Major League Soccer and Adidas have released a handful of very interesting and exciting jerseys.
You read that correctly. None of them are plain shirts that can be described as “clean” or need to be unpacked by an elaborate explainer graphic. They all incorporate some sort of recognizable throwback aesthetic, and all of them seem highly wearable.
Five teams — the LA Galaxy, LAFC, Inter Miami, the Portland Timbers and Sporting Kansas City — are rolling out third kits, which they’ll wear throughout the remainder of the 2024 season. With the exception of Miami and LAFC’s shirts, the jerseys are all throwbacks to kits sported by each team in a previous life.
Kansas City’s shirt is a nod to the technicolor hallucinations of the Kansas City Wiz (and later Wizards’) early kits.
The Galaxy’s shirt features elements of the logo the club used for the first 10 years of their existence, until the club’s David Beckham-fueled rebrand in 2007.
The Portland Timbers, who have a much deeper well of history than most other MLS teams, went much further back for their inspiration. The club, which was founded in 1975 as a member of the North American Soccer League, emblazoned their kit with the logo they first used on their 1981 shirts. It is not the first time the Timbers have incorporated elements of a previous design into their uniforms, though.
Inter Miami’s shirt is an elegant, art deco-inspired number that incorporates the city’s iconic colors — the aquamarine, orange and white that dot every corner of the city (including its NFL team).
Like Miami, LAFC has only a brief history of its own to tap into, so as with Portland, they looked to the old NASL. The “Los Angeles” emblazoned across the chest of their third kit is clearly a nod to the NASL’s LA Aztecs. That team used the same double-lined type for their primary logo during their brief existence.
The shirts are only part of the collection, which also features jackets and shoes. The jackets are bland yet undeniably Adidas, with the company’s three stripes running the length of the shoulders and sleeves, and the company’s iconic, vintage “trefoil” logo featured as well. The league and Adidas also partnered on a line of Gazelles, which are similarly straightforward and attractive in their simplicity.
Fans have long clamored for throwback designs and some clubs have occasionally answered that call, offering designs that harken back to their previous iterations in the NASL. Some have dug even further back, like the Philadelphia Union, who rolled out a Bethlehem Steel-inspired shirt in 2013. That team hasn’t played since the onset of the Great Depression.
This release, while welcome, will probably serve to make fans of other clubs across the league even more irritated at their own clubs for not doing a little more to incorporate the designs of yesteryear. Think of a club like D.C. United, who could draw on elements of their own history and also those of the NASL’s Washington Diplomats. To be clear, nobody out here is asking for a “New England Revolution x New England Tea Men” mash-up, but there are plenty of possibilities all over the league.
According to the press release announcing the collection, “With 2024 marking the kickoff year of the adidas x MLS Archive Collection, MLS and adidas will explore expanding the number of clubs that will have a third jersey in 2025 and beyond.”
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