The end of an era! Ranking Germany’s greatest Adidas kits،
It's a day we honestly never thought we'd see, but the German Football Association (DFB) shook the entire football world this week by announcing that it would be parting ways with Adidas as its official football supplier. kits for the national team after 70 years, and that it was changing suppliers. at Nike.
Germany's partnership with Adidas began in 1954 and, apart from a period in the 1960s and early 70s when they wore Umbro and Erima branded kits, The Mannschaft were proudly draped in the three stripes.
The Deutsche Fußball Bund will be a development partner with Nike Inc. between 2027 and 2034. 🤝👕 Nike is the National Mannschaften des #DFB ausrüsten et den deutschen Fußball in seiner Gänze fördern.
For the merger ➡️ https://t.co/GbXWT116Pr pic.twitter.com/AegbB0kswF– DFB (Verband) (@DFB) March 21, 2024
“The German Football Association will enter into an equipment partnership with Nike from 2027 to 2034,” the statement said. “Nike will equip all DFB national teams and promote German football in its entirety.”
The men's national team wore Adidas clothing en route to four World Cup titles and three European Championship titles, although the team actually wore Leuzela-branded kits (along with Adidas boots and tracksuits) during the 1954 World Cup, and Umbro kits during the 1966 World Cup and 1970 finals.
The move to full Adidas kit was made for the 1972 Summer Olympics, and it's fair to say that the two entities became synonymous with each other and sporting eminence over the years that followed – hence the tremors felt at the announcement that one of the most unshakable alliances in football must come to an end.
Even before Adidas took the reins, Germany's jerseys followed a fairly rigid design with a white and black base, recently adorned with trimmings in the colors of the modern national flag: black, red and gold/yellow. They also proudly display four stars above the DFB crest to denote the World Cup victories of 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014.
While the monumental news isn't out yet, we thought we'd go through the archives and select our favorite Adidas-produced German kits, shown below in reverse order.
1974 World Cup Kit
Although rudimentary by today's standards, it's hard to look past the classic shirt produced for Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Paul Breitner and others, who wore their crisp white finery while pushing all competition and lifting the 1974 World Cup at home. Now, it's probably worth mentioning that the kit was technically produced by Erima, but we're counting that because Erima operated as a subsidiary of Adidas at the time. That's our excuse and we're sticking to it!
Away jersey 1988-1990
Germany tends to oscillate between a few colorways when it comes to its aftermarket bands, but the bottle green hue that is periodically adopted will always be our favorite. The Mannschaft have been fitted with some very nice green alternative kits over the years, but the Euro 1988 edition is a solid favorite.
Although the herringbone pattern is perhaps most easily associated with Marco van Basten and the victorious Netherlands team of the era, Germany's verdant version was just as pleasing to the eye.
If the jersey was released for the 1988 tournament, it is probably more associated with the 1990 World Cup and the semi-final victory over England.
1994 World Cup kits
Germany has a proud tradition of looking down on business at major international tournaments and 1994 was certainly a good year in this regard, as the national colors cascaded over the shoulder in a diamond pattern, complemented by a speckled “spray paint” effect that was very popular at the time.
If anything, the green version was even better.
Today's kit comes from @DFB_Team_FR @adidas 1994/96 Home and Away 🇩🇪⬇️#Germany #adidas #vintagefootball #footballshirts #Soccer jersey #soccer jersey #retrofootballshirts#historicfootballshirts #classicforotballshirts #ancient pic.twitter.com/ERmsH9wlKQ
– Historic Football Shirts Ltd (@historicshirts) February 9, 2021
Euro 2024 home jersey
Germany have had some stunning home and away designs since Adidas officially began creating bespoke designs for the national team when a huge kit deal was struck more recently.
While there have been experiments with pinstripes (2012, 2020), zigzags (2018), Ajax-style aprons (2022) and even oversized bibs (2008, 2014), it stands to reason that Adidas has never really used the bib. The Mannschaft with a bad home jersey.
Furthermore, we'd say the best of their contemporary efforts is the all-new 2024 kit launched this week, which is as close to a work of art as any international kit we've seen.
Look at them 😍
Presentation of our new home and away jerseys for 2024 🔥#DFBTeam pic.twitter.com/deri77wgwN
– germanfootball_dfb (@DFB_Team_EN) March 14, 2024
Home jersey 1988-1990
A timeless design revisited and reissued countless times since, the jersey worn by Germany during their victory at the 1990 World Cup is a true retro heavyweight classic.
THE Federal flag Stripes have never looked better, although one assumes the famous graphic covering the chest also serves as a visual representation of Germany's performances in the four World Cups leading up to the 1990 final – peaking to begin with (victory in 1974), then a spectacular fall (early elimination in 1978), a plateau (two consecutive finalists in 1982 and 1986) and ending with an optimistic surge to denote a projected victory in 1990.
