Adidas & Nike to Release Less 'Boring' White Away Kits For 2022 World Cup?
For the last two major international football competitions, we've seen plenty, if not too much, white away kits. It is undoubtedly a safe choice (especially for FIFA's one light/ one dark kit rule), but safe tends to lead to boring looking shirts.
FIFA require teams to have one light and one dark uniform
The most important reason for most teams having a white kit is FIFA's dark/light rule. Each team need to have one mainly dark and one main light uniform.
This was evident in our ranking of EURO 2020 away shirts, where pretty much the bottom half of the list was dominated by white-colored ones.
White Kits Of National Teams In Recent Years
So let's take a look at some of the white kits of recent years.
Starting with Nike and the current world champion France. Their away shirts have been uninspiring for the last few years. In 2018, it has red and blue details all over the shirt but they are so small that the shirt would still look pretty plain.
Nike clean up the background for the 2020 France away jersey, making it even more plain than before, with only red and blue stripes on the sides.
Portugal's and South Korea's 2018 away jerseys were in a similar situation with France. They were all white with small all-over patterns on the front of the shirt.
Although to Nike's credit, they moved away from white for these two teams after 2018.
Adidas have been trying to improve their white away kits in recent competitions as well. Usually, they coupled their white kits with light-colored graphics to avoid being too plain and boring.
Spain is a good example for this. The 2018 away shirt is technically "Halo Blue". However, Adidas created it by putting a light blue pattern all over a white background. A similar practice was used for the 2020 shirt, but with grey instead.
Both shirts were not bland, but definitely not interesting enough. Maybe something like the Spain EURO 2016 away will catch more attention.
Other examples are 2018 World Cup away kits of Russia, Egypt and the 2020 EURO shirts of Hungary and Belgium.
Moving on to Puma, whose away kits of the recent EURO 2020 did not receive much praise, and for a good reason.
They went with a modern and simplified (oversimplified, honestly) look and the fans understandably were not happy with such uncharacteristic design.
Although, were it not for COVID-19 delaying the EURO 2020, we could have been treated with some great looking away kits by Puma. Italy's Renaissance pattern and Switzerland's Alps graphic definitely adds much needed style to the bland white background.
With that said, Uruguay's away shirts have been pretty much the same for years now, just white with blue stripes here and there.
Outside of the big three, Hummel has made little changes to Denmark's away shirt between World Cup 2018 and EURO 2020.
Most of the white kits we've seen in recent years are definitely not bad, but perhaps a more creative design or even better, a bit less of white kits, is needed to freshen the game.
White / Lights Kits Of National Teams For 2022 (World Cup)
For the 2022 World Cup, the leaked info reveals that Adidas, Puma, and Nike will again release one light and one dark kit for each nation.
Brands opt for very light color and off-white
At least Adidas and Nike try to release some very light but non-white kits. Mexico's away kit is "Wonder White", Portugal's away kit is "Sail", while Spain will get a very light blue away jersey.
Other Adidas and Nike 2022 away jerseys again feature the main color, White. For example, the away kits of Belgium, Nigeria, and France will be white - However, we might still be some impressive designs despite kites having a white main color.
We will have to wait and see what other brands come up with for World Cup 2022 away kits. But judging by the direction Nike and Adidas are taking, things look promising. We can only hope Puma will not repeat what they did last EURO.
Do you hope to see less (boring) white kits in World Cup 2022? Let us know your thoughts.
