We've been waiting to see what the United States women's national team would be wearing in this summer's World Cup, hoping that Nike would give them something special to really stand out from the crowd. The U.S. squad is again one of the favorites, and their main kit should be exciting, especially with how flat the reception has been for the blue gradient alternate kit both the US women and men will be wearing this year.
Nike finally revealed the kits today, and gave us -- well, this:
Teams that never let up once, never have to think twice. #NoMaybes pic.twitter.com/dHSQnv5oZJ
— Nike Soccer (@nikesoccer) April 22, 2015
The shirt and shorts are white with a black stripe down the side, and the top of the collar has a black detail at the end of it, presumably for the sake of contrast. They're not exciting. They're just kind of there.
Then you see the socks.
They're ... well, they're green. Bright green. Neon green. Toxic green. It's a weird fadeup from the shoes to white at the tops, and it's pretty awkward and not totally great. Maybe if there was some kind of green element to the kits to tie it in it could work, but with how utterly plain the shirts and shorts are, it stands out to a bizarre degree. Plus there's the whole "no green on the American flag" thing to deal with. It might not be so bad if it was blue, or even red, but that bright a green is just shocking, and not in a good way.
The #NoMaybes tagline is kind of weird and awkward too. Could Nike really not come up with something better or more inspiring than "No Maybes"?
So that's the bad news. The good news is that, in a rare move, these really are USWNT-specific kits. Previous Nike designs haven't been available for order in USMNT and USWNT-specific designs, meaning if you wanted to get a WNT name and number on the back, you had to get it on the same shirt as the men. But this one actually has two stars above the crest for the two World Cups the women have won! That's excellent.
The kits will be available for purchase starting Thursday, April 23rd.