
Written by:
Michael Johnson June 7th, 2010

Like all major sporting events, the 2010 FIFA World Cup is a media circus. Between egos, injuries and trophy wives, the scoreline isn’t the only thing grabbing the headlines. Also detracting our attention from the beautiful game: the uniforms. Internationally, soccer is both a lucrative and competitive industry, with the likes of Nike, Adidas and Puma vying for the monopoly. To put things in perspective, almost 30% of Nike’s total revenue in 2009 came out of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, where soccer culture is as big as baseball in the US. In 2008, Nike purchased Umbro, arguably the O.G. of soccer apparel; their sales have since increased over 200% to $174 million annually.
Unlike the NFL or NBA, where the entire league sticks to one shirt sponsor, FIFA is fair game. From Japan to Slovenia to Honduras, each soccer ‘kit’ is a who’s who of all the prominent sporting brands. Where some brands don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, like Adidas for Argentina, others are content to reinvent the wheel as they see it fit, like Nike for the USA. There are varying degrees of success – we’ve seen our share of stinkers – but here are a few that we feel deserve a shout out after the jump.

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