A Uni Watch Look at the 2024 Olympics Women’s Volleyball

[Editor’s Note: As part of Uni Watch’s ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics coverage, today we have a guest piece by Greyson Roberts, who is taking a VERY in-depth look at the uniforms of the Women’s Volleyball tournament. If you missed his coverage of the Men’s Volleyball uniforms, click here. Enjoy! — PH]

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Women’s Volleyball at the 2024 Olympic Games has so far been packed with heavy hitters and close matches. 10 of the top 11 teams in the world are in Paris, with World #19 France appearing as the host nation and #21 Kenya representing the continent of Africa. (Note that rankings have slightly fluctuated throughout the Olympics.

If you missed my write-up on the Men’s Volleyball tournament, I’ll summarize some uni-notable tidbits and guidelines for Olympic volleyball. First, and the best news of all, advertisements are not allowed on uniforms at the Olympics. Most teams wore advertisement-laden uniforms at the Volleyball Nations League or, in Kenya’s case, Volleyball Challenger Cup in the Spring. While some teams like Italy and Kenya have chosen to simply adjust the uniforms they have been wearing and remove the ads, other teams like the United States and France have brought entirely new uniform sets.

As with the men, there are a few common uniform elements despite the numerous uniform manufacturers represented. Those elements include either a flag or crest on the left chest, a maker’s mark on the right chest, a flag on the rear of the jersey above the name, and numbers on the right leg of the shorts. Some teams will wear two uniform combinations while others will wear three, but that is the maximum number allowed at the Games. If you are unfamiliar with volleyball and you see someone on the court with a different jersey color than the rest of the team: that’s the libero! They are a free substituting passer that often plays back row rotations for both middle blockers, as they are not typically adept passers. You may also see a player with an underlined number on the front of their jersey: that’s the captain! Captains are the only players designated to talk to referees and are signified by a 2 cm diameter line under the front jersey number.

With all that info, let’s now take a look at all the uniforms teams are wearing in the Olympics! We’ll go pool by pool.

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Pool A

UNITED STATES

The Americans are the defending Olympic gold medalists, and have not finished outside the podium since the Athens Games in 2004. Despite bowing out in the quarterfinals of the VNL last month, Team USA have positioned themselves to have a shot in the medal round once again in a relatively weak (based on international team rankings) Pool A. These new Mizuno sleeveless uniforms are identical to the men’s team, but whereas we have only seen navy and red options from the men, the women have also shown us a white jersey. All jerseys have a sublimated arrow/triangle/chevron pattern that fades from bottom to top with two-colored stripes and stars on the side panels. All three jerseys are paired with navy blue shorts.

Blue

White

Red

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CHINA

Three-time Olympic Gold medalist China headed to Paris determined to erase the memory of their 9th-place finish in Tokyo three years ago, and thus far have made that the case by winning Pool A. China are outfitted by Adidas and have two basic, clean uniforms rendered in all red and all yellow. There is no visible sublimation, a volleyball rarity. The red uniforms have white numbers and letters and a yellow collar, while the yellow uniforms have red lettering and no contrasting collar. So far, the yellow uniform has only been worn by their libero. If they have a white or navy alternate, they have not yet shown it.

Yellow

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SERBIA

Like the United States and other countries whose men’s and women’s teams are both competing in Paris, Serbia’s uniforms are…erm…uniform across the sexes. The sleeveless jerseys made by Chinese manufacturer Peak Sport Products come in blue, white, and red, each with a fan-like geometric pattern sublimated across their entirety. All jerseys have thin piping down the side evoking the Serbian flag, however the entire effect is only really visible on the blue jerseys due to the order of the stripes on the flag. The striping continues onto the spandex shorts, The blue and white jerseys are paired with blue shorts, and the red, worn only by the libero so far, is paired with red shorts. We’ll see if the reds come out en masse in the knockouts as Serbia looks to medal in a third consecutive Olympic Games.

White

Blue

Red

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FRANCE

France made their Olympic debut in Paris, auto-qualifying as the host nation. Overmatched, they lost all their pool play matches 3-0, but playing in front of the home crowd and competing in their first Olympics had to make it worth it anyway. France debuted new slight-sleeved uniforms made by French company Le Coq Sportif which came in three main colors: blue, red, and white. The blue and red jerseys each fade to white as they stretch to the waistline, with dark side panels. The white jersey, conversely, sees the fade pattern only in the side piping. The left piping fades from dark to light red, while the right side fades from dark to light blue. The blue and white jerseys are paired with blue shorts that have fading blue to white piping on the sides, and the red jerseys paired instead with red shorts, also with fading piping. The white jerseys probably would have looked better with either matching white shorts (logistically a no-go in most women’s sports) or plain shorts simply because it created an uneven piping look.

Blue

Red

White

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Pool B

BRAZIL

The Brazilian team showed up in Paris as the World #2 with a chip on their shoulder as the reigning Silver medalists. All they did was steamroll their way to clean sweeps in each of their pool play matches to earn the top seed entering the quarterfinals. Not only that, they’ve done it while donning beautiful jerseys that fuse together modern sublimated design with a classic feel. So far they have worn only their typical yellow jerseys with the libero wearing a lighter blue. Both jerseys have pronounced navy blue folded collars with a stitched design. Both yellow and blue also have a sublimated design on the chest featuring lines of varying thickness coming together to present as diamonds. While sharing these features, as well as the Mexico ‘68-esque number font, with the men’s team, the women have sleeveless jerseys while the men do not. The yellow jerseys have been paired with navy shorts, while the blue libero jerseys are paired with matching blue shorts.

Yellow

Blue

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POLAND

The Poles began the 2024 Olympics as the #3 team in the world, yes, but also as a team making only their second Olympic appearance since a Bronze medal in Mexico City in 1968. They’ll move on to the quarterfinals determined to end the long medal drought. Outfitted by Adidas, Poland have two very plain sleeved red and white jerseys with thin alternate-colored collars and a script that appears to be imitating handwriting. Both jerseys are paired with red shorts. While they may be pretty plain, I’d argue that they match with the plain two-striped Polish flag quite well.

Red

White

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JAPAN

The Japanese women entered the Paris games with six medals to their name, but only a singular bronze since 1984. The Volleyball Nations League runners-up stumbled in pool play, coming up short of the knockout round for a third straight Olympics. If you read my men’s volleyball write-up, you know that the Japanese men’s team had my favorite uniforms on that side. And despite being a rare case of the men’s and women’s teams not matching uniforms, Japan had my favorite uniforms on the women’s side as well. Mizuno have created three sleeveless uniforms rendered in blue, red, and white, each with the same ribbon-like sublimated pattern that almost evokes a classic screensaver look. The white and blue uniforms are each accented with navy shorts and collars, while the red is accented with more red. All numbers and flag patches are outlined with gold trim.

White

Red

Blue

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KENYA

Making their fourth Olympic appearance, Kenya entered Paris as huge underdogs representing Africa. Despite not taking a set in pool play, the Kenyans brought incredible energy to the court in 2024, as well as the ONLY volleyball uniforms furnished by Nike! Kenya wore three uniforms rendered in red, green, and white. The red and green jerseys had no sublimation and a basic white collar on the neck and arms with a short, diagonal white stripe on the side. The white jersey, worn only by the libero in one match, featured black collaring and no stripe. All jerseys were paired with plain black spandex shorts. They weren’t flashy by any means, but they made for a very solid visual identity.

Red

Green

White

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Pool C

ITALY

The bad news? The Italian women have qualified for every Olympic Games since 2000 but have yet to finish higher than 5th. The good news? They enter the Paris Games ranked #1 in the world and fresh off a VNL championship title. They will sport three sleeveless jerseys in Paris, outfitted by Italian manufacturer Errea. All three have a sublimated geometric design emanating from the bottom left corner, but on the traditional blue and white jerseys it is hard to discern. All jerseys have gold side piping that sandwiches tri-colored piping in the style of the Italian flag. Thankfully, the women have thus far avoided wearing the anthracite (possibly even a dark teal?) and gold alternates, save for their libero. While the blue jerseys are paired with matching blue shorts, the anthracite jerseys are paired with navy shorts. They have worn both shorts options with their white jerseys, a feat I have not seen from any other country yet.

Blue

White

Anthracite

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TURKEY

Türkiye is making only their third Olympic appearance and looking for their first medal, but the #4 team in the world and 2023 VNL champions have high hopes as they advance to the medal round. They also have the only Puma uniforms in the field, and arguably the most basic. There’s not much to write about, honestly. The sleeveless uniforms come in all red and all black. They have not mixed and matched shirts and shorts as of this write-up, but maybe it would be fun if they did!

Red

Black

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The DR arrived in Paris upset-minded in Pool C as one of the four lowest-ranked teams in the tournament, but did manage to advance to the quarterfinals as the 8-seed. Yet another team outfitted by Mizuno, the Dominicans technically have the most uniform options of any team in Paris with four. The three standard jerseys come in white, red, and navy blue, while their libero has been wearing a special yellow jersey in each match. All four jerseys have a sublimated design on the bottom half that I’m calling ‘spreadsheet-esque’ depicted in differing combinations of the three colors of the flag. All but the red jersey have navy side panels, while the red has, predictably, red. While many of the teams have rounded and wide numbers, the Dominican uniforms have a very distinct thin numerical font. The red, white, and yellow jerseys have all been paired with navy shorts, while the navy jersey was paired with red.

White

Blue (and Yellow)

Red

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NETHERLANDS

While the Dutch were not long for the Olympic tournament, they did make quite a fashion statement while they were there. While there were a couple teams on the men’s side who chose to wear a team crest on their chest rather than a flag, the Netherlands were the only women’s team to do so. The Dutch team was yet another whose uniforms were manufactured by Mizuno, who did some heavy lifting when it came to crafting unique looks in Paris. These weren’t my favorites that they put out, but they will certainly appeal to some. The three jerseys came in blue, white, and the traditional Dutch orange, each with a sublimated lion on the chest and back and a sublimated flame pattern bursting upward from the waistline. The collars on the jerseys were colored in the red, white, and blue stripes of the national flag, but smudged together almost as if painted with watercolors. All three uniforms were paired with plain blue shorts.

Orange

White

Blue

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Thanks, Greyson! Really well done and thorough coverage!!!

Readers, what do you think of this year’s crop of Women’s Olympic Volleyball kits?