[Editor’s Note: Today we have another entry from our own Jamie Rathjen. Enjoy! — PH]
by Jamie Rathjen
Earlier this week, the German Football Association (DFB) revealed a 125th-anniversary shirt for both national teams. It’s meant to be based on the design worn by West Germany’s men’s team in winning the 1974 World Cup, but is not completely faithful. Although Adidas resurrected the trefoil logo just in time for it to be used here like on the original, the sock color has changed to black instead of white. White/black/black is a fairly old-school combo that probably won’t look familiar; for example, it was worn, again by West Germany, at the men’s World Cup in 1954.
The crest is something like the DFB’s first logo from 1900 and is appearing in place of the normal eagle, an enlarged version of which is subtly behind the crest. Neither team wears their World Cup championship stars — four for men, two for women — above the crest.
The matching goalie shirt was shown as light blue, which to me was a really odd choice to go with a white shirt since it’s a light and pale color. It’s certainly not one of the traditional goalie colors like green or yellow. But men’s team goalie Oliver Baumann wore a fairly modern-looking lime green outfit instead, including the special crest but also visible Adidas stripes.
The number font looks simple, but again decidedly modern, unlike the original’s block font with a white drop shadow. The NOBs don’t add or subtract anything for me as they didn’t exist in the sport in 1974. (Going NNOB now would not be an option except in a friendly.)
The men’s team debuted this shirt yesterday against Italy in the UEFA Nations League, which is the source for some of the pictures above. The women’s team will wear it for their own Nations League games in April.
This design is suitably classic, but what would really put it over the top for me is if there was a green away version in the traditional shade, which is one of my favorite looks in the sport. When green has been revived in modern times it’s usually much darker, so that is, for now, a missed opportunity.
I like it! But I don’t understand the skinny, unathletic dude they have modeling it.
Adidas has clearly-not-soccer-players model shirts or full kits a lot, but I didn’t have good alternative pics in this case.
The cesspool that is Footy Headlines has photos of former and current players modelling the kits, as well as ones from its on-pitch debut, but I don’t think they’re necessary.
That’s two women, no?
Or did I miss the “joke.”
As you can see in the Picture, Sepp Maier is also wearing a Goalie Shirt in light blue.
Just sayin’
It’s a lot different next to green vs. white.
Yes you are correct. I just meant in response to your ,
“It’s certainly not one of the traditional goalie colors” comment.
Sorry, right. Of course I finished this entry so quickly that I didn’t actually notice what the goalie was wearing in that picture. So it was a thing! But today, should that shirt actually appear it would very likely be part of mono-blue, which isn’t quite the same.
Yes this would most certainly be Monolulu Blue.
Everything used to be better.
I’m starting to sound like my Father :-)
As an older guy who just became a soccer fan over the last 10 or 15 years, I still can’t get excited about soccer uniforms. They’re just t-shirts & shorts. At least with international competition the shirts aren’t covered in advertisements.
I don’t even know what this is supposed to mean. Are basketball uniforms just tank tops and shorts?
True. But they’re not YET completely covered in advertisements. And with national soccer uniforms like this one, you’d need a telescope to tell what country this is. This Germany uniform is very boring.
Respectfully disagree. I’d say classic, not boring. On your other point, I fully agree with the YET. Just a matter of time before national uniforms are covered in ads. As we know, everything is for sale—and certainly countries are not exempt from that reality. Wonder which nation will be the first. My guess is ‘murica.
Pretty much any soccer/ football fan from Europe, or S or C America, and I’d guess Africa too would immediately know this is Germany from any distance.. as long as it was known to be national teams.
It’s one of the more famous kits in international football
To me it looks odd to see a Germany shirt without the three stripes, because that’s what I’m accustomed to seeing in relatively recent times. Not positive or negative, just stands out to me.
The fact that these types of throwbacks almost necessarily include the addition of the “maker’s mark” (in this case, the trefoil) is a little annoying. It would be cool to see something like this with only the team crest and number, but they probably can’t really do that. In addition to not fulfilling the retail jersey’s self-advertising paradigm, I think it would also get push-back from consumers for not having enough elements and therefore not looking like a real soccer jersey.
I suppose they’re required to have numbers of a certain size on the front and back. I like this simple smooth typeface better than the 1974 block shadow.
I like the white/black/black color blocking, but the socks should have one logo at maximum. Either the trefoil or the monogram, but not both.
I don’t like the light blue goalie shirt, but I think that’s just because my brain sees it as one of those old undershirts that hockey players used to wear in the 1980s-90s. I think I consider the goaltenders outfits to be separate from the regular uniforms anyway.
Dunno. Seems to me that for a national team, you would want to use national colors. So the green away jerseys make absolutely no sense for a German National team.