[Editor’s Note: Below is a review by our own Anthony Emerson, who’ll be assuming the Weekend Editor duties in less than two weeks, after current WE Jimmer Vilk enters uni-retirement after this weekend. Enjoy! — PH]
The Portuguese national football teams have ended their 27-year association with Nike and have moved over to Puma. For their inaugural outing, the German giants have designed a conservative but not unattractive home kit, and a more wild away kit, for what might be Cristiano Ronaldo’s final Portugal set.
Portugal’s traditional red shirt, green shorts, red socks look returns at home. Puma’s template requires collars and sleeve cuffs to be truncated approximately halfway around the sleeve and neck, which is a shame, because I really like the green-white-green element. There’s even a bit of gold on the element, too, but you can’t see it unless you get super close.
The away kit shows Puma being more Puma-like. The base color is an off-white (Puma calls it “sugared almond”) with a dotted ripple pattern, allegedly inspired by the Quinas symbol on Portugal’s coat of arms and in the center of the national team’s crest. It doesn’t really click with me, to be honest. Puma says that “The new Away kit reimagines the Quinas symbol in a futuristic way using bold colors and graphics that celebrate the intersection of art, technology, and football in modern-day Portugal.”
The women’s kits are slightly different than the men’s — the home kit has green undersleeves, its own ripple pattern, and the green-white-green collar and cuffs are replaced by a black-white-black design. The away kit has a greener hue and a slightly different ripple pattern.
What do you think?
More photos are below.
Does this change the Christmas uniform rankings any?
Ha! That was my first thought, too, JK!
I have to say, these new uniforms might have nudged out the Portugal uniforms that were in the 12th spot on the Christmas rankings. These new ones emphasize the red and green over the gold even more than those older Portugal uniforms did. And they also earn a nod for their very Christmas-y second kits.
Overall, the Christmas-loving, list-making version of me highly approves of these new unis. Nice job by Puma right of the gate!
I do not understand the obsession lately with partial collars. Why does it randomly stop on either side?
While I agree with the partial collar comment, I think otherwise the kits are tastefully done, although I don’t love the women’s green side panel thing. Not that it matters, but I’m of portuguese heritage lol
Another thing that irks me about modern soccer uniforms – the shorts should not be the same colour as the base of the shirt when the shirt has heavy graphics on it. It looks really sloppy. In this case, black shorts would be best, but red or green could work too. The problem with red and green is that the shirt has multiple shades of each.
Just a thought, and not trying to be critical, but one thing I always liked about Paul’s writing was that he held his opinion until the end of the article. He’d describe what’s happening, then offer an evaluation based on what something tangible at the end.
Anyway, good stuff! Excited to see the new weekend content.
What!?!? Wait?!?? Was Jimmer’s retirement announced in an earlier post?
Thanks Jimmer, I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis and sense of humor.
Welcome Anthony! You have big shoes to fill.