‘Metaprism’, crayon drawings and ‘pearl lacquerware’: Rating Euro 2024 and Copa America kits (2024)

Follow live coverage of England vs Brazil in an international friendly today

The sun is peeking through the clouds, the temperatures are inching up, blossoms are appearing on the trees and in a valiant attempt to rouse enthusiasm for the international break, the two big boys of the kit world have dropped some new designs. Spring is truly here.

Over the last week, Nike and Adidas have released a tranche of new kits before a colossal summer, which will take in the Copa America in the United States and Euro 2024 in Germany.

We will have full rundowns of all the kits at both tournaments closer to the time, but frankly, some of these designs are too delicious to wait until then, so here are some thoughts on the choice cuts. If you’re a fan of snark about bad designs — which, admittedly, can be extremely fun — then this one isn’t for you. These are all delights…

Follow live coverage of Canada vs Trinidad and Tobago in the Copa America qualifying playoffs

How to follow Euro 2024 on The Athletic…

• Euro 2024 news and features
• Euro 2024 fixtures and schedule
• Euro 2024 favourites: How are they shaping up?

England

Recent England shirts have been pretty bad. The last few designs have looked like knock-off gear that somebody found in a kit bag from 1995, which have been popular with many but not here in The Athletic kit-judging towers. This one, however… talk about a return to form.

It’s the perfect way to do ‘basic but not boring’. It’s not too complicated but has a trim that ensures it isn’t too dull. That trim takes inspiration from the “training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes”. A retro nod to the tops that Bobby Moore did shuttle runs in is almost wilfully niche, but that doesn’t especially matter when it looks as good as this.

Rating: 9

U.S.

Yessir! A kit that makes you stand up straight and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, even if you’re not American. This is a clean enough design to satisfy those of us who care only about aesthetics, and enough of a nod to the red, white and blue and the Star-Spangled Banner to satisfy the most fervent of patriots.

In case you were wondering, Nike’s designers took a “prismatic approach to refreshing the colour scheme for each federation”, according to its press release. It is apparently called “metaprism” — what that means is anyone’s guess, but it involves taking “traditional federation colours” and augmenting them “through the lens of light and movement”.

Or you could just ignore all that and enjoy a delightful shirt.

Rating: 8

Canada

This is probably the weakest of this group of shirts released by Nike, but that’s a bit like saying it’s the worst cuddle with a new puppy that you’ve ever had: it’s still pretty worthwhile.

It’s a bit unclear why it put the manufacturer’s logo above the national crest when, for most of the other shirts, it opted for a more classic approach of going to the left or right side of the chest.

Perhaps it’s to emphasise the ‘swoosh’, which, according to Nike, is modelled on those from ice hockey jerseys of the past. Good, but not amazing.

Rating: 7

Brazil

Traditionalists might object to the prominence of the design on the body of this shirt, but in our most humble opinion, it works. The pattern, which looks a bit like a child’s stream-of-consciousness crayon drawing, but in a positive way, brings in elements from “musical notes to macaws, from Sugarloaf Mountain to world-famous beaches”.

You could argue that with the background design, they didn’t need much by way of trim detail, but you do need a decent amount of green on a Brazil shirt. That’s the best place to put it.

Rating: 8

How to follow the Copa America on The Athletic…

• Copa America news and features
• Copa America fixtures and schedule
• Picking the USMNT’s 23-man roster

South Korea (away)

South Korea have been blessed with a series of terrific designs in the last few years, as you might expect to clad the world’s sexiest footballer. This one for their away jersey is among the best of them.

The design apparently “draws inspiration from the country’s famous pearl lacquerware” but it looks more like someone has painted the rings of Saturn, then thrown water over it and mushed the pattern around, like a T-shirt you might buy from the planetarium.

Which, again, we do mean as a compliment.

Rating: 9

Nigeria (away)

It’s a fairly radical departure from the excellent shirt they sported at the recent Africa Cup of Nations, but they don’t miss, do they?

This is another peach of a design, which once again has an ostensible story behind it — quite vague in this case, Nike citing the “creative communities that connect across the country whenever the national team takes the pitch”. But you can just enjoy those excellent green daubs across a black background on an aesthetic level.

It’s also a nice touch that the same pattern is continued on the shorts. Usually, shorts are a place for plain design, presumably because the manufacturers assume people will buy and wear them separately, but in this case, they look great as a piece.

Rating: 8

Germany (away)

The new Germany home kit is perfectly fine, but absolutely what you would expect from a Germany home kit: it’s a plain white body with black Adidas stripes on the sleeves and splashes of red and yellow around the shoulders.

It’s very reminiscent of the 2006 World Cup shirt: so, again, OK, but exactly what you’d expect. For the away shirt, however, they have very much gone off-piste, and in a pretty daring way. A bright pink shirt that fades into purple most definitely should not work, but it does, and it’s quite difficult to explain why.

But we’re giving Adidas plenty of points here for boldness if nothing else.

Rating: 8

Wales (away)

It will be a significant pity if Wales don’t qualify for the European Championship in the summer for no other reason than we won’t see this beauty of a shirt in action on that stage.

The Adidas explanation doesn’t say this, but it looks quite a bit like some inspiration has been taken from those bucket hats that you’ll have seen thousands of their fans wear over the last few years.

Wherever the inspiration has come from, the main body colour — “pearl citrine”, apparently; don’t you dare call it yellow — is a delight, the underarm design is very striking and the trim colours work wonderfully.

Rating: 9

Belgium (away)

The old joke, such as it was, went that there were no famous Belgians other than Tintin and Hercule Poirot — two fictional characters. Modelling a football shirt after Agatha Christie’s effete, moustachioed detective was going to be a challenge, so instead they have chosen Herge’s adventurer as the inspiration for their away shirt.

It’s just a shame that Kevin De Bruyne has grown his hair, so doesn’t quite look like Tintin anymore, but you can’t have everything. If you didn’t know the inspiration then you might think it was a tribute to a Uruguay kit from the 1930s, but that doesn’t make it any less attractive.

It’s a maverick idea, but a tip of the hat to Adidas for pulling it off.

Rating: 8

Mexico

What is going on here, then? It’s the kit that is the biggest departure from the standard design of years past, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

According to Adidas, “the eye-catching eagle design takes its inspiration from traditional folk art”… which is great to know, but doesn’t add or subtract anything from a design that doesn’t look like a football shirt.

And in this case, that’s very much a good thing.

Rating: 8

Peru

There’s no particular topical reason to have Peru in here. There’s nothing unusual about this latest iteration of their kit, but that’s why it’s exceptional.

It always is one of the enduring constants of excellent kit design, and the only quibble you could make here is that the gold Adidas stripes make it look a bit like a Swansea kit from circa 2015 with the red sash stitched onto it.

But that’s nit-picking: all hail a classic, it never goes out of style.

Rating: 9

(Top photo: Nike and Adidas)