Nike Unveil New USA Third Kit – ‘Hall Monitor’ Sash Remains (Photos)

Chris Wright

24th, March 2011

30 Comments

By Chris Wright

After a couple of sneaky shots were leaked a few days ago, Nike have officially unveiled the third strip that the US Men’s National Team will wear against Argentina in a friendly this weekend.

Nike have unofficially marked the strip as the ‘people’s jersey’ after they bowed to fan pressure for a red design to be introduced and, as a nod to the link with the supporters, the sportswear giants are also giving US fans the chance to leave their own personalised mark on the jersey with their #redallover Twitter campaign.

The contest offers fans the chance to send in their ideas for a new team motto (to replace the current ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ tagline), with the winning entry then stitched onto the sleeve of the jersey for the Argentina game.

More photos…

and the kit in full…

In case you were wondering, the shirt will be available at Niketown and from Nike.com as of today.

Are any Pies fans going to be rushing out to buy one?

Posted in Kits & fashion, MLS

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30 Comments

  1. The Yank says:

    I’m not buying one. I think the sash is ugly as hell and now the color scheme made it worse. I like the idea of the US wearing red as the primary color, but the blue sash kills it. The home kit was actually pretty slick because the sash was subtly silver against the white of the shirt, but the two-tone is terrible. If the blue away kit had a slightly different shaded blue sash and this had a red one, I could see myself digging it like the home kit, but sadly that’s not the case.

    Also, I have to say I think the US crest needs changing. The stars and stripes are awesome, but the ball in the center (and the movement lines, ugh) kill it like the sash kills the shirt. Why is the ball there in the first place? It just looks gaudy and unprofessional.

    Not the worst kit I’ve seen by any means, but someone needs to tell Nike to stop with the random strips of color. Brazil’s new shirt has a big green minus sign on it…

  2. Grant says:

    @The Yank I have to say that I disagree with pretty much everything you’ve said. “Shadow” sashes are stupid. They were stupid when Rangers did one a few years ago, and they were stupid on the current U.S. home shirt. The away kit was clearly the better of the two. It looked better and it sold better.

    The is an important part of the history of the U.S. national team. We used to play with sashes in the very early days of the program. Of course the 1950 “Miracle on Grass” victory over England was done in a sash. So I think it’s nice to show some acknowledgement of the guys who came before.

    As for the crest, it represents the modern era of U.S. Soccer. It’s been with us in one form or another since the late 1980s, when the U.S. program picked itself up off the mat after 40 years or so of futility. It’s simple, classic, and unmistakably U.S. Soccer. As for the ball “killing” the crest, tell that to Spain, Uruguay, Ghana, South Korea, Slovakia, Mexico, and Japan (and that’s just from the knockout rounds of this past World Cup) who all have a football included on their crest. That’s to say nothing of Manchester United, Chelsea, Birmingham City, or Tottenham Hotspur. You’re a football association or a football club, so it’s obviously ridiculous for you to include a football in your crest or logo.

    On a completely different note, I’m kind of glad to see the Don’t Tread On Me campaign ending. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it dearly, but unfortunately the Tea Party has conspired to ruin it. For example, I bought this (http://www.polyvore.com/nike_swooshflex_us_dtom_soccer/thing?id=9933294) hat before the World Cup kicked off, and wore it all the time. Unfortunately, there’s nothing to indicate to the average moron in America that it’s a soccer hat, and while working on a Democratic congressional campaign last year, I had tons of people asking me why I was wearing a Tea Party hat. That’s because the coiled snake is drawn from the Gadsden Flag from early U.S. history, which has now been adopted by the Tea Party. So while I appreciate Nike for trying to dig into our history and create a great campaign for U.S. Soccer, but when the crazy wignuts co-opt your main brand identity, you have to abandon it.

  3. mike says:

    that hat is crazy ugly, grant

  4. rabble rabble rabble says:

    I would prefer the crest to look like the Great Seal of the United States. The current one looks like it belongs to a sporting goods store.

  5. Kyle says:

    Whereas most of the aforementioned crest logos that include footballs look somewhat distinguished, the US football (complete with movement lines) looks cheap. Nothing wrong with footballs on the crest though.

    Regarding the sash? I like it. The nod to past teams is nice, and I (as a yank) like having a somewhat distinguished kit from other teams, and still remaining classy about it.

    Keep the sash, lose the lame football w/lines, and we’re golden. Also, let’s add some technically gifted players to our team while we’re at it.

  6. Ryan says:

    Why does our shirt have ” a hall monitors sash ” yet the Peruvian world cup shirt, ( which was voted best ever on this site ), has a similar ” hall monitor sash ” ?

    I think they’re pimpy. Bought one yesterday. Go yanks !!!

  7. Ryan says:

    @ Grant

    Agreed. ” Don’t tread on me needs to go “

  8. C says:

    USA and red? That’s like France and “never surrender”…

  9. says:

    Meh. The only thing I like about this kit is the new motto contest. I prefer the white and blue. My favorite kit was the white with horizontal red pinstripes. One design nobody has gone for yet in their national team kit is the horizontal line similar to FC Dallas’ kit, echoing our flag. The throwback sash is lame. Why think up a new or original design when we can just use the one from back when we sucked at football even more than we do now. Remember when we upset England 1-0 in 1950? Me neither. As for the crest, I somewhat agree with the yank. The ball with lines looks like a knob. Our crest should look like the flag, with a star ball like the champion’s league logo in the blue quarter.

  10. Eric says:

    I like it a lot…

    I have a Home and an Away jersey and I’ll be sure to buy this third kit.

    It honestly took some time for me to get over the sash and then I started to like it.

    I really do love all 3 of the jerseys and I rock them all the time, it’s nice to have ppl’s heads turn when they see me wearing one.

    I have no issue with the sash or the emblem…

  11. NoMersey says:

    All those “hall monitor” sash kits are awesome. Most fiercely selling U.S. kits ever. Bank it.

  12. The Yank says:

    @Grant

    I have to say I disagree with everything you’ve said. I’m all for paying respect to the ones who came before, and we did in South Africa. Time to move on to something that doesn’t look atrocious. The “Miracle on Grass” can’t exactly be heralded unless at least a quarter of the US population knows about it and I can honestly say that not even 1/100th of the population does. The sash was used to distinguish the US in the early days and now in the age of HD, they are pointless and ugly.

    As for the crest, you may be so delusional the feds are probably after you. A crest doesn’t represent the “modern era” of anything unless that time was actually a successful one. And I know the US has been more successful in recent years than in the past, but celebrating the fact the we still suck, but just a little bit less, is hardly reason to keep a bad crest on our chest. You did say one thing right. That current crest does indeed unmistakably say “US Soccer”, which is BAD. As for all the teams you listed that do in fact have footballs on their crest, they don’t count because the football is not the primary focal point or even noticeable at all (except for Ghana and Slovakia who have terrible crests themselves). As for the nations that are actually prestigious like Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, France, England, and Holland, they don’t have even a glimpse of a ball on their crest. Why? Because it looks like garbage. This is especially true for the US crest because the ball is smack dab in the center of it, so much so that it actually covers up parts of the U and the S. Rabble rabble, Kyle, and D3 all see the truth.

    And as for your completely boring and totally unnecessary political rant, I can honestly say that nobody cares. Let me repeat that, nobody cares. Anybody can take any symbol they want and adopt it as their own. The Nazi party took the swastika which originally was used in ancient India as a sacred symbol of Hindu. Hippies popularized the “peace” sign even though it was originally the sign made for the Anti-Christ (a upside-down broken encircled cross symbolizing the end of the world). Now, I am very sorry you are so insecure that you can’t get over wearing a fugly ass hat which I can only assume was made over 5 years ago because of the offset snake just begging you to turn it 30 degrees a la Aston Kutcher. I’m also sorry you got your period this morning and began whining about how you blew 15 dollars on a hat that nobody cares if you wear or not, but I’ll reiterate one more time so it really gets in your head. Nobody cares.

  13. mooks says:

    agree with rabble rabble rabble. we need a new crest

  14. KingKenny says:

    No – its mank, like the US Soccerball team!

  15. theredflag says:

    @Yank

    Yeah, you would know, Mr. IAcquiredAllMySoccerKnowledgeFromWikipediaArticles

  16. The Yank says:

    @theredflag

    I’m sorry. I forgot you know what every nation’s crest looks like from memory. Then again, I’m not a tool like you.

  17. theredflag says:

    Uhh.. when did I say anything about crests? Your posts are about as fucking long as a novel and all of it is horseshit.

  18. C says:

    theredflag:

    do like 9/10 waatp readers, learn to ignore the yank.

  19. Grant says:

    @The Yank: So let me get this straight…

    We can only pay tribute to things that lots of people know about (and even then we can only do it once), sashes look ugly now that they’re in HD, crests can only represent things that are successful, this hasn’t been unquestionably the most successful 20 years of U.S. men’s national team history, there is a correlation between the success of a national team and whether there is a football in their crest or not, and you care so little about my hat that you wrote a paragraph about it.

    Did I find all of the ridiculously assinine conclusions you’ve jumped to? I love the game, but there were a lot of them in just three paragraphs.

    We can agree to disagree on the aesthetics of sashes and crests, but probably the dumbest thing I’ve heard in years is your tacit implication that if we got rid of the ball from our crest like all of those other successful nations you mentioned, we’d somehow join that group of successful nations.

    The bottom line is you can be an asshole or a moron, but you can’t be both at the same time. So I’ll say to you what I said to your mom’s uterus: don’t do that again.

  20. says:

    I think at this point it’s pretty clear that the Red Kit was a bad idea

  21. Ajb says:

    I agree pretty much w/ these grades:

    http://project2010.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/better-know-a-kit-a-history-of-the-modern-u-s-soccer-jersey/

    & I’d say the current set is c+/b-

    Would def. prefer a classic crest like on ’03/’04 3rd kits- maybe w/ an eagle on top or something.

  22. theirishembassy says:

    you have to try and credit nike for sticking with it. it seems like they’re trying to make the sash immediately “iconic” a la the azzuri blue, the argentina stripes, etc etc.

  23. Michael D says:

    I don’t mind the sash and all, but I do think the crest needs an updating. Keep the ball in there, sure, but give it a more timeless crest as this one does look dated. Its not that the crest is cluttered, its just the font should be something more classic and the “action” lines on the ball need to go and make it a touch smaller. Maybe make the flag a bit more prominent, replace “US” with “USA” and maybe add a small banner on the bottom with “E Pluribus Unum”. Just my own two cents. But whatev, go USA ;-)

  24. Ryan says:

    The Yank and Grant = Douchenozzles

  25. Grant says:

    @Michael D, I personally think the U.S. is better than USA, just because the federation is the “United States Soccer Federation” or U.S. Soccer for short, rather than “United States of America Soccer Federation or USA Soccer for short. Probably the only thing that I’d change about the crest would be making the stripes red and white rather than blue and white and the background for the stars blue instead of red, thus matching the flag a bit more. Otherwise I like the crest. I dunno, reasonable people can disagree on aesthetics. I just like that the current/modern crest emerged roughly at the same time as the current upswing in the program’s direction. While I don’t think those things are causally related in the least, I think there’s something to it being associated with all of our recent, modest success.

  26. Michael D says:

    @Grant – fair enough, to each their own. I see your point about wanting to capture the momentum being built and associate it with the badge because of the power of iconography. I guess that’s precisely why I’d want to give it a more classic, timeless look is that I’d be afraid that it would represent a particular period of time rather than the entire history of the USSF: good, bad and ugly. But I don’t think it’ll stop any of us from supporting our boys :)

  27. USA says:

    Guys, put your differences aside and agree that the crest should be a shirtless high-fiving running man.

  28. theredflag says:

    @C

    I usually don’t lower myself to the point of arguing with someone on the internet, but when I see the shit The Yank puts out, it’s hard not to say something. Good point though, I’ll take that into consideration the next time I see the smoke coming out his ass.

  29. Tank says:

    I personally like the current kit no matter what color it is in. I have the Away kit and just ordered one of these a few minutes ago.

    @Yank. Pal… Buddy… WTS is wrong with you? How do you manage to come up with so much bullshit? It’s obvious that what Grant said went so far over your head you probably didn’t even realize what had happened until someone told you about it a few days later. Now leave us to talk about soccer like adults and stop posting… It really is for your own good.

    Take it easy Champ!

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