Ready for the first ever winter World Cup, adidas recently released an outstanding collection of home and away shirts for their federations, but in amongst them, did they drop Germany’s best ever home kit?
With the Qatar 2022 World Cup just around the corner, adidas unveiled the home and away shirts for the majority of its national teams to almost universal acclaim, with beautifully bespoke designs across the board. The brand saw each federation kit as a canvas for creativity, and an opportunity to capture and express the spirit of each nation. As a collective, it was quite the sight, but individually there were some absolute gems. One such was the new Germany home shirt, which manages to capture the identity of the nation while also being entirely fresh. It’s so good that we’re wondering: could this be their best home kit ever?
OK, so Germany have had some amazing home shirts over the years, from the USA ’94 shirt to the truly iconic Italia ’90 design, and by saying that something could potentially top either of those is opening ourselves up to an absolute barrage of abuse, but hear us out.
To start with, both of those shirts have one very big advantage: nostalgia. In an era where there’s a seemingly unquenchable thirst for retro, and very specifically 90s at present, these two shirts glow with their flamboyant uniqueness, always arriving in size double extra large, of course. They come from a time when designers had a license to do whatever they damn well liked, and that freedom gave us some beautiful extravagance that just doesn’t exist in the same way today.
Even beyond those two shirts there have been plenty of other standout designs such as the ’98 shirt, which arrived complete with three stripes running across the front of the jersey in the colours of the German flag and topped off with a deep V-neck, or the slim-fitting, classic combination of white, black and gold subtle details that made up the clean and classy 2010 shirt. But the new home shirt can already stand comfortably in amongst their company, and that’s without even being worn in a match yet.
The other thing that stands in past shirt design’s favour is that they often get tied to how the team performs on the pitch. Watching the 1990 team going on to win the World Cup in that shirt instantly gave it a cult vibe that will never be removed; it’s part of history. Likewise, the Euro ’96 shirt, with its subtle trim in the German flag colours – something that we see replicated in the 2022 edition – while not as extravagant as what came either side in the World Cups, still holds a special place for being a winning jersey. So, having not even featured in a match yet, let alone the competition for which it is intended, the 2022 home shirt is instantly put at something of a disadvantage when being weighed against past designs. But if Germany go on to win the Qatar World Cup in this shirt…
So, to take a closer look at the 2022 shirt, what is it that makes it so special? The design sees the heat-applied crest and branding – which appears for the first time without the ‘adidas’ wording for a cleaner all-round aesthetic – appearing in gold and placed in the centre of a bold vertical stripe inspired by the very first Germany shirt. Detailing on the collar and shirt bindings display the iconic colours of the nation’s flag in a similar callback to the aforementioned Euro ’96 kit. These two elements instantly tie this new look to the history of the national team, striking the perfect balance of homage and progression that is at the heart of adidas's design mantra, while the execution of the whole shirt elevates the classic clean aesthetic to new levels.
It really is a thing of beauty, and while it’s a bold statement to say that it could be Germany’s best ever, a strong tournament in Qatar would certainly cement its status as a contender. Definitely the coldest kit for a winter World Cup.
And as for the away shirts, well, that's a whole other conversation...
Pick up the Germany 2022 Home Shirt at prodirectsoccer.com
