My adventures with the new US MNT kit

I have to admit, my first reaction when I saw the new US MNT kit a few days ago was a quick "Is that it?" Looking at it it was hard to picture a group of savvy marketing executives eyeing the design and saying "That's the one! Let's go with that!"

But the more I looked at it, the better and better it looked to me and I began to think there was something else at work here. I went to get a look at it with my own personal eyeballs at Soccer4All here in Houston and I was immediately struck wih how white it looked, not gray at all, even the grayish stripes. The effect of the combination of the coloring and the material in person vs. how it looks on the Internet is a little striking. My artist wife looked at it and at first said, "What gray? Oh yeah, I see it now, kinda grayish. Wow, it just comes across as white. Very nice."

So, wearing the kit out to my sons' soccer games this morning brought several reactions. I had some, "Hey, what jersey is that?" and some "Very nice." and another who now plans on going to the US/Mexico game this Wednesday after the conversation that it sparked. So, all in all, I have to conclude that those aforementioned marketing dudes know what they're doing pretty much.


Of course, it could also be that so many US MNT kits have been either downright hideous (check out idiot Lalas in the 1994 kit in Playtherapy's post below) or mediocre and unremarkable that the bar is pretty low. Hence, this one looks even better because of that. I still would like some more Navy blue down the side, maybe a vertical stripe? But all in all, I plan on wearing it to my first-ever MNT game this Wednesday and am looking forward to it.