Kit of the Week #20: Germany Glitch Kit for Women’s World Cup

Friday saw the release of the most roundly applauded football shirt of the year so far, Germany’s 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup kit by Adidas.

Drawing inspiration from the iconic Ina Franzmann designed West Germany kit worn by the triumphant men’s side at World Cup Italia ’90, as well as the women’s team in their 1989 and 1991 European Championships victories; the shirts bring a fresh interpretation of possibly the greatest football shirt of all time.

Germany’s new shirts were not the only kits for this summer’s tournament in France to be released this week, but they were undoubtedly the most exciting on show and capture the current zeitgeist surrounding women’s football.

Continuing the digital glitch designs seen in recent MLS releases, Adidas bring the black, red and gold colours of the German flag back to the forefront of the shirts, a feature missing in the monochrome men’s shirts for Russia 2018.

Germany’s women have featured in each of the seven FIFA Women’s World Cups to date and wear 2 stars above the DFB’s crest to signify their 2003 and 2007 titles. Victory in Lyon on July 7th would see Die Nationalelf equal the United States record of 3 tournament wins.

Of the beautifully bespoke new shirts released by Adidas and Nike, the most pleasing aspect has been that these new offerings for France 2019 are not just smaller versions of existing men’s kits as is regularly the case, but that they are exclusive designs in their own right.

In a further gesture towards improving the perception of the women’s game, Adidas have announced that equal performance bonuses will be paid to any of their sponsored athletes as they would pay to their male counterparts.

Germany’s long association with Adidas has seen them develop a habit of being the best kitted-out nation at each tournament they enter, but this is a shirt that is so good that it could be the first female football shirt sold to male supporters.