Style/Fashion

Hopefully this isn’t earth-shattering news for you, but Euro 2020 has been delayed by a year due to the pandemic. But the show — from a merchandising standpoint — must go on. Adidas can’t hide all this gear inside a bushel basket for the next 12 months.

As the official supplier for the European Championship, the German sportswear giant has been slowly unveiling its campaign over the last year. We got our first major idea of the company’s theme back in November with the unveiling of the “UNIFORIA” ball. 

Last year, Forward Madison FC burst onto the U.S. Soccer scene with some of the freshest kits we’d ever seen.

This year, they’ve done it again.

Forward Madison, which plays in the third-tier USL League One, dropped its alternate “Drip Kit” on Saturday. Once again the club went Full Mingo and we really don’t deserve a shirt this awesome.

In a country that claims to support women’s soccer but really only pays attention during the Women’s World Cup, the National Women’s Soccer League still has plenty of room to grow in the American sporting consciousness. But there’s one area in which the best women’s soccer league in the world is a recognized global leader — style.

WARNING: Classic Football Shirts is really fun to browse but you will go broke. 

Before Puma decided that when it came to Per Mertesacker’s body, nothing should be left to the imagination, jerseys were essentially built for quarantine. Forsaking the modern urban fit for that of a parachute, these were shirts that you could grow into for years and years and years — perfect for the figure you’ve achieved over the last two months.  

Back in early February, Nike unveiled new jerseys for South Korea as the Taegeuk Warriors looked forward to World Cup qualifying matches against Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and North Korea. All of those games have since been postponed, but Nike’s jaw-dropping approach continues with the unveiling of the Mercurial “South Korea” cleats.

If you’re looking for new cleats this spring but not interested in dropping $250 on the latest QuIcK tEcH hYpEr SkIn lAzEr DuSt gOd mOdE boots, let us gently point you towards the latest drop from Nike’s Premier II cleat line: the more traditionally named “White/Black/White” color way. 

The 2020 Chinese Super League season was supposed to begin on Feb. 22 but was indefinitely postponed back in January because of the coronavirus outbreak. More recently, there’d been speculation that the new season could start in the coming weeks after locally transmitted cases reached zero, but the country could now face a second wave of the pandemic from people entering China from abroad.

The latest drop from Nike ahead of returning to the pitch this spring is the Phantom VNM Future DNA T90 cleat, which pays homage to the iconic Total 90 II boots that were made famous by Wayne Rooney, Francesco Totti, Roberto Carlos, Paul Scholes and Luis Figo during the early 2000s.

It’s kind of strange to think that Manuel Neuer will be turning 34 at the end of March. The Bayern Munich and Germany No. 1 is synonymous with what’s hip and youthful due to his revolutionary work in the goalkeeper role, but he’s now something of a godfather to players who have carried on his tradition, like Alisson, Marc-André ter Stegen and Ederson. 

As Mario Puzo wrote, the world is so hard that a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that’s why we have godfathers — and no godfather has protected his people better than Don Neuer. 

Inspired by the legendary adidas “Japan Blue” Predator Mania cleats that won the 2002 World Cup, the Three Stripes have released a limited edition Predator Mania “Tormentor” boot that looks better than anything out there. They’ve got it all: the red tongue, the wavy stripes and swerved rubber fins, the glorious color way, the fully leather upper. Perfection.