The crowd, the lights and the fashion-show setting were an unsubtle reminder of MLS’s first collective uniform party almost 25 years ago. But the jerseys unveiled at Wednesday night’s event in Manhattan represented a clear departure.
The league’s inaugural kits were hilariously garish, notoriously distinctive and mostly regrettable. In recent seasons, however, Adidas and MLS teams have raced toward the opposite end of the spectrum, tripping over themselves as they try to erase much of the color and individual team identity that’s vital for TV and so important in other leagues around the world.
A lot of that single-entity, every-game-looks-the-same philosophy was evident Wednesday, as Adidas honored the league’s 25th season with a template featuring a callback to the shoulder stripes and collar popular in the early 1990s.