The primary kit for the US women’s national team at this summer’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be anchored by a white jersey that features a scattered blue dot pattern. The secondary jersey will be royal blue with a recolored US Soccer logo.
Nike unveiled the details of its Women’s World Cup kits, along with some photos, early Monday morning. The manufacturer also equips the co-host countries, along with qualifiers Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, South Korea, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway and Portugal.
The ninth Women’s World Cup will be played from July 20 to August 20. The Americans, four-time champions, will face Vietnam, Netherlands (in rematch of 2019 final) and Portugal in the group stage.
Courtesy of Nike
The USWNT kit
The blue dots are “inspired by the abstract expressionism art movement,” according to Nike, and are meant to evoke paint blobs like those found in the work of Jackson Pollock. The droplets “highlight the energy of the women’s national team, although they are different, they are united,” Nike explained. The pattern is different on each shirt.
The four championship stars are rendered in metallic gold instead of the typical blue. Nike said the USWNT’s primary kit will feature blue shorts and white socks. Those blue shorts would be a rarity for American women, who have traditionally preferred to wear all white at the World Cup. Nike’s press release is not necessarily a promise. Last year when youThe manufacturer introduced the World Cup uniforms for the US men., the primaries featured white shorts and blue socks along with the white jersey. However, once the men arrived in Qatar, the socks were white.
Courtesy of Nike
The USWNT could wear white against all three group stage opponents (Portugal and Vietnam wear red jerseys and the Dutch wear orange).
The new away kit is all blue. The actual jersey features a sublimated wavy pattern and red details, including a crest that does away with US Soccer’s standard white background.
The verdict
The droplets on the home shirt are an interesting departure from the worn plain white, but it’s unclear if they’ll be visible from the stands or on TV (the gold stars can also be harder to see, which would be an odd design choice). ) .
A thumbs up or thumbs down binary ultimately comes down to whether the US sticks with the blue shorts. If so, then these uniforms represent a subtle but welcome return to traditional American sports colors. All white could be any/everyone and in 2015, Nike even removed the blue and red trim from the primary kits and went with black and fluorescent yellow instead. The USWNT away kits in 2019 were bright red, which works for Canada or many countries in Europe or Asia (although the Americans wore blue socks in the semifinal against England). The away kits in 2011 were all black.
Courtesy of Nike
Compared to that, a white-blue-white primary and blue-blue-blue secondary feels pretty patriotic. However, most of the small details on the Nike trumpets are invisible from more than a few feet away. That’s now standard for many modern soccer kits, especially in American professional leagues, where kits are marketed as retail fashion rather than designed to look distinctive on the field.
Nike said the members of the USWNT “wanted an unexpected take on their tradition of wearing white at home.”