Time for more Uni Tweaks from the UW readership.
I hope you guys like this feature and will want to continue to submit your concepts and tweaks to me. If you do, Shoot me an E-mail (Phil (dot) Hecken (at) gmail (dot) com).
We have a few concepts today, all for the USMNT. They come from Jerry Chavez:
HOME
AWAY
THIRD:
GADSDEN
OK readers (and concepters). If you have some tweaks or concepts, shoot ’em my way with a brief description of your creation and I’ll run ’em here.
I love the soccer kit redesign and soccer is not really my thing. I like the incorporation of the stripes and the true blue (not navy) used in shorts. I also LOVE the Gadsden look too b/c of the flag’s place in US History, BUT, that emblem may not be so well received by all since it has been hijacked in recent years.
A white pair of socks as an option would be an improvement. Having the sashes go in opposite directions is an error. The Gadsden kit is a non-starter.
Excellent work, Jerry. With so many good concepts for the USA kit out there, I would hope Nike reads the room better going forward to come up with designs the fan base gets behind.
Loved it the first time, love the complete set, the stripes/sash is brilliant, it really should be the US teams’ signature design element.
Awesome design! So much better than what the Corporate Overlords have put out there.
The white and blue are definite improvements over what they’ll be wearing this fall. (A low bar to clear, for sure, but nevertheless if these were the real unis I’d be for it.)
I do like the Gadsden third concept (Mark Willis also had a Gadsden-based concept a number of years back) but it carries too much baggage these days to actually use.
All are good conceptually, though I would flip the direction of the sash on the white for a few reasons:
1) more historically accurate, the US hasn’t worn a sash in that direction but has worn sashes going the other direction numerous times
2) it will help with cohesion with the blue kit
3) it helps the eye visually separate the stripes in the sash from clashing with the stripes in the crest, there’s a lot of stripe action happening in that small spot and it would make the crest hard to see from more than a few feet away
I don’t buy jerseys anymore since I don’t like the material but I would make an exception for that white jersey.
There’s a lot to like here!
My 2 cents:
1. Yes to sashes. We’ve worn them before and very few countries where them regularly at the international level. Beyond Peru, I can’t think of any others.
But… 1a. The sashes should run in the same direction.
2. I love the idea of the Gadsden flag alts, but as others said, there is too much political baggage for Nike or US Soccer to adopt these. But few countries wear yellow/athletic gold as their primary color, so it would work as a clash kit.
3. Any thoughts to making the sash on the white shirt 13 stripes, for obvious reasons?
4. Any thoughts to red socks with the navy kit? It is very navy/white, and red socks could be a callback to the “bomb pop” kits from a few years back.
These look much better than the real ones. If I had one critique it would be that it’s probably best to avoid a red arm band on one sleeve for…historical reasons.
I love the first two concepts. I’ve always been a fan of the sash design. The last one isn’t bad after my initial first glance (Is that urine-colored? Just kidding). I think a red jersey or red and white striped alternate would be good. Overall, Jerry did a great job with these and they are much better than existing ones that will be used in the World Cup.