks bad and will be next to impossible to see.

 

Overall its a big disappointment because the team looked so great last year with two winning kits. All they had to do was make some slight change to the stripes (so they can say its a new kit) and make the back verde with black lettering and it would have been a winner.

[tBBP]

I see MLS is still on this whole "nickname the kit" trip...you know, eventually that wells gonna run dry, and then what? I get progress, ans I don't mind it, but sometimes doin' too much is just that: doin' too much. And nicnknaming every new kit that comes out is doin' too much.

 

All that said, Portland and Atlanta are the clear runaway winners of this first round of reveals, with New England pulling in a close third.

[BadSeed84]

Pic of full kit for Union.

 

I still don't care for the jersey, but glad they went with light blue shorts.

[upperV03]

I do not like this kit for Austin at all.

 

[4_tattoos]

3 hours ago, PK22 said:

All they had to do was make some slight change to the stripes (so they can say its a new kit) and make the back verde with black lettering and it would have been a winner

Lost me at the end. White numbers/letters provide way better contrast and visibility on green than black would. If Austin went the route you suggested there would be the same issue making out the numbers & names on jerseys that Houston has been dealing with the last couple of seasons having black numbers on orange jerseys, Call me old fashioned but I prefer for the numbers on a uniform to standout.

 

I don't know what sort of change could have been made to the stripes that would have improved upon the previous jerseys. IMO if Austin was dead set on maintaining the stripe look, they could have pulled an Atlanta United move and color swapped parts of the jersey (although ATL abandoned model that with their previous set). Between the back, collar, cuffs, sleeves & shoulders (area surrounding the 3 Adidas stripes) Austin has 5 parts of their jerseys they could swap between green and black every 2 seasons without changing the stripes on the front. Maybe even 6 parts if you count the 3 Adidas shoulder stripes too. Unlike the numbers and NOB I'd be fine with that being black on green or vice versa.

[aawagner011]

^ I like that SKC shirt. It’s perfectly fine and they do a nice job of sticking to their identity. For a primary kit, that’s much better than some of these clubs that try to reinvent the wheel every new design. Keep the home kits traditional and leave the alternates as the empty canvases, free to deviate with new ideas.

———

 

Atlanta debuted its kit in a preseason friendly tonight. A proper return to form. By now, Atlanta has firmly cemented its position as the club with the stripes. 3 of their 4 home kits have had the same basic idea (all were fairly standard affair, too) with only one radically different design, and even that still felt vaguely in their wheelhouse.

 

My one criticism of the new design is that I don’t love the thick gold stripe down the side. It is very noticeable and I’d prefer a black stripe, which would blend in with the chest stripes and look more cohesive, especially with the under arm panel.

 

This kit also bothers me since it’s on the World Cup template and adidas uses the thick side and rear hem stripes to frame the jersey and shorts. As we saw at the World Cup, most teams had matching trim on the jersey and shorts. It feels like an oversight to have gold on the jersey stripe but red on the shorts. That’s another reason I think a black stripe would have looked better. This issue was also seen when Argentina won in all white. Their shirt had a black stripe but their shorts had light blue. The template makes it feel like they go together and should match.

 

Overall, that’s a minor complaint and I still rate this one highly. I’d say the best was the 17/18 original design, followed by this new 23/24 shirt, then 19/20, and 21/22 in last. Though none have been bad designs, by any means.

 

Last note, while they’ve kept their design fairly consistent, they’ve played around with socks quite a bit. The original design had black socks with gold stripes (matched the jersey stripes), the follow up kit had red socks with black stripes (matched the jersey stripes), the all black kit had red stripes (shirt, shorts, and socks all had red stripes), while this new design brings back red socks but uses a black cuff with gold stripes.

 

 

 

 

[GriffinM6]

Best socks they've ever worn. Absolutely love this look. 

[pepperbb]

FootyHeadlines dropped the mock-up for the potential Fire kit if y'all haven't seen it. Back to good ole red kit. the only downside for me is the collar...

 

https://www.footyheadlines.com/2022/08/blog-post_17.html

 

[rainmaker17]

I agree with the above poster, definitely a step backwards for Austin. Really don't like the green back on the jersey , and the thick white hem/piping or whatever it's called looks terrible.   Wish they could've stayed with the inaugural look.

[sky1324]

Charlotte FC's new clash kit, dubbed the "Crown Jewel" kit:

Can't seem to find an explanation for really any of it, but I don't hate it, I guess? Using CLTFC's blue really helps set it apart from Ally (especially the sponsor logo being in blue) but I'm not really seeing anything worth keeping around here. The mint set from last year was better and I wouldn't be surprised if it returned in some form in two years.

[hendocfc]

Also, looking at these photos, the "pink" isn't a straight up pink like the Ally colours, but a saturated plum colour

[WestCoastBias]

No one seems to like the Red Bull or Austin kits...

 

Meanwhile, I think they're two of the best unveiled so far 

[ATLJ]

The Charlotte kits are fine, I like the colors. My only "issue" is this set really needed white shorts, it'd make colors pop a lot more.  

 

I also don't dislike the Austin kit as much as others. And as an Atlanta fan, I think our kits look great. I love the set, socks look good.

[aawagner011]

RSL is official. I really like this as it gives them a bit more flavor than their usual bland white alternates. I am getting tired of every MLS kit needing to have a name, though. Why not just say “we used yellow because it’s part of our color palette and has been criminally underused to this point”?