[Editor’s Note: Today we have a column from our own Jamie Rathjen, who gives us the rundown on new unis for one of his favorite sports. Enjoy! — PH]
USA Field Hockey revealed new uniforms for its national teams on Friday. They’re the first from new outfitter Capelli, replacing Osaka Hockey (who are now the provider for all other equipment). The pro teams Capelli outfits are all in soccer in various places around the world, including some in the USL Championship and Super League. They also outfit Professional Referees Organization officials in US pro leagues. But that’s one set where Capelli’s trademark, shoulder stripes made out of little squares, are missing. The stripes are on full display here, on the shoulders for the MNT and down the sides of the WNT’s sleeveless shirts.
Each team has red, white, and blue options that could be, but aren’t usually, mixed and matched. In practice, red and blue appear pretty evenly and white is usually reserved for goalies, though the WNT did wear white once at the Paris Olympics. Each of the shirts has a sublimated pattern of stars or stripes.
Both teams also wear a patch for the United States Performance Center at UNC Charlotte, a training facility for them and multiple other US Olympic and Paralympic programs and where they tend to play home games. The patch goes on the MNT’s sleeves and the side of the WNT’s shirts.
The other big change is to the team’s crests, pictured at the top of this post. A couple years ago, USA Field Hockey gave the WNT a “United Eagles” nickname and the MNT a “United Wolves” nickname and each their own logo, but the MNT actually wore the WNT’s crest in the previous set. That’s no longer the case.
Overall, I’d say this and the previous set has really improved USA Field Hockey’s look, especially since their competition largely consists of bad crests, generic-looking fonts, and teams that look like off-brand versions of their soccer counterparts. I don’t think this is an upgrade just because I really liked Osaka’s minimalist designs and I’m not sure about the number font. But the US is firmly in with the Netherlands and Japan (even with Japan’s less-flashy men’s team) as good-looking high-level countries in this sport.
USA Field Hockey says the new looks will debut in 2025, but the MNT is in Chile for two weeks starting today for the first matches since this reveal. The WNT is traveling to New Zealand in January and then will be at the FIH Hockey Nations Cup in Chile attempting to gain promotion back to the top-tier FIH Pro League, from which they were finally relegated just before the Paris Olympics after being spared multiple times by changes in format or other teams dropping out.
Hi, Jamie!
A couple of notes here. One, the U.S. women have traditionally worn red as its first choice kit since sometime in the late 70s (little photographic evidence exists of how pervasive red was as the first-choice uniform during game action. You did see plenty of posed team photos and pregame which showed overcoats and blazers over light blue pinafores and white dress shirts, which were worn into the early 1960s.
The other note is that, like many other uniforms the U.S. has worn over the years, these are likely going to be virtually impossible to be obtained by fans of the team. Whether it was Lanzera in the early 90s, STX in 1996, Under Armour in the early 2000s, or recent iterations by Asics or Osaka, you can’t find U.S. field hockey jerseys even in specialty shops.
Of course, the audience is a fraction of soccer, but it is the fourth widely-played sport in the world behind soccer, basketball, and cricket.
It’s somewhat frustrating for those of us who support the U.S. side, but can’t rep the players in the outside world.
Osaka did actually make shirts available to buy last year and I have a red MNT one, but you really had to pay attention to USAFH’s socials to get wind of it. Hopefully Capelli will do the same. But, absolutely, it’s cool to be able to support this sport in that way.
Agreed. I had to go to a lettering shop to make shirtseys out of shirts that looked like the 1932 Olympic shirts (with diagonal stripes). The red and white ones from U.S. Polo Association work quite nicely, albeit the U.S. men only wore the white ones.
Wore them during the summer and fall and got lots of compliments.
**one other note** I expect the U.S. men to remain a primarily blue team — the USA Field Hockey media folks called our men’s team “The Boys In Blue” before giving the monniker “United Wolves.”