FIFA AMERICAS Concepts - Template Release / Brazil 8/30

[raysox]

*taps mic*
whats up

 

So if you haven't been around on these boards for very long, you may not know that I made a few soccer templates that well over half of the boards still use in some capacity. The template is this one, which I always felt was clean and user friendly. Here is a modified version @TheGiantsFan uses in his cool Oregon League thread (which he just finished so go give him a shout out). But I made this about 2016, and maybe it's feeling a bit outdated. The jersey cuts of different manufacturers are about 5 iterations past where I last left it. The collars are pretty basic too. This was one thing I heard a few times and why it was being phased out a lot of the time.

So a few years ago I wanted to make a new template, really hone in to a modern looking version that would be extremely user friendly and flexible. This coincided with my move to only using Adobe Illustrator too. Organized folders were a major thing I wanted to use. But after a few days of work, I would always put it down never to pick it back up. There's probably a few threads where I thought it was finished but it wasn't. You can go through and find me talking about a new template a few times!

But I think I have it in a good place now. I have a whole library of jersey cuts, collars that you can turn off and on. Clip Groups for each cut, so you can easily have patterns and colors go into place where you wanted, whether it was a solid Brazil kit, a striped Newcastle kit, or a patterned fictional kit. The sleeve patches are symbols so you only have to replace each patch once. The angles on the sleeves and pants are easy to remember. It's the smartest template i've ever made. 

You can download this template right here.

 

But this is the closest I've come to finishing this and I wanted to make some concepts for everyone to build some hype, as well as push the limits of this creation and dip my toe into the fun world of modern soccer designs. I've chosen to make concepts for national teams in North and South America, because I'm a firm believer they should merge federations.
 

AMERICAS CONFEDERATION
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
Colombia

Costa Rica
Mexico

United States
Uruguay

[raysox]

United States (1/30)

I made this white concept originally last year when the World Cup kits came out and I felt they left a lot to be desired. The Nike template is not very good, i'm afraid. My idea was based loosely on the iconic 1990 West Germany kits, but creating a gradient between navy and red using triangles that i'm nicknaming "Purple Mountain's Majesty". The road is a noisy pattern of duel blues with pops of red.

 

Would love to hear what you think. I have a few of these done and i'll release this probably in the next week as I create more and more.

[colinturner95]

If I can get over my fears of :censored:ing up iconic soccer/football brands and identities, I'll have the template to try it on. 

 

Looks good as always!

[LaGrandeOrange]

Looks great so far!

[raysox]

Mexico 2/30

Adidas debut! Mexico has been using a lot of traditional patterns in kits recently. I wanted to do that and played around with a sun-shaped design on the chest with flashes of red and lime green, something I wanted to mix in for a bit of fun to break from the usual Mexico kits. This look is a reference to some really cool Club America kits they've worn in their history. I have a gradient on the sleeves and torso to add a little bit more depth. The clash is maroon and navy, the same look they wore in the 1930 World Cup.  I made another mayan pattern to cross the front of the jersey and added gold accent to show everyone this is a classy looking kit obviously!

[GriffinM6]

Mexico is a 10/10. The lime green works so well with the tri colors. The road kit is fantastic as well. Good call to use gold rather than white on it. 

[VampyrRabbit]

The template looks great, an option for longer shorts and "legwarmer" socks (as worn by many players who cut everything below boot level off) would be nice.

 

As for the shirt, options for the hem cut (dress shirt cut, back longer than the front), and band (Newcastle United 1996-1997) and lace up collars would be great options to have.

The Mexico change shirt looks great, I love the number style and the colour combo is well nice, and it doesn't have the huge contrasting back panels that blight so much of the new shirts launched by Adidas in this and last year. I'm nowhere near as sold on the other kits though. The patterns on the front of the home and on the cuffs are great, and the main shade of green and red look great together, but the kit is ruined by the horrible lime green and those massive contrasting back panels, which look awful. The kit would be improved hugely by replacing the lime green with red and making the back panels the shame shade as the back of the shirt.

 

Not feeling the USA kits either, the change has a nice pattern, but not sure why the old school nike logo is on such a modern template (and whats with the red band under the nike logo?), changing it over to the Henley collar template might improve things. Also not a fan of the home, the pattern looks awkward and the socks and shorts don't match the shirt in terms of trim.

 

I also think that adding details to the back of the shirts below the collar and/or above the jocktag would help add a little extra something to the shirts, as would adding specific details to the socks.

I do appreciate the effort and the time that it took to make the template and how much organisation went into it too, thank you for doing it.

Looking forward to the other teams.

[raysox]

I appreciate the comments.

I will say though, the choice to not have an overhang underneath the hem of the front is a conscious choice. There isn't one showing like a hockey jersey if you lay a kit down flat, what the inspiration for this layout would be. The long socks seems redundant, as a long sleeve shirt might. I feel like it would detract from the actual design, and complicate a modular template that i'm aiming to make, no matter how prevalent something like that is. Although I may do a goalkeeper kit eventually.

 

Also for the concepts themselves, more of an exploration and test of them. Just a bit of fun with patterns and textures. You're right about the US kits not having a matching pattern, and it made me realize I lost a red stripe to pair with the blue one on the shorts. 

Thank you for the feedback though, just wanted to acknowledge a few things. I have a few more done but keep going back as I discover small flaws in naming or locking layers. 

[VampyrRabbit]

Oh yeah, for "Legwarmer", I mean socks that have had a pair of scissors taken to them so that it's just the leg part, basically just the sock that is above the heel. Sorry for the confusion.

[raysox]

Argentina 3/30
Wanting to post the World Champs next. Can't go too crazy with the classic stripes, but I did add a light speckle, as well as a white gradient slash across the torso. I also gave them striped socks. Where the real fun is is the clash kit.  I made a checkered gradient pattern in reference to the states and territories of Argentina having many straight lines. This pattern can be found on the torso and sleeve cuffs of the uniform.

[LaGrandeOrange]

Is this a real adidas font? It's very cool- I haven't seen it yet, a big upgrade on their World Cup font.

[raysox]

18 hours ago, alexandre said:

Is this a real adidas font? It's very cool- I haven't seen it yet, a big upgrade on their World Cup font.

it's actually an adobe font called Zipline that I felt looked REALLY adidas https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/zipline

[raysox]

Canada 4/30

So for the new big US rivals, I completely forgot they were Nike. I guess that means they're a legit team now! For the home uniforms, I riffed off a maple leaf shape and created a design that has a sublimated spike go left to right on the front. I wanted to stick classy otherwise, so I gave them a collar and a nice sleeve cuff. I wanted to mimic the pattern on the sleeves, almost like a modified hockey/Colts stripe. I went with black for the clash because I think it feels modern and imposing, and will stand out from all the smaller nations that use red and white. I used an illustrator pattern that's wavy dots to create a subtle mesh. I used the Nike template spike, and created a cuff with a repeating maple leaf pattern.

[CRDesigns]

Canada looks brilliant. I absolutely love that pattern on the red kit. Well done

[LaGrandeOrange]

Don't worry, we're not a legit team now- we were the only team Nike did not give a new kit for in Qatar. I love the collar and the stripes on the red kit, is there a sublimated pattern on the black? It's hard to tell on my screen (but it may very well be just me).

[raysox]

Sure is! There's a lot of subtle patterns going on.

[VampyrRabbit]

I have no problem making out those patterns out, using the Footyheadlines defination of Subtle here.

The Canada home is great, the pattern on the shirt is great and the template here works much better than it did for the US home. The change is pretty good too and I like the pattern, though using the same template as the home instead of the rather awkward looking one without a collar would have been preferable.

Argentina home has those massive contrasting back panels, but love the pretty daring stripe design, though wished it using the traditional black instead of a washed out dark blue. The Dark Blue works really well with the shades of sky blue on the change though.

[LaGrandeOrange]

I love it- I could tell the Argentina one, but I had to turn my brightness up all the way to make out the Canadian change shirt but I adore it, will look great in person (were it to be made).

[raysox]

Costa Rica 5/20
For the Ticos, I do like what New Balance had been doing for them for the most part. better than when they were Lotto for sure. I wanted to go slightly more classy overall. I created a volcano pattern in reference to the geography of the nation and their crest. Three diagonal stripes and cuffs mimic the flag. I went with a nike collar with a neck design too. Something fun that I wanted to lean into is the clash kits going off-brand with white and black. Usually they go with  vertical stripes, but I went with USC-style shoulder stripes and a striking black shorts and socks. The numbers and name are red in an attempt to pop like the Dodgers uniforms.

[raysox]

Colombia 6/20

For Colombia I looked at a a lot of kits for inspiration, but ended up doing something different and introducing a top split torso and navy sleeves. This might be more Ecuador than Colombia, but I thought the color blocking look nice. I made a gradient-ish look made by skewed bars. For the clash kit, I took the colors from the main kit and changed the hue and tone slightly for all of them and designed from there.