New England Kit Leaked – Looks Like Recycled 66 West Germany Jersey

The new England kit for 2013 was leaked last week and the reviews on Nike’s new design have been pretty dismal.

Nike has maintained their current minimalist style of producing elegant and uncluttered shirts and created a great kit for England, only, it looks exactly like the one West Germany wore in 1966.

In a small photo, the two shirts from different eras, and of course, separate countries in Europe that have a history of disliking each other, are indistinguishable.

That’s pretty embarrassing on Nike’s part, and I guess lazy when you come to think of it.

It’s a big surprise that a company as big as Nike who owns such a large portion of the market share in football kits didn’t spot this earlier. In designing the new shirts, you would think somebody would have taken a look at the evolution of jerseys in previous major tournaments and noticed the resemblance on a strapping young German with giant mutton chops by the name of Franz Beckenbauer.

Considering that the resemblance is with a hated rival, this mishap becomes even more embarrassing for the sporting giants.

If I were Phil Knight I would be throwing things around my office, or more realistically, continue drinking champagne on my yacht out of gold cups in my chair made out of money while I figure out what to do with Tiger Woods.

The away kit isn’t as bad. It’s fashionable and elegant, but it looks like something you would more likely wear while failing miserably at the impossible game of golf, than in a football match.

The third kit is much more attractive, but I don’t know where they get the gold from. Somebody must have been playing around with Windows Paint and figured they had found a winner.

Nike’s new kit marks their first attempt at the English national team since they purchased Umbro in 2007.

Personally, I’ve always liked the jerseys Umbro have produced - my particular favourite being the 1998 World Cup home kit. 

I understand the allure and increased profits the swoosh yields, but maybe Nike should have let their subsidiary keep making their kits. After all, Umbro is an English company that I imagine understands the desires and preferences of their market. One of those preferences being kits that don’t look like the kits of countries they hate.

In fact, I bet there’s a whole file on that somewhere at their headquarters in Manchester, in a big filing cabinet marked ‘common sense’, or maybe labeled, ‘stupid things you shouldn’t do.’