Strip Club–World Cup 2014 Kit Preview (Part 1)
In preparation for the 2014 World Cup I have been working on several projects, one of which is reviewing all of the kits from each country for the tournament. For Euro 2012, I did an extensive series of posts, running a virtual kit tournament. Alas time and scope do not allow me to do this sort of thing for the World Cup, so instead I went through all of the shirts and narrowed it down to the my top 20. There are some excellent resources for this:
From there I ranked them and put together a couple of posts. Hope you enjoy and comments are welcome.
#20 Chile Away
This simple white shirt with just hints of the flag colors does a nice job but Puma’s funky collar (ie trachea patch) pushes it down the list.
#19 Russia Home
I really like the color of this shirt, which is reminiscent of their pre World Cup 2010 release (they failed to win the playoff, OOPS!!), and again I enjoyed the flag accents on sleeves.
#18 Argentina Home
This shirt is a classic and adidas does well here by adding just a hint of modernization (ie the diagonally stripe things).
#17 France Home
For the most part, Nike has done well since taking over the French line. The blue color used is very attractive, nicely accented by a white collar and a monochromatic badge.
#16 Colombia Away
This would have been a Top 10 selection without the accents on the sleeves, which cause the shirt to look very MLS-ish, and that’s not a good thing.
#15 Australia Away
What a color combination, very unique, which according to Football Fashion is “dark obsidian blue, and has been inspired by the design worn by Australia when they qualified for their first ever final 40 years ago.”
#14 Korea Republic Away
I love the white shirt with just a hint of the flag colors (a theme for me), and the collar is quite unique and serves as a nice touch.
#13 Ghana Away
I would have loved to put this in the Top 10 but the shirt is just a little too busy for me.
#12 England Home
Nike does a nice job keeping the shirt clean and simple, but the V neck collar keeps it out of the Top 10.
#11 Cote d’Ivoire Away
To be honest, I think my bias against green shirts kept this lower but Puma did a great job with the African jerseys for this tournament.
Soccer Nomad 
Chile – Love it, even the collar
Russia – Nice jersey. I agree the flag sleeves are nice.
Argentina – Pretty standard. Not bad
France – I like it, but the collared button look just looks preppy, not soccer-y
Columbia – A little too simple for me.
Australia – You are dead on – that color combination is beautiful. Why so low?
Korea – Eh.
Ghana – yes very busy, but that seems to be representative of their culture.
England – About as simple as you can get.
Ivory Coast – I like it green and all.
Out of this bunch my favorites are Australia and Chile.
Puma seems to be leading the way (but I am a little biased).
Puma’s African are outstanding. Their worst still better than most adidas or nike offerings.