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UEFA Euro 2024 Kit Preview, Part II

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Good morning Uni Watchers. It’s Friday — we made it!

Bit of late news yesterday you may have missed: The MLB July 4th caps were unveiled, and the new Utah Hockey Club unveiled new jerseys, logos and colors.

Now then.

Yesterday, our own Anthony Emerson gave us a magnificent rundown (and grading!) of the kits to be worn the Euro 2024 (the 17th edition of the UEFA European Championship).That preview looked at the uniforms for Groups A through C of the tourney. Anthony returns to look at the kits for Groups D through F.

The Euro 2024 begins today, with one match on the schedule. Host nation Germany will take on Scotland, and then the remainder of the matches begin in earnest on Saturday. The tourney will run through July 14th, when a champion will be crowned.

Take it away, Anthony…

• • • • •

UEFA Euro 2024 Kit Preview, Part II
by Anthony Emerson

This is the summer of international tournaments. The Euros, Copa América, and Olympics will all kick off before clubs return in August, and Uni Watch is here to cover all of them. First up: the European Championships (or just “Euros”), in Germany.

Group D

Poland


Let this be a lesson to all of you: don’t heap praise on Nike for one design you like, because they’ll immediately turn around and put less than zero effort into the next one. I have no idea why they’ve centrally-stacked the crest, maker’s mark, and uni number here — it makes the uni number look way too low. I like the collar, but the sleeve cuff design does not go all the way around the cuff, stopping on the inside for some reason. The short stripe stops before it reaches the jersey, too. Baffling design choices all around. At least the number font is nice. Overall: D+.

No photos of the full kit, but it looks like it’s largely just an inverted version of the home kit. The renderings make the sublimated design look more prominent than it will probably end up being on the pitch. Overall: Incomplete, see me after class.

Netherlands

Oh, yes. Pure Oranje goodness here. In the past, I’ve thought Nike’s version of Dutch orange was a bit too yellow, but this year they’ve got the shade down perfectly, and complimented it with some blue accents that really make the whole thing pop. I’m loving the stripe motif, too. Overall: A.


A sort of inverted take on the primary kit, albeit with a different sublimated design. I dig this too! There’s just enough orange and light blue to make the navy pop. I do wish that the sleeve cuff design went all the way around, as it appears Nike’s new thing is stopping it on the inside, but I can live with this. Overall: B+.

Austria


The Puma back swoop isn’t as prominent on this kit as it is on others, fortunately. The sublimated design is, allegedly, “inspired by Jugendstil architectural design.” Whatever you guys say. Overall: C-.

Yes, I’m re-using this picture from the first part, because I could find no better pictures of the Austria away. It is a traditional Austria away in that it’s white with black accents, but it’s a nontraditional Austria away in that there are also very slight light blue design elements, that (as you can see) really don’t show up all that well on the pitch. But I still like them anyway. Overall: B.

France

Okay, okay. I know what you’re thinking. “Man, that gallic rooster is massive.” And it is! It really is! But you know what? I love it. I love everything about this kit. I love tricolor striping on the short cuffs and collar. I love the shade of blue (previously Nike had France using navy). It is basically the perfect French kit. Overall: A+.

And I love this one, too. It’s definitely more out there — the pinstripes going from blue to white to red is a bold move, but it works — but it still feels like a classic French kit. Indeed, the away kits from the early 1980s were apparently a major source of inspiration. Overall: A.

Group E

Belgium


Les Diables rouges (or De Rode Duivels if you’re in Flanders) usually wear a brighter red, but have gone with a deep (almost purple) shade of maroon this time around. I don’t inherently dislike it, but I don’t love it, and I think it’s too much of a departure from Belgium’s established identity. I like it when teams try new stuff, but this feels like too big of a departure. Overall: C-.

Okay, so I love the idea of taking a pop culture icon’s outfit — in this case, Tintin — and adopting it as your kit. Belgium gets a ton of credit for that alone. And I love this jersey from the collar to the shade of blue. The brown shorts, in keeping with Tintin’s outfit, is what it is. If you’re going for Tintin, you have to have the brown shorts, even though I don’t think they actually work all that well with the kit. Overall: B.

Slovakia


This is another case of Nike using a teamwear template for a less prominent national team, and it’s not even a good teamwear template! It really does look like started designing this about 30 minutes before it was due — just throwing Slovakia’s football association logo and national crest on some blank blue and red jerseys and calling it a day. Overall: D-.

Slovakia’s yet to wear this in a match, but this is what they’ve revealed as their alternate kit. Somehow, even less thought went into this than the home. Overall: F.

Romania

For almost every match since 2023, Romania have worn this mono-yellow kit — even Joma’s website only lists this jersey for sale. It’s clearly their preferred number, as one of the few European national teams that has a yellow primary kit. It’s a fairly standard-looking one, though. I do like the Romanian flag colors on the cuff of the sleeves. Not sure why that same striping is only on the back of the shorts. Overall: C-.

The only match I can find where Romania didn’t wear yellow was their recent friendly in Colombia, a team that also wears a yellow primary kit. For that match, they wore the same template as their primary kit, but in red. Looks a bit Welsh to me, to be honest. Overall: C-.

Ukraine

Ukraine is the only national team in this tournament to put their kit numbers on the upper chest, and that alone gives them a unique look, and placed their national team logo where the number would be. It’s a unique look. I’m not wild about the collar — I never like V insets on an otherwise nice collar. Overall: B-

Just an inverted version of the primary kit. Would love to see them break it out against Romania just to force the Romanians into their red kit, but that probably won’t happen. Overall: B-.

Group F

Turkey

This is a very traditional Turkey kit — one might say it’s too traditional, considering what Nike and Turkey have done before. And that one is me. Why does Nike even spend all of this money to get these huge kit deals for prominent nations only to send them out in plain, templated kits? Also: do you notice anything similar about these Turkey and Poland kits? That’s right — they have the same number font, which I praised in my review of Poland’s kits. Maybe I should retract that. Overall: D+.

At least Nike tried something here, unlike the primary kit. Not loving that Nike logo placement on the jersey, but I guess it’s better there than on the more prominent red stripe. The front numbers also feel a bit too low, which seems to always happen when the major design elements are vertically-stacked. Overall: C.

Georgia

Despite the format of this image, the white kit is actually Georgia’s primary one, at least according to manufacturer Macron. It’s understandable why Georgia, playing in their first major international tournament since independence, wanted to maximize the merchandising opportunities here by releasing three kits. Fortunately for them, three are absolutely solid and in the upper tier for this tournament, though the primary kit is the best — the design template is the same across all three, but the primary kit is the only one that does anything interesting with it. But for the away and alternate, I suppose you don’t have to do anything other than make it solid and recognizable. Mission accomplished. Overall (group grade): A-

Portugal

In what could be Cristiano Ronaldo’s final international tournament, Portugal have stuck to their traditional look and not rocked the boat at all. I dig the collar, and the design on the back of the socks (which I’m pretty sure is a very minimalist rendering of the shield from the Portuguese coat of arms). They, along with Croatia, are also one of only two teams at this tournament to place the front number on the right breast, rather than centrally (or in Ukraine’s case, the right shoulder). But there’s that same Nike number font again — gonna have to take points off for that. Overall: B.

The secondary kit “pays homage to the nation’s traditional architectural artistry” and features a blue mosaic design. I positively adore this look. It evokes a relaxing Portuguese beach in the best possible way. Overall: A-.

Czech Republic

The sublimated design Puma put on the front here is apparently an abstract take on the double-tailed lion that represents Bohemia in the Czech coat of arms, and is also the national team’s crest. You can really only see it when the lighting and angle is right, otherwise it just looks like various shapes. And, because this is a Puma kit, we still have that annoying back swoop. You can see they tried here, unfortunately it just didn’t work. Overall: D+.

Finally, we have the Czech away kit, and we’re ending on a sour note because Puma didn’t even try to do anything with this. No sublimated design or anything, just the Czech crest on a white shirt with some blue shorts. You bet that Puma-mandated back swoop is still there, though. Overall: D-.

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Thanks, Anthony! Another great set reviews and grades.

Readers? What do you think of this year’s Euro kits and grades? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 
  
 

Independence Day Socks (?)

It appears as though the socks for Independence Day have been unveiled.

Here are additional views:

As you can see, these will be navy, with three alternating stripes of red, white and royal blue, with each stripe outlined in gold. One side will feature a pseudo-stirrup design with “USA” while the flip side says “1776.” (Or maybe it’s supposed to be a Liberty Bell design. Who knows.)

As of this writing, only a navy blue version is available. Whether there will be an additional offering (perhaps in red with the same pattern) isn’t known.

If these are indeed legit, they probably won’t pair well with the Independence Day caps, which were unveiled yesterday. Sigh.

Thanks to Oliver Kodner for the tip!

 

 

Guess the Game from the Uniform


Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Jimmy Corcoran himself (and when you see the image, you’ll see why).

Happy Father’s Day, Jimmy!

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

 

 

Uni Concepts and Tweaks

Time for more Uni Tweaks from the UW readership.

I hope you guys like this feature and will want to continue to submit your concepts and tweaks to me. If you do, Shoot me an E-mail (Phil (dot) Hecken (at) gmail (dot) com).

• • • • •
Today’s concepts come from “Thee Random Fandom” via Twitter.

Thee Twins new city connect jersey inspired me to update a concept I made a few years back, with a couple new colorways added on as well.

@UniWatch

• • • • •

OK readers (and concepters). If you have some tweaks or concepts, shoot ’em my way with a brief description of your creation and I’ll run ’em here.

 

 

And finally...

… that’s it for the early lede. Big thanks to Anthony for the TWO fantastic parts of the Euro kit preview.

By the time some of you read this, I’ll be on the road — finally opening the summer place for the season. As I mention every year, it’s always fraught, as this entails the local cable/Internet provider not just showing up as scheduled, but actually providing a proper connection. Last year they had to come back three times (over three weekends) to finally get it right. Hopefully this year the first time will be a charm. Anyway, once I hit the road, I’ll be, quite literally, off the grid until that install is complete. So everyone be on your best behavior today, and Jimmer will be keeping an eye on things. If there’s any breaking uni news, I probably won’t be available to post.

There will be two additional posts today, plus Anthony’s Ticker — so be sure to keep checking back!

The Twins debut their CC’s tonight and Father’s Day is Sunday, and Jim will have article on both (including the popular “Our Dad’s In Uniform” tribute by readers to their fathers).

To paraphrase Chris Berman, let me be the first to wish everyone an early “Happy Father’s Day.” Have a great weekend everyone, and I’ll see you right back here on Monday.

Peace,

PH

Comments (9)

    “There’s just enough orange and light blue to make the navy pop”
    I could be way off here, but isn’t it usually the details and accents that we refer to as “popping”? I don’t see how the base colour of a shirt can “pop”.

    “It is a traditional Austria away in that it’s white with black accents”
    Depends on your idea of traditional. Austria wore white home kits before 2004.

    Ukraine and Portugal’s front numbers are both referred to as being on the right side (in the Portugal section), when they’re on opposite sides.

    Those Twins concepts are great! The team should do something with this design!
    Returning to Euro 2024, I really dislike my Oranje in this too loud orange that reminds me of broken down cars in the middle of the night, waiting to be towed away while wearing a vest in this kind of orange. France is the clear winner (of the tournament as well, I think) both home and away with the runner up in this group being a tie between the Portugal away azulejos tiles design and the very awesome Belgium TinTin (we say Kuifje which means little fringe) effort. How cool is that?

    I’ve never done anything faster than ordering that France home shirt when they were announced.

    Oh, and I think the brown shorts are fine on the Belgium Tintin kit. Way better than the khaki my Dallas Stars had for the Winter Classic.

    Something you might be interested in if you’re doing the Copa America and Euro tournaments: The OFC Nations cup is also this month! That’s the tournament for Oceania, although Australia doesn’t participate because they’re significantly better than the other teams. Starting tomorrow actually. Not very many teams are participating in it, but still an international tournament

    What did we collectively do to deserve Stance MLB socks? Much like Nike’s predisposition to fix things that are not broken, Stance has done the same. I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here but there was nothing terribly wrong with the state of socks in MLB pre Stance. It’s just another chance for MLB to get into our wallets and grab as much cash as they can. I’ll return to yelling at clouds now.

    Belgium and Denmark win in my opinion! More collars, please! France gets, a “great job”, too!

    France’s previous kit at the World Cup was perfection. It felt French when you glanced at the screen. This year’s is good… The blue is not matching their flag’s shade and that throws me.

    That’s more to do with the country changing the colours in 2021. Since 1976, the blue had been more of a royal blue (like on their kits), while the red was less saturated. In 2021, Macron returned the flag to its historic colours – a navy blue and a more vibrant red.

    For me, the best version would combine the current navy blue and the previous softer red.

    But yes, I agree that it’s weird that Nike gave France mostly navy kits for years while the flag colour was more of a royal blue, and now they’ve done the opposite.

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