Less than a year after Nike and US Soccer unveiled the surprising bomb pop away kit for the World Cup, a new alternate uniform for the Americans has been officially announced. Like the red, white, and blue bomb pop kit, this one features an unconventional design scheme and is sure to divide opinions among fans.
The top features a blue gradient effect that starts as a darker shade of blue at the base before subtly fading to a lighter shade near the shoulders. It's not a smooth gradient though with the entire shirt, both front and back, covered in a graphic that's reminiscent of a broad horizontal brush stroke. Nike say that the effect "creates a sense of continual movement." At the shoulders, the blue quickly cuts to a sharp white that contrasts with a red insert at the front of the v-neck collar. The men's kit features the US Soccer crest on its own while the women's kit proudly displays the two white stars above the badge for the two World Cups that they have won.
Both sides of the shirt feature a thick white stripe that runs from the sleeves to the hem, sitting next the laser-cut ventilation holes that Nike now puts on all of its top-of-the-line jerseys. The shirt will combine with shorts in the deep blue shade found at the hem of the shirt and feature another white stripe on both sides. The men will get blue socks in the same shade while the women get a special gradient sock that matches the shirt.
The USWNT will be the first to wear the kit, debuting it at the Algarve Cup in Portugal from March 4-11. The USMNT get their chance on March 25 in their friendly against Switzerland.
Speaking about the new kit, Nike's Creative Director, Martin Lotti, said:
"The new kit was designed to showcase the USA's tremendous sense of national pride as well as their distinct sense of style, while also capturing the nation's eternal optimism for achieving greatness."
While style is good and the new kit, which admittedly took a little bit of time to grow this writer, looks good, it does not take away from the fact that what US Soccer is really missing in terms of kit design is some sort of consistent element. Yes, the home kit is always white but that isn't very exciting and more importantly, it isn't ours.
The 2010 World Cup brought with it a major return for the sash that the Americans famously wore in their 1-0 win over England at the World Cup in Brazil 60 years earlier. For the 2010 tournament, we saw the sash feature prominently on a white home kit, navy blue away kit, and, after everything was wrapped up in South Africa, a red third kit. The following cycle saw the sash once again but this time its presentation was nowhere near as obvious with the sash showing up as a faint tonal element on the home "Waldo" kit and the away "vest" (or Escape to Victory, whatever you prefer) kit.
Over the last five years, the Yanks have had sashes, pinstripes, hoops, vests, solid colors, polos, and now gradients without a single, recognizably American element to connect them. Every great soccer nation has those elements be they a design detail or a color (or colors) that the nation has become known for and the United States simply does not have that.
In the modern era, the most recognizable US Soccer uniform is undoubtedly the "Denim" kit that the Americans wore at the 1994 World Cup. That look screamed America and that is what is needed. This isn't necessarily a call for the faded denim look with stars (although, despite the fact that it was an adidas design), would be awesome, this is a call for the US to have something all their own.
from SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yOCAf3
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