The 10 best jerseys at the Women’s World Cup
Thu, Apr 13.23
Pound-for-pound (or in this case, shirt-for-shirt), the quality of the strips unveiled so far for this year’s Women’s World Cup can go toe-to-toe with any of the equivalent men’s tournaments that we can remember. Both adidas and Nike have brought their A-game to make this the most memorable WWC so far from a kit culture standpoint, with eye-catching nature-inspired designs from the Three Stripes, ‘00s throwbacks from the Swoosh, and so many eye-catching patterns and colour schemes, just looking through them all requires a long sit-down and a cup of tea to recover.
But no tournament is really complete without a kit ranking, of course, and while it was far from an easy task, we’ve sorted the ten shirts that have transcended an otherwise excellent line-up to attain instant classic status (in no particular order, because that’s just too hard).
10. Australia Away (Nike)
Both of the shirts the Tillies are set to don on home soil are certified winners, but we’re particular fans of the away shirt, which has an entirely new treatment and colour scheme to the dark green and navy efforts we’ve become accustomed to over the years. While it’s effectively just an inversion of the men’s away strip from Qatar, it’s wonderfully effective.
9. Brazil Away (Nike)
We loved the Jaguar-inspired blue and lime green away kit donned by the Men over the summer, and Nike’s remix of the formula, subbing out the animal print for a leaf pattern inspired by the jungle foliage of the Amazon, keeps the party vibes going while standing uniquely on its own.
8. England Away (Nike)
England’s late ‘80s/early ‘90s kits are the stuff of blokecore legend, and Nike’s away kits for the Lionesses year harken back to those heady days. The sky-blue colour scheme also makes a nice departure from the red we’re used to seeing in England away strips.
7. Germany Away (adidas)
Probably as close to flawless as any shirt we’ve seen in recent memory, Germany’s forest-inspired away is perhaps the pick of the bunch in adidas’s 2023 line-up (although, as we’ll come to, there are other strong contenders). Everything about it, from the forest green canopy print to the gold detailing, is gorgeous.
6. Jamaica Away (adidas)
It’s been out for a little while now, but Jamaica’s get-ups for this year, designed in collaboration with Jamaican-British designer Grace Wales Bonner, are certified favourites with both the fashion and the football crowds. For us, the ‘70s inspired brown and gold away shirt just pips it.
5. Japan Away (adidas)
The romanticism of Japanese nature (think Ghibli films and cherry blossoms) speaks for itself, so it makes sense that any adidas concept heavily inspired by the natural world would produce an absolute banger of a shirt when applied to the Japanese team. The pink and purple cloud motif is inspired by a Fujisan sunrise.
4. Netherlands Home (Nike)
Another Nike strip that’s subtle, yet effective, in its inspirations. The Oranje’s home shirt this year makes full use of the knit-effect Dri-Fit ADV material to create a subtle white patterning that evokes memories of the team’s iconic late ‘80s shirts.
3. New Zealand Away (Nike)
It’s far more simplistic than pretty much all of the other entries on this list, but New Zealand’s away shirt illustrates how a splash of the right colour - in this case a glacial blue derived from the country’s crystal clear lakes and rivers - can breathe new life into what would otherwise be a pretty drab concept.
2. Nigeria Home (Nike)
While the vibrant patterning of Nigeria’s away shirt is also great, we love what Nike have done in harkening back to the Super Eagles kits of the early ‘2000s, pairing a more vibrant green with a template that takes a ton of cues from the shirts Nike wheeled out for the 2002 World Cup.
1. Spain Away (adidas)
We’re not sure we’ve ever seen a coral print on a football shirt before. We also didn’t know Spain’s coral reefs were particularly famous. But thanks to this shirt, draped in Mediterranean azure accented with splashes of coral purple, we’re very glad both of those boxes have been checked for us.
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