[Editor’s Note: The Copa América begins tomorrow. Our own Jamie Rathjen has the rundown on all the kits to be worn for the tournament. It’s divided into four Groups (A-D), and today we’ll look at Groups A & B. We’ll be back with Part II tomorrow. Enjoy! — PH]
by Jamie Rathjen
The 2024 Copa América is technically the South American men’s soccer championship, but is being hosted here. Since the South American confederation CONMEBOL only has 10 members — all the jurisdictions in South America except Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana — it has a 30-year habit of inviting guests to make at least a 12-team men’s Copa América field. The US has been a guest a couple times, but there were no invitees this time; the six members of CONCACAF (the North American/Caribbean confederation) at the tournament all qualified earlier this year through the men’s CONCACAF Nations League.
The opportunity to host is supposed to rotate among the 10 CONMEBOL members in alphabetical order. It hasn’t ever quite worked out like that as Brazil hosted the previous two editions in 2019 and 2021 and the would-be hosts for this time Ecuador dropped out, creating the chance for CONMEBOL to move the tournament to the US. The US also hosted a special 100th-anniversary edition in 2016, the only other one with 16 teams.
Let’s look at what all the teams are wearing.
Group A
Argentina
Argentina currently have a very no-frills look. The normal first-choice sky blue and white stripes have gold accents this time and the second shirt is maybe a little lighter than the traditional royal-ish blue with flag-colored accents down the sides. That’s something we’ve already touched on in the men’s Euros preview as something all Adidas teams currently have or will have, and there are a lot of them at this tournament. In the center is the gold world champion’s patch for winning the 2022 men’s World Cup.
Canada
With apologies to our Canadian readers, their national teams’ kits tend not to get the blood pumping. A centered crest and darker sleeves on the red first shirt and 13 (count ’em) pinstripes on the white second shirt, which is supposed to represent the 10 provinces and three territories, qualifies as being kind of out there. There is no black option right now, which I’m sure is a relief to some of you.
Chile
The blank space that the pattern forms in the center of the red first shirt is supposed to be the star from Chile’s flag — look carefully. Here, the red accents on the white second shirt definitely look like something Adidas was doing in the mid-2000s, much more obviously than on Argentina’s shirt. If they had to pick something to go back to, though, it probably shouldn’t be that.
Peru
Peru’s thing is the sash, and the mono-white first kit with a red sash is a really entrenched design that never changes that significantly. The sash also extends to the back. However, in that picture you can see the butt stripes on the shorts that are afflicting the Adidas teams at this tournament and the men’s Euros. I can’t say that’s anything but ill-advised, especially when they’re red.
Traditionally the second kit is the exact opposite mono-red with a white sash, but this time it’s black with maroon-ish sleeves and gold accents.
Group B
Ecuador
The yellow first shirt has a dark blue sash going the opposite way of Peru’s. It’s completely dark blue on the back, though, which might cause problems because this shirt is both light- and dark-colored, assuming it even takes that form. The team recently playing at the Copa Mitad del Mundo, a men’s youth tournament, wore this shirt with the numbers in a yellow square.
The white second shirt is more conventional with a dark blue chest stripe that does not extend to the back. The men’s team did also wear a lighter blue/dark blue/dark blue third kit against Guatemala in March.
Jamaica
Phil liked these shirts so much he already wrote about them separately. I agree that they’re pretty good, but the design elements Adidas insists on giving everybody are big limiting factors here: the side stripes and the butt stripes, as well as the large amounts of black on the second shirt. Compare one of Nike’s efforts for Nigeria, where they’re able to make the pattern truly all-over.
Mexico
It might shock some of you to learn that Mexico wearing maroon is actually a throwback, even though that’s not the cited idea for this design. Maroon and dark blue was the first-choice combo until the mid-’50s and was second choice for a bit longer after that, but hadn’t really appeared since. It’s back, and its pattern does extend down the sleeves unlike Jamaica’s second shirt, but still not all the way down the back. The white accents are not the greatest; maybe they could have been green?
It’s paired with a mono-mint colored second kit that has a different pattern which doesn’t extend at all to the back.
Venezuela
Venezuela also wears maroon as first choice, unlike the other countries with which it shares flag colors. They just switched to Adidas this year, and the resulting offerings are basic. The first shirt is maroon with gold accents and nothing beyond a standard Adidas template, while the white second shirt has some flag-colored accents.
I am definitely glad there is no black option for Canada. That yellow and black Ecuador shirt looks great.
Agreed. Canada’s use of black for Hockey, Rugby and other sports is awful.
The swoosh inside the oval gives me a 60s-70s discount store vibe.
“Attention Price-Chek shoppers… there’s a special on Canadian soccer jerseys in aisle five!”
It is allegedly supposed to look vintage, but I’m not sure from what era because Canada had Adidas forever and has only had Nike for five years.
70s fauxback, if I had to guess.
I like it… especially the second shirt.
For what it’s worth, Nike is claiming it’s a callback to old Nike hockey jerseys, hence why Canada is the only one with the Swoosh in an oval.
link
I remember that style of logo being big in the mid to late 90s, when I became old enough to start caring about which pair of cleats I wore. I think a lot of the original Air Max line had the oval around the Swoosh, too.
Nike hockey logo from the 90s. Their equipment had that logo
Happy Canada has kept their old-school soccer logo all these years with just some update to the font. Rocking the double red now with the dark jerseys.
I’m just happy that Canada’s kits are better than the bog standard templates we’ve received for pretty much my whole life.
Canada doesn’t need a black kit, but I don’t hate when there are black elements as they call to mind Team Canada’s hockey uniforms. But in this case, I’m glad they went with a darker red as a secondary colour.
Ecuador slightly mitigated the issue with the back of their home shirt:
link
“The US has been a guest a couple times, but there were no invitees this time”
I’m confused by this statement? If there are “no invitees”, what is Canada and the USA?
Keep reading after that. They actually qualified.
And to go a little further, yes, it’s a different confederation’s tournament, but no, they didn’t just roll up when it started with no work required to get there like Qatar, Japan, Mexico (the most common invitee), etc. did at past editions.
God, those shorts swoops from Adidas are *abysmal*. They look like absolute trash and are totally unnecessary. The 3 stripes on the sides of the shorts are an iconic Adidas look–please do not mess with what works!
The current generation of Adidas uniforms are absolutely brutal. I’ve always disliked their insistence on putting three shoulder stripes on every uniform, but the current iteration that droop off the shoulder but stop halfway down the sleeve are the worst yet. As Phil pointed out, the side stripes look like a design element from 15 years ago, and the shorts are hideous.
Adidas manages to ruin even uniforms that should be very good, like Peru, Jamaica, or Mexico. I’ve never been more glad that the U.S. teams are outfitted by Nike, which isn’t great but at least stays away from dumpster-grade crap like this.
Adidas has been truncating the stripes for a while now, to accommodate sleeve patches with the tournament logo and other logos.
Great recap, Jamie! I always look forward to your thoughtful coverage of soccer uniforms.
That Ecuador shirt is a mess.
Also, the link in the below sentence goes to the same pic of the yellow box on the home shirt:
“The men’s team did also wear a lighter blue/dark blue/dark blue third kit against Guatemala in March.”
Jamaica away, Argenitina home and Mexico home, the rest lags behind at a long distance with Canada away coming in fourth (I love pinstripes in uniforms). Watching the Euro 24 games and there the clear winner is France, both home and away. The beat all of these, by the way.
Adidas kits are absolutely awful. Looks should take priority over mandated design elements, especially when they’re this bad.
I was in Buenos Aries a few years ago and a guy giving me a tour referred to the color blue in the Argentinian flag/ national team colors as “soft blue”. I’ve never heard anyone before or since call light blue soft blue but I really liked it and I try to use it as much as possible. It somehow fits.
Mexico wore maroon in 1970 for the World Cup.