Readers probably know I’m not a “soccer guy,” which is why this site so often seeks the expertise of those who follow the Beautiful Game when reviewing new kits. In fact, I’m not sure I have ever written specifically about a new soccer/football/futbol release. Today is the exception.
Admittedly I do not watch a ton of soccer, although I do watch a good amount of World Cup and Olypmics tournaments, as well as some of the other multinational cups/tournaments. And while I absolutely “get” why soccer jerseys are usually giant advertisements, I prefer seeing the kits of national teams when those ads are not present.
So when Jamaica recently unveiled the new home, away and prematch jerseys for 2024 and beyond (and those uniforms are debuting in Jamaica’s FIFA World Cup qualifying matches today and on June 9), I was floored by their beauty.
The new home uniform is solid, if unspectacular, and features a gold jersey with green and black accents, and is shown paired with black shorts.
According to SoccerBible, “The new Jamaica home jersey is presented in the country’s rich national colours of black, gold, and green, with gold as the primary. Drawing on the island’s Caribbean heritage, a unique, hand-drawn and wax-painted motif reminiscent of traditional graphic styles is embossed throughout the main panel of the jersey. The graphic pays tribute to Jamaican nature, featuring symbols of its national bird (doctor bird) and national flower (lignum vitae).”
I’m generally not a fan of sublimation, but the design on the new home jersey is quite interesting. It won’t be seen at any distance (and so won’t be visible on TV), but the pattern is striking.
But the real star of this release is the road kit. Simply put, this is gorgeous:
Per SoccerBible: “The away jersey sees a similar graphic from the home jersey remixed as a tighter, printed design in the eye-catching colours of the Jamaican national flag, lending the look far more prominence. The team nicknames take their place beneath the back of the crew neck collar for a nice sign off.”
Here’s a closer look:
I’m absolutely blown away by this jersey. Like Paul, I love green and gold, so naturally the colors appeal to me, and the kits’ Jamaican flag colors provide a wonderful palette from which to create such beautiful designs.
You can see additional photos of the home and road jerseys here, as well as some looks at the team’s pre-match jersey, which is also a work of art:
Readers — your thoughts?
I like! I see what they are doing with the stripes on the back of the shorts, but I don’t particularly care for that element. But otherwise A-OK.
Perfect yet unique colors and Adidas is really stepping up their soccer kit game. Solid A right there.
Phil, Jamaica is at the men’s Copa América, so you saved me some work on my preview! I’m not complaining.
And, yes, unfortunately someone at Adidas thought butt stripes was a good idea this year.
Adidas has done a good job with the jerseys this season, but the shorts in the template are terrible. really ruined the Belgium Tintin kits.
Gorgeous! Up there with Nigeria and Mexico’s previous maximalist kits.
Jamaica has had some resplendent jerseys when Lanzera and Kappa did their kits.
World class kits for Jamaica. The home yellow reminds me, in a good way, of some of the better Argentina home kits of recent years. It’s bold and instantly recognizable. Seeing it, I think Jamaica without any further knowledge or introduction. The sublimated pattern is a nice touch; up close it adds visual texture, which is always a good thing amid a giant block of one-color fabric. The black second kit, though, it the real star for me. I’d compare it favorably with some of Mexico’s boldest kits. It doesn’t immediately scream Jamaica to me as clearly as the yellow, but it’s got such strong visual interest that it makes me want to know more about it. My first response to it is to look to Africa, not the Caribbean, but even that feels like a deliberate and calculated choice by the designer. Right now the “big boys” of CONCACAF are on a low, uni-wise, with Mexico currently wearing good but below-their-usual-standard kits, Canada being stuck in a cycle of meh, and USA wearing yet another flavor of Nike-fied ugly. So it’s not like it’s hard for a fellow North American team to stand out with quality uniforms, but boy howdy does Jamaica do so here.
Jamaica Gets It (TM)
One of the nicest I’ve ever seen. Well executed.
This is how highly designed uniform elements should be done! I also think soccer uniforms by their nature are better suited for this. Where baseball, football, basketball, and hockey are dominated by various graphics, be it logos, wordmarks, or numbers, having the full front of an ad-free soccer jersey actually lets you do stuff like this without it feeling too busy or sublimination for sublimation sake that doesn’t actually add to the overall design.
The color scheme of the Jamaican flag also lends itself to this design, the green, yellow, and black contrast perfectly in the design.
I love the pattern and Jamaica has great colors, but that adidas template is brutal. Those “horns” at the bottom are so intrusive and really take away from what could be some really great designs. Peru’s home kit comes to mind as another example of Adidas’s template ruining a great design.
For some background for the uninitiated – This year’s template from adidas is a callback to two of their templates for the 2006 World Cup- arguably their most popular templates. In my opinion, they’ve completely missed the mark and what made those designs iconic.
I think soccer is “where it’s at” when it comes to uniform design in the 21st Century. I’m especially enamored of the use of patterns and the way they harmonize with the locked-in jersey templates. It would be nice if one team in every sport took a page from the soccer design atlas. The 1969 Expos are a good example.
These are both beautiful shirts, but I think the colour combination of yellow, green and black is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. It looks so good because that colour triplet is so well balanced. Yellow and black are the extremes with green sitting perfectly in between. None of the colours are opposites so they don’t bleed into each other like red and green or orange and blue. This makes for something visually pleasing to look at and the actual designs simply enhance that.
Shirts are great, shorts are kinda dreadful. Hoping they have socks as good as their last hooped set.
Jamaica jerseys are the coolest in the world in any sports but these are extra attractive. Nice bold patterns and Reggae Boys on the back collar. Irie!