The United States Women’s National Soccer Team will go for its fourth star this summer at the Women’s World Cup, and repeating as world champions will be anything but easy.
It’s impossible to know what happens in France this summer, but we do know what the USWNT will be wearing as they take the pitch. Nike announced the uniforms for five of the teams that will play for a Women’s World Cup crown later this year, including what the defending champions will wear. The USWNT has done some really cool stuff with its kits lately, such as honoring important women on the back of its jerseys, and it’s a group that knows their importance and place in history.
That’s why Nike paid tribute to the “99ers,” or the women of the 1999 US team that won the World Cup in a dramatic penalty shootout and inspired a generation of youngsters to take up soccer for themselves. Some of the players now on the USWNT were part of that generation, so the honor is a big deal here.
“The team was something incredible…a badass group. I’d never seen female athletes on TV in that way,” Alex Morgan, who was 10 when the USWNT won it all in 1999, said in a Nike release. “Thinking about it gives me chills. I wanted to be them when I grew up.”
The white kits feature all 50 states named on the backs, while the cuff on the jersey is reminiscent of those worn in 1999. The single star from the 1999 jerseys has been replaced with a stack of three stars — honoring the second title the USWNT won in 1999 and the third they won in 2015. Knit tape on the back also features three stars, which also appear on the front above the USA crest.
The red jerseys are a bit different, and honestly are not as strong as the whites, but they also bear similar design tendencies from the 99ers design.
Some of the other Nike kits are also impressive, including France’s white kit and the 90s throwback style of the Lady Socceroos. But it’s hard not to love the look the country’s best soccer team will be wearing in a few months.
