Good morning, Uni Watchers. A Happy Hump Day to one and all.
US Soccer unveiled two new 2025 kits yesterday, with each look being given a special name: “Heartbeat” and “Brilliant.” Both the men’s and women’s national teams will wear Heartbeat, but Brilliant is only for the women’s team.
As most readers are aware, I’m not a “soccer” guy, so I’m a bit out of my wheelhouse when it comes to previewing and reviewing soccer kits. (Fortunately, our own Jamie Rathjen most decidedly is a soccer fan, so I’ve asked him for some insights which will appear towards the end of this article.)
According to US Soccer, the new kits “blend American fashion, cultural identity, and team heritage into a statement of purpose and pride.”
The kits were developed in collaboration with Nike and Senior National Team players Lynn (Williams) Biyendolo, Naomi Girma, Sophia (Smith) Wilson, Kellyn Acosta, DeAndre Yedlin and Walker Zimmerman. The new designs are “made to honor the storied legacy of our teams and celebrate the passion of U.S. Soccer fans across the country.”
We’ll start with the hype video:
Inspired by our players.
Worn by our fans.
Designed by Nike.Be the first to represent: https://t.co/wsdSbt09Zf pic.twitter.com/IKXXJQTJrb
— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) May 13, 2025
As mentioned, there are two kits — although almost every photograph accompanying the release featured only the jersey (I wonder why?). But you can see the shorts below.
The light jersey is known as “The Brilliant Kit.”
The jersey itself is mostly white, with sublimated grayish-blue stars emblazoned all over the top. The collar features a thick royal blue and thin red stripe. This pattern is repeated on the sleeves.
The USWNT jersey features the US Soccer crest, with four blue stars atop it. The four stars, of course, represent the four Women’s World Cup titles the team has won in its history.
Here’s the storytelling behind it:
As noted, the Brilliant Kit celebrates the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Women’s National Team, who played their first match in 1985. It features star details inspired by past USWNT designs, while also drawing visual parallels to the iconic kit worn by the U.S. Men’s National Team during the 1994 World Cup. It will be worn exclusively by the USWNT and paired with royal blue shorts. The team will debut the look on May 31st in a match against China. Meanwhile, the USMNT will continue wearing their current white home kit throughout the remainder of 2025.
Both the USMNT and USWNT received the “Heartbeat” kit which is the dark (road) uniform for both teams.
The Heartbeat Kit has vertical stripes in red and royal blue. The design is meant to honor the fans of the national teams, whose “energy is a rhythmic force that brings people together and pushes the game forward.” The collar has a thin red stripe and a thick navy blue stripe (like the light jersey, this is repeated on the sleeve hems). Because the jersey is navy, those thick navy stripes blend into the jersey a bit.
Both the women and the men got the same storytelling with this jersey, although graphically the two looked different.
Both jerseys have the US Soccer crest, but the women’s jersey has four stars, while the men — who have no World Cup wins — have none.
Both the ladies and the men will wear the Heartbeat kit for the rest of 2025. The USMNT will debut the kit when they play Turkey in Hartford on June 7th.
The blue jersey is also nice — because they’re using royal and red stripes, the navy base works well. I don’t think it would look nearly as good if it were a royal jersey with navy stripes. The only real complaint I have with that one is the seemingly superfluous navy stripe on the collar and sleeves. I wonder how that would have looked with a royal blue instead.
But for the real soccer aficionado’s take, here are some thoughts from Jamie.
“I appreciate them wanting to mark the WNT’s 40th anniversary, but the white design doesn’t quite evoke what they wore then. In fact, it was actually white with thin red and blue diagonal stripes, so if we had to use alternating red and blue stripes, this one would have been a much better choice than the black shirt.”
The floor is yours.
The dark kit is much superior to the light one, but would have prefered red/white pinstripes.
GTGFTS
19 Apr 2013
Significant for obvious reasons.
Not pictured: Home runs by Ike Davis and Lucas Duda in the bottom of the 8th to make the final score 7-1.
GTGFTU
4 Jul 2024
Astros beat the Blue Jays 5-3.
Only game (so far) with ad clad powder blues and ID4 caps.
April 19 2013, a very strange day to be living in the Boston metro area to cap off a really awful week.
It also solidified Sweet Caroline as a Red Sox and Boston anthem, which I have mixed feelings about.
They will probably wear white numbers and lettering, so with red and royal pinstripes on a navy background, the white will really stand out. Less so with red and white pinstripes, I think.
I could see royal blue numbers/letters happening.
I don’t hate these! Which is high praise for Nike USNT kits. The blue in particular kinda looks like something Team USA would wear. Do I dare hope this presages something good for next year’s kits, which USMNT will wear briefly in the World Cup before crashing out in the group stage?
Still have my Waldo shirt for a reason.
Give me Waldos or give me death.
Until they bring back the Waldos, I’ll always give these an F.
I like both of these…not sure they the men didn’t get a white one, would be an improvement over the rather bland nondescript one they have now. But I almost wish they would have waited to debut these next year…because I fear they’ll try to roll out something worse before the World Cup.
They should get a men’s version of the white one, and keep them through the WC, IMHO.
This is typically the case as this is the women’s “mid-cycle” year, meaning it’s halfway between their world cups (next one being in 2027) and the men’s world cup is next year, so they’ll get 2 new kits next year
I agree with Jamie that is a bit odd that they didn’t go off a uswnt team uniform (91 or 99) to celebrate their legacy. I am confused why the 94 uniform is iconic, the team got out of group stage 1-1-1 and then knocked out by a 10 man Brazil.
It’s iconic because for pretty much every living American it’s the first jersey we saw the USMNT play in a World Cup in. And tbh this remix of that design is far superior to the original.
I hear you Adam. I assumed others watched usmnt in 1990 wc
The 1994 shirt, no matter one’s opinion about it, was certainly memorable. It was the first time the United States had hosted the World Cup. MLS didn’t exist yet. This was considered a soccer backwater. The USMT not getting out of the group stage while losing all three matches in a humiliating fashion was an honest fear. Instead, the USMT advanced to the second round and even won a match in Group A which was a huge deal at the time.
The second round loss to Brazil was respectable even if the score was bit deceiving. Brazil went on to win the World Cup and were a vastly better team. They dominated the match in all but the final score. However, only losing 1-0 to Brazil, man advantage or not, was considered okay because there were fears it could have been much worse and harmed the momentum gained by the sport from having the World Cup on home soil.
I hear what you are saying, I just don’t see how it correlates with uswnt 40 years anniversary
Seems like they’ve taken direct inspiration from the 1994 World Cup home kit for the home and the 2007 Copa America design for the away
link
“Styled for the streets”? Ugh.
It’s a tiny detail but those 4 stars make a heck of a difference in my view of the kit. So much better. I also love the imagery and 4 trophies behind the players just well done there. As for the kit designs? I’m not wowed, just another basic design from Nike.
The away is absolutely amazing. The only change I would make would be using the lighter blue shade on the sleeve and collar trim instead of red.
The away jersey should have been a royal blue base with white and red pins. Otherwise my only note for these is to make more kits like these. The US should wear Stars and/or Stripes every game
Why royal?
Should not solid but unspectacular be the goal? Too fancy and they look like clowns. They should focus on building an iconic look at this backed up by solid performance on the field. The Brazilan kit is not fancy, but it is revered because of its basic, but outstanding, design. And the fact that they won all the time. Same for Argentina, or Germany.
I agree. The USA has had too many gimmicky kits with little consistency from one to the next. Sometimes there are stripes. There was a sash. We got the bomb pop suits. One shirt looked like it had been splattered with paint. Will the away shirt be red or blue this time? It’s long past time to find a shirt that can be tinkered with a bit but at the same is recognizably the USA team when someone looks at it instead of people needing to see the badge to know for sure.
Bomb pop shirts not bomb pop suits. Darn autocorrect.
I liked the centennial sash uniforms. I feel that the remake of crest a couple years ago is an unappealing design
This guy looks like he wants to take my order at a sports bar:
link
…right after he (allegedly) bangs your sister.
I lived through the 80s as a teenager and hated it at the time and even more in retrospect. Anyhting referring graphically or aesthetically (and, in most cases, musically) to that decade I tend to dislike a lot. And again: these are designed to wear with blue jeans and if there is one piece of garment that I loathe…
The dark jersey is slightly less gruesome than the sublimated stars one but reminds me of a pyjama shirt.
The national teams of the US are not taken seriously by their marketing department. Choosing an identity and sticking with it while changing the uniforms only in details? No way, you are taking this game too seriously, what are you? A dour, much too serious soccer fan from Europe or South America or something? Come on, join in, have fun, spend cash, do not think about stuff. Smile! There is a camera!
The dark shirt makes me think of Toronto Blue Jays CC. Just bring back the Waldos and have a clear identity. Every kit should have stars or red and white stripes.
The original bomb pop kit was (and remains) my favorite USMNT kit. The 1994 “denim” kit wasn’t my favorite but it was evocative of the time and is instantly recognizable as the USMNT.
Part of the problem is that the colors we have to work with aren’t really unique in the international game (UK, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Russia, Chile, France, Thailand, Paraguay, Cuba, Costa Rica among a few others all have the same palette to draw from). In addition Italy (the Azzurri), though their colors are red, white and green, wear blue. Netherlands wears orange for historical reasons. France (Les bleus), largely wear blue (hence the name) complimented with red. Australia also shares our palette, but wears green and yellow.
So it is always tough for the USMNT to wear “our colors” and stand out like Brazil, Germany, Cameroon, or even Mexico (El Tri).
Perhaps, if the USMNT went to a red and white wide vertical striped jersey (like Argentina) with blue shorts (and either blue or red socks), that would be unique and instantly recognizable as the US in international football.
The blue one (no way I’m calling it “heartbeat”) gives strong Colours by Alexander Julien circa 1989 vibes.
I think these are both solid; just hoping we get the Waldos for the world cup