One last thing and then i've reached my rant limit----i also dislike how stale and similar looking all our league's kits have become over the past few years. At least Adidas was trying in its early years of the exclusive MLS contract but these last 3 or 4 years it seems like they're just mailing it in---no effort. I cant wait for the current contract to run out. When it does, the league should never again go back to just one company doing all the team kits. At the very least there should be 2 companies making kits. Make half the league adidas and half nike.
Never thought I'd say this but that black Red Bulls jersey is amazing. So cool. Biggest downgrade this season is the Galaxy. So bland. They should go back to the look before the Beckham rebrand.
Funny how that's the same timing for when they moved the designing of them to Germany from the US. Hmmm
and the fact that they keep trying to use the same new templates every year doesn't help. (the three stripes this year, the curved shoulder line a few years ago, the glitch designs, others i can't even bother remembering.) so basically, you either get a design that looks good with the template but now looks like everyone else or a design that doesn't match the template, but they did it anyway because they needed something new and JUST different enough from the other teams. i like adidas jerseys, but they have a bunch of different templates in the arsenal. why not use different ones for different teams just to get SOME diversity? i get productions schedules, showing off the newest tech, and stuff like that but there have been some designs that just don't fit and look bad, so wouldn't it be better for everyone to have a good looking design?
Did DCU have these light grey/silver shorts as an option on their change kits last year? The color is very subtle (I thought the shadows were playing tricks on me when I saw them at first) but it definitely appears that they're not white and I seem to remember them being mono-white all last season. Honestly would prefer they went with the red shorts they wear with their primary kits, especially tonight, but appreciate them switching things up a bit.
Yep they did and they wore them with this white jersey. Red shorts could be cool too. I wouldn't mind seeing that combo.
Charlotte FC announces its new crest and colors. I'm not surprised in the least that the colors mimic the NFL Panthers. The crown idea is a nice nod to the Queen City nickname for Charlotte. Let's hope Charlotte goes with light blue for its light-colored kit (a la SKC) as opposed to yet another boring white kit. And while I'm still very much on record as not liking the new Fire crest at all, I will at least say the red socks with the blue shorts and shirt is a good touch for the Fire. I wish my son's club team would use red socks instead of wearing navy blue from head to toe as a primary kit.
Not that I've seen every game (or kit), but my favorite uniform this year is San Jose's NASL style uniform with the white shirts and yellow shorts. The white shirts have markings, not just the three sleeve stripes, so they are not boring.
When I first looked at those SJ jerseys in a photo, I thought they were pretty bad. When actually seeing them on TV, I like them. The white shirt/yellow shorts look isn't as nearly as bad as I thought it would be. If nothing else, it's a different look and I commend the Quakes for at least trying something besides the MLS-standard all-white option. I get that teams should have a light and dark option. The light option just doesn't have to always or generally be white.
Dear God another FC in the league.... I know this is the uniform thread so I won't go on ad nauseum. I'm sorry it's just so boring, generic, and unimaginative. Even if you want to ape a euro style name for your new team there are others available besides FC and United.
I really thought Queen City would have been a great name for the Charlotte club. Unfortunately, the continued requirement of having the city name followed by "FC" or "United" reigns supreme. The NWSL did a nice job straying from the norm with their "Racing Louisville" name.
I like the new Earthquakes kit itself, but the shirt is too busy for me and it seems like the crest and the sponsor are pushed down too far to accommodate stripes that are up too high. The stupid adidas shoulder stripes just make it over the top ugly. While I wasn't a fan of the Fire's white Chicago flag secondary of 2015 (seemed plain and lazy) I think that format of having the top stripe under the crest and the bottom stripe(s) under the sponsor would have worked better for them. Again, overall, I like the look of them wearing white/yellow/white, especially for a secondary kit, which to me works way better when it doesn't feature team colors. Now if they could just go back to blue jersey/black shorts for their primary and stick with it, it'd be a huge upgrade.
To emphasize how displeased fans are about the blandness of MLS uniforms, the league should award an exclusive contract to....Puma! A rival company for Adidas that actually puts out some pretty good stuff uniform-wise, and not just for soccer teams.
Yes I forgot all about Puma--they make good stuff. So let's see 30 MLS teams (if you include Austin,Charlotte, Sacramento, and St. Louis) seems like it would be ideal to split up the kits of the league into three ten team packages. Yes, sell the kit rights just like you sell the tv rights. If you do a 3 way package then of course Adidas, Nike, Puma. If you do 5 team packages instead you could fit more kit manufacturers in there like New Balance (US), Under Armour (US), Umbro (UK), Champion(US), Starter (US), or Reebok (US- assuming Adidas would allow them to make kits for the league, since Reebok are now a subsidiary of Adidas). There are also smaller foreign brands like Lotto, Kappa, Fila, Diadora, Mizuno, Joma that might be interested. The only question with smaller packages is would the league be able to raise as much money with 5 team packages as they would with larger packages? I remember the only reason why Adidas got the exclusive deal was because they threw a boatload of money at the league--money that at that point in MLS's development they could not afford to turn down.
Given that every other American league that does packages (which I think is all of the big 4) does them as full league packages, that's a real good indicator that the big money is still in having a league-wide sponsor.
Sadness It sucks when plans hit reality..... But you're right there is an awful lot of money involved. We all know this, but just to refresh our memories: The Adidas contract was signed Aug 2017 for six years @ $700 million. In return they became the sole supplier for MLS. The six-year contract made Adidas the official supplier for the league, its clubs, MLS youth academies and youth affiliated clubs.Each team and their affiliates now wear Adidas uniforms, footwear, training gear and sideline apparel. The official match ball is Adidas as well. For comparison's sake in 2017 Fox, ESPN, and Univision paid a combined 90 million. All I have to say is that if we're going to have to put up with no effort, one template-for-all team kit designs every year then the next contract better be worth more than 700 mil.