Uniform History

All of the world’s soccer teams change uniforms on a regular basis.  They do this because their suppliers (adidas, Nike, Puma, etc) have learned that people buy new uniforms on a regular basis.  Through the 1990′s, there was an erratic pattern of change (most change was oriented around the European seasons), but now it’s pretty much settled down to major uniform/jersey redesigns happen in even number years.  Why?  The World Cup, and European Championships.  The Nest Liner has undertaken this project in an attempt to set the record straight.  By all accounts, there is no accurate accounting of United’s uniforms worn, including United’s website.  There’s a very helpful picture buried in there, but it’s not accurate.

1996 (The Golden Age)

Adidas has always been United’s uniform supplier, and has benefited greatly from this partnership, mostly because they’ve been shielded from hideous uniforms.  United began with arguably the league’s finest uniform due to it’s clean and classic look.    A black shirt with black shorts, and a white shirt with red shorts.  All four elements had three very large white stripes across the chest.  MLS didn’t have jersey sponsors on the front like most other leagues, but there were sponsors for some teams, and each team only had one sponsor (to not be as NASCAR-esque like Mexican teams) those logos were located on the back of the jersey, below the numbers, and on the left sleeve of the jersey.

1997

The 1997 season saw MLS and DC United get into the alternate jersey game, with what is commonly referred to as the ‘Cat in the Hat’ jersey.  A blue jersey with red and white horizontal stripes on the sleeve.  Also the DC United wordmark, and a series of three stripes were sublimated in the blue area of the jersey.  These jerseys, along with the home and road sets, also had a single embroidered star to signify 1996′s MLS Cup Championship.  These stars were only applied on the team’s actual jerseys.

The history continues (a picture, too!)…..

1998

The first uniform evolution hit in 1998.  Gone were the old road whites (road is actually a misleading term as there were no real specified ‘home’ and ‘road’ sets, but they also weren’t considered ‘primary’ and ‘change’ either…chalk it up to MLS being a young league finding their way, but uniform choices always appeared kind of random in the early years), replace by the new white jersey that many fans call the ‘GTO’ jersey, due to the vertical stripes (remicient of muscle car stripes of our youth) running up the left side of the shirt and shorts.  This jersey is also the only United jersey to have a collar, and a large eagle (from the badge) was sublimated into the chest.  Many fans consider this their favorite jersey.  The ‘classic’ home and alternate jerseys were unchanged.

1999

The alternate jersey changed in 1999.  The new design featured a black chest with white panels on the side with three red strips (if you include the red stripe on the sleeve).  Nicknamed the ‘Bloody Rib’ jersey, this jersey is likely most famous because before a game at RFK against the MetroStars, the referee determined that it looked too similar to their big fat black and white stripe jerseys.  So some United staff had to jump into a team van and drive out to the team offices in Chantilly to retrieve another set of uniforms.  Home and Away jerseys were unchanged.

2000 (The Dark Ages)

The ‘Red and Black’ surprisingly sported very little red during it’s first four years with the exception of some shorts, so 2000 brought on a new white/away jersey with three broad red stripes across the chest as well as the familiar three red stripes down the sleeve found on many adidas products and uniforms.  An added advantage to this jersey is it’s resemblance to the DC flag.  Two stars were embroidered into this jersey above the crest, and these stars could be found on official game jerseys as well as replicas.  The problem?  United won it’s third MLS Cup in 1999 (after the new design was selected and put into production), thus starting the story that there’s a star ‘built into’ the logo.  Home and Alternate jerseys were not changed.

2001

Perhaps the least change occurred in 2001.  The Alternate jerseys were dropped, and MasterCard withdrew its sponsorship.  Otherwise the jerseys remained the same.

2002

The first ever change to the black jersey:  United wore jerseys designed for the 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea.  The jerseys were made out of a high-tech lightweight material, with side vents, and also had a built in liner (many players cut out the liner).  Three stripes were applied to the chest, and amazingly three stars were, too.  These jerseys were infamous for ripping and tearing during games, and sometimes resembled 1980′s NCAA football ‘tear-away’ jerseys.  The road whites remained.

2003

The white jerseys were replaced (United had a horrible record in the previous ones) with white jerseys that while ‘high-tech’ it wasn’t as paper-like as the black jersey.  The side panels were red, the chest stripes were black, with black sleeve stripes.   An official ‘alternate’ uniform also appeared, the white away jerseys were paired with the black home shorts.  This evolved after playing some day games in oppressive DC heat with the fully black uniforms.  Also in 2003, the mythical ‘pink’ jerseys came to be.  An adidas jersey designed for the 2002 World Cup consisted of a jersey with primarily a mesh front with a inner liner.  United had a red one with a white liner, creating a pink effect.  Thankfully, the powers-that-be nixed United from wearing these as a team, with the exception of the Boca Juniors match.  The supply of these shirts were primarily worn by Nick Rimando as a short sleeve goalkeeper jersey over the next couple of seasons.

2004 (The Renaissance)

A UEFA European Championship year means new uniforms.  United ditched the home black paper-like jerseys, and got a slightly less complicated jersey.  It was still a dual layer jersey for wicking purposes, but the jersey wasn’t something you could get lost in like the previous version.  The familiar three stripes across the chest remained, while three white stripes were added down the sleeves for the first time.  Away and alternate jersey were unchanged.

2005

The road uniforms were replaced with a new solid white jersey with black chest and sleeve stripes, with some breathability panels and black accents.  The black home jerseys were largely unchanged, but 2005 brought a sponsor back to DC United in Siera Mist.  Green Sierra Mist logos were screened below the numbers and on the left sleeve.  The white jerseys fell victim to the 2004 MLS Cup Championship, as three stars were applied above the logo.  So a fourth star was applied above that.  The black jerseys just had a black application that covered up the three stars with four.

2006-2007

The first time United changed all uniforms as a set was in 2006.  Not so coincidentally, a World Cup year, too.  United remained simple in it’s design.  The black jersey had white stripes down the sleeve, an stripes that kind of curved out to meet a white outline of breathable (does anybody suffocate in a soccer jersey?) material on the chest.  The white version is essentially the inverse of the black.  Sierra Mist ceased it’s sponsorship after the 2006 season, so the 2007 variants of these jerseys were ad free.

2008

Did we say ‘ad free’?  Well, not so much in 2008, a European Championship year.  Once again a wholesale change of jerseys.  Home blacks had three white stripes down the sleeve and three on the chest, initially a blank chest and red accents on the sleeve and collar.  The white away variant had the inverse design, and both jerseys had side ventilation.  After several games, Volkswagen (who had just moved it’s North American headquarters to Herndon) signed on to be United’s first uniform sponsor under MLS’s rules allowing for advertisements on the front of jerseys.  So the big VW logo replaced the three stripes across the chest.  One big German trademark for another.

Coming for 2009….

Word is there’ll be some tweaks to the jerseys for 2009, just minor things involving flags and a slightly different VW.

Coming for 2010….

It’s a World Cup year.  The event will be in South Africa, the jerseys seem to be designed for the specific conditions of the World Cup (as opposed to August’s oppressive heat and humidity days in DC), so let the speculation begin!