With just under a week to go, here is a complete set of home and away kits for every country competing in this year’s South African World Cup. I’ve not included third kits but will feature the superb African Unity shirt in a Kit Cupboard special soon.
There’s still question marks over the DPR Korea (North Korea) kits, seems we won’t know what they will be wearing for sure until they take the field in it but the others should be accurate.
I’d be really interested in not only your favourite kit(s) but also which company you think have made the best strips this year. For me, I love most of the adidas and the Puma African kits – especially the away styles. Nike has been a bit of a disappointment I think although I do like the Holland and Portugal strips.
And while you’re preparing for the World Cup don’t forget, you can download EPL Talk’s special e-book ‘What the World Cup means to me’ that I was asked to contribute to here.
Finally, check out Andrew Rockall’s World Cup blog here. If its anything like his contributions to this site it should be a good read.
All illustrations are (C) 2010 John Devlin and must not be reproduced online or in print without permission.
Fantastic (and exhaustive) work John! I love the Puma kits this year…they’ve managed to make a template design still look original and unique for each strip. Some of the adidas ones are real crackers too, especially the Argentina H & A, the France away and both Greece kits. I was initially very disappointed with the Nike kits, but then there are some gems in there too. Both the USA kits are classy, Portugal and Holland’s away shirts are lookers and it’s nice to see Brazil in a simple affair…they always look better in basic kits.
Great work there John, we’ll see some really good kits in this World Cup, and maybe the odd shocker too – I still think Puma’s kits for their non-African teams aren’t too good (those collars are awful).
I originally didn’t like some of the Nike kits at first but they have well and truly grown on me, I’ve got the USA shirt and a classic – though I have noticed a few clear-cut differences between the replica and player issue jerseys from Nike this year, mainly on the side mesh panels.
By the way, couple of corrections: South Korea’s home shorts are white, Nigeria’s away kit hasn’t yet been revealed but apparently it’ll be a white shirt with green shoulder panels, and North Korea signed a very late deal with Italian company Legea, having worn several different brands in friendly matches.
Apparently this will be the design of North Korea’s home kit
http://nimg.nate.com/orgImg/hm/2010/06/03/20100603000254_0.jpg
I heard the away kit will be a reversal of colours – all white with red trim. I’ve noticed this Legea design is also used by Bosnia-Herzegovina too, though Ascoli wore an away kit of the same design………. in the 06/07 season!!!
John are you sure the Nigeria one is right? I believe the away strip is the same template as the Slovakia kits, the colours are reversed so the 3 stripes are white and the curved area is green.
http://www.football-shirts.co.uk/fans/nigeria-world-cup-away-shirt-2010_7411
Hi John
Loving the kits. Outstanding job. Thanks for the home set that you emailed me. The kids have already done some sorting. One of my six year olds sorted them according to brand ( a budding kit designer?). Next step is designing. We also looked at how kits match flags…we’ll be doing some more investigating there.
Have to say that I love the Puma Africa range. Really innovative with an almost drawn effect for the away kits…and not being biased but the more I see the NZL kits (especially the black away kit) the more I’m liking them.
Excellent john.
Thanks everyone – Jon, cheers for the Korea link – not another kit?! Hello Andrew – I’ll update the Nigeria kit, it was launched when I was on holiday so I missed it.
Hello Barri! Glad to hear your pupils are working hard on the designs. We passed through your neck of the woods while on holiday but as ever, time was always against us. I wanted to pick up an All Whites away shirt but at approx £75 equivalent it was beyond my budget.
Yep another kit for North Korea, they had worn kits made by Erke during qualifying, then wore a set made by Pirma which was a terrible rip-off of Liverpool’s kit from last season, and even had to borrow a set of shirts off Venezuela when they met them in a friendly. Then they wore the Astore kits for a few games – the home kit was actually a different design to the one illustrated (a bit like the Umbro 08/09 designs), and now onto Legea, with whom they have reportedly signed a £4m deal.
Nigeria’s away kit desgin is more or less the same template as Denmark’s kit, but with a different collar. Though I saw a sneak preview of that kit from the official World Cup 2010 computer game.
Also, for some reason Slovakia are using an adidas design from the season just passed, a bit strange considering their home kit is a new design. Mind you they seemed to have worn adidas kits “off the peg” in recent years.
Not sure about the £75 tag on the NZ away – Kitbag and Subside have it for less as I am checking just now.
Sorry 4 – I meant that to buy a shirt in New Zealand itself would have worked out at about £75 (NZ$150). I will try and get one this week from a UK company.
The new Nigeria away kit has been added – new DPR Korea to follow shortly.
Congratulations, nice kits!!!
Hello to Brazil
Good stuff.
Is there a definate list of what colours will be worn for the
group matches ?
If as Jon says above that S. Korea’s home shorts are white that leaves only England with no colour change (except for badge and number) on their shorts. Do England have change shorts? Navy blue perhaps!
Try first team wears home kit, then second team wear away kit if clash according to FIFA interpretation.
e.g. England wear white v USA & Algeria (who wear away) and red v Slovenia (who wear white), whereas France wear home v Uruguay
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/fixtures_and_results
#15 Alan – England wore white shirt/navy shorts v Ukraine in qualifying. Also it won’t be a problem if every other team has a change of colour available. Let the other team ruin their kit instead.
Fantastic collection! I own the new Denmark shirt (although surely it’s time they revisited the classic 1986 halves), although my faves must be the Argentina and Honduras away kits. Both Spain kits are classy too.
As a Scotsman, it pains me to say that the red England away kit is quite fetching, although their home kit is, I’m sorry to say, dire. I’m sorry, but (in my opinion) football shirts should only be designed to go with shorts – they’re not, despite the thick collars and itchy material, “leisurewear” to be worn with jeans! End rant…
Graeme, totally agree with you re Denmark’s 86 kit…a true classic. And you can get a replica of it now too… http://www.subsidesports.com/uk/1986-denmark-replica-shirt-no-11-laudrup.html
I got an original off ebay a few years ago and it’s just class 🙂
Here’s FIFA’s official list of colours for the group stages, including keepers and referees.
http://www.soccerfanatic.com/SFCBlog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/FWC-team-colours-18-05-10.pdf
Will be interesting to see England wearing all red against Slovenia.
Great stuff Dave, thank you for posting that, very useful.
Nice one Dave. A few inconsistencies, Japan-Netherlands is considered a clash but Japan-Denmark is not, overall though it doesn’t seem as heavy-handed as other tournaments!
So England will wear all red against Slovenia.
Have they worn all red before?
The away from 93-95 was an all-dark red colour.
In the 80s/90s, red away kits were sometimes worn with the home blue shorts if a shorts clash occurred.
According to englandfootballonline.com all-red was worn against Peru, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia in 1961, and against Belgium in 1965.
Beautifully drawn as usual John.
Still not that keen on the odd shaped collar that Puma use on some of their kits.
Cheers,
Willie
Love the way the England gk kit turns from ‘green to ‘dark green’ for no apparent reason in the FIFA list.
I spotted that too Amir!
I think that England all-red will look better than the red/navy/red combinations worn at different times in the early 90s.
Are we sure that Slovakia’s home is actually blue? Just a bit baffled that they’re set to wear white when listed as the home team, given that both opponents have white alternate strips. Thoughts?
Interesting to see that England will wear red shorts. When the kit was unveiled I understand that no change shorts had been decided on. I presumed they would just wear the navy change shorts from the home kit. With single colour strips becoming more popular and FIFA’s rules on clashes more stringent that the Premier League I would have thought a pair of consistent, designed change shorts was vital.
…and Nick, yes, Solvakia’s home kit is blue.
The away change shorts were revealed when the kit was, no? http://www.amazon.co.uk/England-Change-Shorts-2010-12/dp/B003ASPM20
Blimey Denis! You’re on the ball! Didn’t realise that. When we attended the Umbro preview nobody knew anything about change shorts – including the designers! It looks like they were made available at the beginning of May so it may well have been an afterthought in preparation for the World Cup. Bit of a low-key appearance, I don’t remember reading anything about them.
I don’t know if you saw the new Everton away kit but they are promoting the change pink shorts as ‘limited edition shorts’ along with the rest of the kit.
One would have thought that the pink shirts alone would provide enough differentiation!
I really don’t know what FIFA are playing in regards to forcing teams to change kits despite there being no colour clash, nor this recent “plague” of making teams wear single-colour matching kits, e.g. Portugal having to wear red shorts just to accomodate the white shorts on North Korea’s away kit.
Here we are in 2010 and FIFA still thinking most people watching at home have a black and white TV. Oh and England wearing red shorts, is that yet another thing they’ve pinched of us folk across the border? 😉
Interesting that even the official Slovakia player portraits on gettyimages feature the players in white..
Great kits Jon, I have to say I’m left cold by many of the adidas and Nike designs.
The France home for instance – what is going on there?! Shame that adidas had to end their ties with such an awful, messy kit. It just looks dated.
And dated is a charge I’d level at some of the Nike kits – next to England’s kits the Nike sock flourishes look fussy.
Not a fan of the rubberised strips on the sleeves of most Nike kits either.
I actually think England will look quite smart in all-red.
I was just looking around a football kit website and stumbled upon this regarding England kits during the World Cup.
http://tinyurl.com/3xzcg5e
I was really surprised.
Already mentioned that here:
http://www.truecoloursfootballkits.com/articles/visit-to-umbro#comment-27294
Slovakia tend to alternate between blue or white whenever they play at home, so it’s about as clear as mud as to what is officially their first choice kit. During qualifying they wore blue at home against Poland and Northern Ireland, but wore white for the other matches.
Second game in and that FIFA chart (which has been adopted by historicalkits.co.uk, if anyone wants to take a look at the match-ups) has had to be modified already, France in all-white against Uruguay
I had a funny feeling that chart wasn’t to be trusted Denis. don’t think we’ll know for sure whos wearing what until they play. No surprises both games today ended in a draw – and who else has had just about enough of those bloody horns!!?
I loved the vuvuzelas last year during the Confederations Cup as they added a real atmosphere and was quite looking forward to them, but by the time I’d got through the first match, I thought I’d developed tinnitus! They’re so damn constant!!! I’m sure they weren’t this bad last year?
I’d say the chart is generally right though as it was correct re Gk and referee kits. Another change from it that I would envisage though would be Netherlands-Japan, where both are down to wear dark shorts, I’d imagine Japan will be all-white in that game
Just added the updated (and hopefully correct) DPR Korea kits.
I hope you will publish alternate kits, like Korea Republic home jersey with white short or France away jersey with also white shorts
Amir & Bruno – I believe that blue shirt to be just a leisurwear shirt only, there is one in red (it has no white trim on the sleeve) as well. Surely the only potential need for a third shirt is if we play Paraguay (which we can’t do until the Semi’s) where both teams could change anyway?
I believe you’re right about the blue England shirt Andrew. However the only visible difference between the red shirt you mention (it does have white trim on kitbag) and the real away shirt is in the England and makers badge. Why can’t Umbro knock up a few of the blue shirts for the players if the opportunity arose?
http://www.kitbag.com/stores/kitbag/products/product_details.aspx?pid=67333
Does anybody know why Glen Johnson had the number on the front of his kit under the umbro logo and not in the middle of his chest last night? I noticed it in the second half, following a blood injury though he changed to a shirt with the number in the correct place which is even more confusing as he obviously had a shirt printed correctly.
you are right Amir, I meant to say badge detail was in red and umbro sign too but randomly typed about the trim, wally!
To the topic earlier: I am Slovak and we do not really have a home/away shirts. We’ve been playing in white at home and used blue as first choice as well. No consistency there. This year it seems like blue is the preferred option though.
How is it with the Puma Africa Unity kit? Is it supposed to be actually worn during the tournament? Does not seems like it’s scheduled according to the FIFA PDF document, but it was quite heavily promoted.
#4, The African Unity kit is supposed to be the 3rd strip of all the African nations competing (barring South Africa) and could theoretically be called upon if a team so desires and FIFA give it the all clear. Would be surprised if it doesn’t get a single outing as it’d make the whole enterprise something of a white (African) elephant.
Will:
Yes, I noticed it as well. It seemed Johnson was wearing a correctly printed shirt in the first half, only to change into one with an incorrectly-positioned number in the second half, only for his third shirt used to be right again. Probably just a mistake by the kitman I guess? Can’t help but think that the away shirt would look so much better with the number in the middle rather than under the Umbro logo, anyone agree?
And has anyone else noticed that in all 2010 fixtures, the opposition details directly below the England badge has changed? They’re now printed, rather than embroidered. Bit of a shame I think, doesn’t look half as good.
So much for that FIFA colours list. It had the USA as wearing a “port red” goalkeeper kit against England, but Tim Howard wore a bright orange kit instead. Also it has Italy’s goalie wearing “light green” against Paraguay in tonight’s match, which I doubted when I saw the list because I’ve only seen three designated keeper kits for Italy – dark grey, red, and white. At the moment Buffon is wearing white, though in truth I felt dark grey would have been better against Paraguay!
John, looks like the DPR Korea shirts are different afterall…not sure they’re not the ones you first had?
Scratch that…damn blackberry not showing me all the pics… Taxi for me!
No worries Rich! They’re giving Brazil a game though aren’t they? And what about the All Whites earlier today?!
Brazil really annoyed me as they started the game just trying to walk the ball into the net, seemingly having an attitude of ‘we’re going to stick 10 past these chumps’, but DPR Korea were much better than expected and looked very fit and organised…within half an hour, Brazil resorted to kicking the Koreans as they clearly couldn’t comprehend that they weren’t in the lead. Will be interesting to see Korea against Portugal and Ivory Coast 🙂
And well done indeed to the All Whites 🙂
Why on earth did Greece change from white to blue against South Korea? That’s on a par with WC 82 when England played France and both teams changed!
was it to give us one light and one dark kit for those watching in black and white?
Thanks for all the comments everyone….Andrew, surely Greece’s blue kit would have given two dark kits for those watching BW? Still a bit irritated by Brazil’s insistence on wearing undergarments that reach up above the collar – also, isn’t it interesting to see which of the adidas teams go for Techfit shirts and which don’t. Anyone know if the likes of the Denmark/Slovakia/Greece kits are available as Techfit?
I don’t think the kits used by Denmark, Slovakia and Greece are available as Techfit, nor Paraguay for that matter. They’re not missing much, and don’t have the daft looking “bra strap” look on the Techfit (as opposed to Formotion) jersey.
Oh and slightly O/T but what a result for the All Whites today by the way, who cares if the goal may have been offside, they certainly tweaked the noses of the lethargic-looking World Champions!
Great result wasn’t it Jon – I think the ball might have come off an Italian which makes it onside? I think…starting to see a bit of the old ‘face-clutching’ cheating coming in recently though which is always unpleasant to see…
The Slovakia jerseys are standard teamwear catalogue templates (the blue is called Condivo) with Slovak national crest. Even replicas are sold as Formotion and the adidas tag just has the teamwear sticker replaced with a new barcode. So I am pretty sure Formotion is the only version available, there is no Climacool replica nor Techfit slim-fit player’s version.
By the way it’s a little bit disappointing that Slovakia got (as the only country participating in WC and equipped by a top-tier manufacturer) a teamwear template, at least it’s a decent looking one.
Germany’s kit tonight looks silly with gold adidas stripes on the shirts and socks, but white on the home shorts
Why did Argentina wear their away change shorts and socks with their home shirt?
I can’t see a reason, and it just looked odd…
Very strange.
http://i45.tinypic.com/2nbhfv5.jpg
Did Argentina think Mexico would wear all Black? That’s about the only reason I can see
Good suggestion Andrew – I’m completely puzzled by it. BBC said it was because Argentina’s white shorts/socks would clash with Mexico’s! Spot the mistake…
It was a bit of a surprise alright. I’d imagine that if Mexico had worn black then the Argies would have worn white shorts and socks, so this decision looks even odder, especially as the kit was originally shown with black socks
What’s worse is it really spoiled the kit…white would have gone, but a completely different shade of blue just jarred!
I also noticed Spain wore navy shorts and not the royal blue against Chile…that was until I realised it was Chile in the red… 🙂
Brazil and Netherlands was deemed to be a colour clash so Brazil wore blue, which is fair enough. But if Brazil’s yellow was a clash with orange, why was Stekelenburg allowed to wear yellow?
I’ve been doing some work on Blackpool and its surprising how often they play against a team in red with no change of strip. A few years ago they played Watford whose yellow home and red away clashed to some extent with their tangerine shirts. Should have had a different goalie top.
Denis – interesting to see the various inconsistencies, e.g. Argentina wearing blue shorts against Mexico (as mentioned) but also wearing black shorts agains Germany in all black kits…
I thought of you last night Denis with Germany wearing their home black shorts with the black away shirt (and of course different coloured three stripe trim). What made it even more bizarre is that the shorts clashed with Argentina’s! FIFA are normally so hot on shorts clashes I’m surprised they didn’t pick this up.
I’m presuming that it if Germany had worn white shorts it would have contributed to the overall clash, though I thought Argentina would have had to change to white shorts
I’m convinced they just make it up as they go along. Argentina wearing blue shorts and socks against Mexico when there would have been no clash with them wearing black, yet they wear black shorts against Germany who are wearing black themselves??
“I’m convinced they just make it up as they go along.”
Certainly seems to be the case – Greece changing from white to blue against South Korea, Uruguay in sky blue and France in white acceptable but Ghana changing to red then on Friday
Did anybody notice the creative way how Toni Kroos has “applied” his WC patch over the German badge?
It can be visible here: http://i25.tinypic.com/21btcmd.jpg
… even better pic here: http://i31.tinypic.com/2aj52ds.jpg
Anyone know what colours Spain and Holland will be running out in on Sunday. Hoping Holland get to keep orange and Spain change to blue.
Will we see an irrational choice of shorts as well Rothko? Seems like many of the recent games have thrown the regular kit combinations out the window.
Juro – nice spot with the Kroos patch – whats going on?!
Yeah, there have been a few of those John. You’d think, logically, if Holland win the toss then they’ll wear all orange, like in the semi and Spain will wear all dark blue. If Spain win you’d expect to see them in their usual home colours and the Netherlands in all white (changing the royal blue away shorts). Mind you, logic seems to count for little………..