MLS Kit Critique 2018: Judging Every Team's Home and Away Uniforms

Now entering its 23rd season, MLS and Adidas still haven’t found the sartorial sweet spot between those notoriously garish mid-90s clown suits and the intramural house league you played in as a kid—the one where every team wore the same reversible jersey. As Planet Fútbol presents its annual shirt-to-sock review of every MLS kit, you’ll see an awful lot of white and black, a ton of monochrome, and what looks like a conscious effort from several clubs to scrub every bit of individuality from their brand. So load the ubiquitous “So fresh, so clean” tweet, and hope you can tell the clubs apart by the slogans printed inside the jersey collars. Single entity, indeed. - By Brian Straus

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Feb 26, 2018

Atlanta United

We begin with Atlanta, which is calling its new away set “King Peach.” That’s cool. The fruit is intertwined with the city’s identity, and the kit is inspired by a tifo displayed by fans last year. The obvious problem it’s just another all-white uniform in a league full of them. It would be nice if more of it was actually peach. Thankfully, the beautiful striped primary set returns.

Chicago Fire

There’s too much mono-red in MLS, but Chicago was the first to wear it and seems to have recommitted to that look with the new home kit. The Fire messed with blue in 2012 and preferred an away set for much of ’15, but righted the ship in ‘16 and now are doubling down on tradition with another red jersey and a broad white hoop. The sharp, light gray secondary with hint of hoop is back.

Colorado Rapids

The club that careened from green to black-and-blue to burgundy now has established one of MLS’s signature looks, and its new primary kit is one of the league’s best (although we miss the hooped socks). The shorts have gone from white to light blue, highlighting the Rapids distinctive color combo, while the spectacular yellow-and-blue state flag secondary remains from 2017.

Columbus Crew

If the Crew wanted something funereal to symbolize what very well may be their final season in Columbus, the new very-all-black secondary—which eliminates almost all the yellow highlights from its predecessor—represents a solid effort. There's such thing as too much black. But at least we have another year to appreciate the brilliant, checkered yellow primary.

D.C. United

D.C. will never look exactly right without the iconic three white stripes across the chest. While pining for their return, we appreciate a new home jersey that’s probably the club’s nicest since moving to the plain black look a decade ago. The subtle, tonal hoops add a little texture. The strange secondary with the black breastplate returns. It’s ugly, but at least it includes a bit of club color.

FC Dallas

Dallas spent 12 years in red and white hoops. Some iterations were better than others—the most recent primary probably was the best—but at least FCD had an identity. Now it’s gone for no real reason, replaced by a home uniform featuring blocks of color that are supposed to evoke the Texas flag. At least the socks are blue, saving us from another almost-all-red ensemble. But it’s an unfortunate and unnecessary departure. The interesting blue fade on the away set is back.

Houston Dynamo

Houston’s revised secondary includes the best new MLS jersey of 2018. The shirt offers contrast that’s consistent with Dynamo branding and it’s unmistakably H-Town, highlighted by the tonal orange hoops reminiscent of the famous Astros uniforms of the 1970s and ‘80s. It’s genius. Yes, there’s too much black in MLS, but this kit is above criticism. And the returning home set featuring the thin light blue hoops and white shorts is their best to date. The Dynamo look great.

Los Angeles FC

Simply astonishing. LAFC, which appears to have done so much right, had three years to come up with a look it could call its own—something that might be slightly creative or personal. Instead, the club appeared to raid D.C. United’s end-of-season sale a couple months ago and call it a day. There are now nine mono-black/gray kits in MLS and FOURTEEN mono-white (out of 23 teams!). The LA derby will be one of so many interchangeable all-black vs. all-white games. What a massive missed opportunity.

LA Galaxy

LA was the first MLS club to go mono-white at home. Although over half the league now wears the most derivative uniform in sports, at least it’s become part of the Galaxy’s championship identity and features a sash that’s added a consistent and unique flourish since 2012. We liked the split blue-and-gold sash in the 2016-17 primary a bit more, but this one does the job. The rarely-worn deep blue secondary returns for 2018.

Minnesota United

Perhaps MNU didn’t much care for its inaugural MLS season home kit. Despite being the only club that wears a gray primary, United preferred its all-white away set for most of the second half of 2017. The new first-choice uniform represents a lateral move, as it drops the light blue sash for tonal stripes that make for a sleeker, darker impression. It’s still a far cry from the club’s NASL-era wing, however, and in the end, it's just another monochromatic kit. The white road set returns, but hopefully not as frequently.

Montreal Impact

The Impact are the only team to carry over both kits from 2017. The new wrinkle this year is the club’s 25th-season insignia on the chest. The blue-and-black striped primary remains one of the league’s classiest, most identifiable looks. The all-white aways are forgettable, save for the hooped socks. Someday, Montreal will escape its mono-white purgatory and bring back the rosé.

New England Revolution

The Revs' new home uniform represents a small backslide for a club that's done wonders with its look in recent seasons. The 2016-17 primary, which featured single white and red stripes down the center of a navy jersey and white shorts, stood out in MLS and easily was the best kit in club history. This new iteration isn’t bad, but the shirt just isn’t as striking. The bold red-and-white aways return. Why don’t more teams do something like this with their secondary?

New York City FC

NYCFC is toning it down, replacing the 2016-17 spiral secondary with gray that’s supposed to represent the city’s “concrete jungle.” Also, every team wants to wear mono-black or mono-gray. The good: the sky blue shading evokes Adidas’s 1990s styling and the team’s primary color. The bad: Recolored/uncolored club crests are dumb (it's a problem throughout MLS). Why undercut the foundation of your brand—the piece that literally sits at the heart of it? NYC’s 2017 primary returns. It wore both navy and white shorts with the sky blue shirt last season.

New York Red Bulls

New York is finally red. We always enjoyed the occasional appearance of the navy-yellow-navy secondary—it was an interesting and unique look. But these are the Red Bulls, and there’s nothing wrong with shedding your rival’s color (albeit a very different shade) and embracing your namesake hue. The new road kit—which recalls' the rebranded club’s 2006-07 set—looks good and stands alone as the only red-white-red uniform in MLS. The white-red-white primary, which features a pattern designed to represent the region’s bridges, returns from last year.

Orlando City

Give Orlando some credit. Most all-white uniforms look like they require no work or thought whatsoever. Here, the club actually endeavored to make the standard mono-white even blander by sucking the gold out of the club crest. We’ve been hoping Orlando would embrace its club color and wear purple shorts or socks with its secondary. Instead, it’s come up with an away set that breaks new barriers for boring. The traditional purple primary returns.

Philadelphia Union

The Union have had a rocky eight-year existence. They’ve endured controversy and disappointment and still haven’t won a playoff game. But at least Philly had one of the most distinctive primaries on the planet—a navy blue and gold set that evoked the city flag and the club’s colonial branding. This year, in an effort to refresh that brand, the club has almost destroyed it. The gold is lighter and the badge is sleeker, but the home jersey’s trademark center stripe is gone. Now it’s just one more monochrome kit. This is probably the biggest uniform downgrade in MLS history.

Portland Timbers

Portland now is another frustrating symbol of the MLS instinct to turn away from color and, instead, lean toward blandness and mimicry. Yes, the green primary carrying over from 2017 is unique, but it doesn’t pop nearly as much as previous iterations that featured white shorts or designs on the shirt. The new all-white aways are just a huge misfire—an abandonment of the “Rose City Red” tradition that mirrors the mono-white worn by more than half the league, including rival Vancouver (home) and Seattle (road).

Real Salt Lake

Every two years, RSL has the opportunity to abandon the tired all-red uniform worn by several other teams and return to its gorgeous, distinctive, MLS Cup-winning look of red shirts and blue shorts. And every two years, they disappoint us. At least the sleeves are blue on the new primary, but that’s small consolation. We’ll tolerate an all-white secondary for a club named for Real Madrid, but still miss “Victory Gold.”

San Jose Earthquakes

When the Quakes adopted their current logo in 2014, they pledged to “primarily be a blue team” that used black and the NASL-era red—which was an inspired touch—as “supporting colors.” Four years later, they’ve essentially become just another black and white team. The holdover home jerseys are creative and stunning up close, but appear almost all black from the stands or sofa. The only thing that stands out about the new secondary is that a portion of team store sales will benefit the Navy SEAL Foundation.

Seattle Sounders

Seattle’s new home uniform maintains the rave green/blue/rave green look that quickly became one of American soccer’s most iconic branding traditions, but replaces the crisp, bright 2016-17 jersey featuring blue sleeves with a bit of a blotchy mess. This is a confusing one. The Sounders said goodbye to their excellent but rarely-used Pacific Blue kit—it was a perfect homage to Cascadia—and will wear the all-white set with the big blue collar as their only secondary. Overall, it's a downgrade. But at least the Sounders don’t clash that often.

Sporting Kansas City

Sporting has always been willing to take chances with its kits, from the creative “State Line” MLS Cup winners to the memorable hooped or argyle secondaries. So it’s disappointing to see clichéd mono-black make its way to KC. Let’s hope the club hasn’t run out of ideas. The pinstriped light blue primary returns and looks good. The white shorts still seem like an unnecessary departure from the traditional indigo, but at least it’s not monochrome.

Toronto FC

It appears the champions didn’t have time to design a new road uniform this season. The secondary used in 2016-17 was the only white-royal blue-white kit in MLS and featured a bold red hoop across the chest. Now TFC is one of 14 clubs with a mono-white offering, and barring the red sock cuff, these are about as white as they come. All three Canadian MLS clubs now have an all-white uniform. Toronto’s gray-sleeved primaries return from last year’s treble-winning campaign.

Vancouver Whitecaps

The Whitecaps' 2016-17 secondary, which featured a blue fade and tonal reflections of the club badge, was one of the most eye-catching kits in MLS history. It’s gone now, replaced by a dull, dark gray set with silver trim that’s instantly forgettable amid the league’s monochrome obsession. The white primary with the light blue flecks returns.