The MLS has been home to some of the most innovative shirt designs to ever grace the pitch
The 2022 MLS season is reaching its final stages, with Los Angeles FC currently sitting on top of the table with seven regular season games to go. To mark the business end of the tournament, we’ve compiled the best home kit from every MLS season so far, beginning with the loud and the garish 26 years ago, and continuing to today’s more sophisticated designs.
Getty Images1996 – New England Revolution
The MLS was a different beast in its inaugural season than it is today, and nowhere is that more exemplified than in some of the absolutely wild kits. New England Revolution is the pick of the bunch, with a huge graphic at the top of the shirt, somehow emanating from the Reebok logo. The shirt also dispenses with a host of traditional features: the sponsor is replaced with the word “Revolution” in a blood red scrawl, while the club crest appears halfway down the shirt. From the get-go, the MLS was doing things differently.
AdvertisementGetty Images1997 – Kansas City Wizards
By its second season, some MLS teams were still determined to push the boat as far as they could. Sporting Kansas City — or the Kansas City Wizards as they were known then — adopted a wavy rainbow pattern across the top half of their shirt. The MLS still eschewed sponsors at this time as well, with the team’s Kansas City home printed in the middle of the shirt instead.
Getty Images1998 – MetroStars
Back in 1998, the idea of the New York Red Bulls was still a long way away. Back then, they were known simply as MetroStars and their sponsor's logo was nowhere near their shirt. Instead, they wore a red shirt adorned with yellow and black stripes. The kit was finished with a black and white collar, and it's impossible to imagine it being worn by anything other than a 1990s MLS team.
Getty Images1999 – Colorado Rapids
There are a number of different details that make Colorado Rapids’ 1999 home kit an underrated classic. Firstly there’s the white and green colourway — complete with a wave-like green pattern — then there’s the Colorado Rapids logo. Once again sitting where you’d perhaps expect to find the sponsor’s logo, the team's name comes in bright yellow and is finished with a crashing blue wave graphic.