World Cup 2010 Jerseys: Germany

May 5th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

germany jersey We’re going through all the World Cup jerseys one by one, and reviewing the home and away shirts of each of the 32 World Cup nations. Today we’re getting a look at Germany, and the shirts Michael Ballack, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and company will be wearing in South Africa.

The Deutcher Fussball-Bund has a long standing relationship with adidas, which goes back at least 50 years. So I’m surprised they haven’t run out of design ideas yet. But adidas went to the drawing boards last year and came up with a new home and away kit for the German national team.

We’ll take a closer look below, and I’ll do my very best to give you a review of Germany’s World Cup jerseys.

Germany Home Shirt

germany home

Want one? Find your Germany World Cup kits in our store.
Germany home shirts always have three elements. First of all, they are a nice bright white colour. Second, they’re made by adidas and so have three stripes on the shoulder. Third, they usually feature the colours of the German flag – black, red, gold – somewhere in the design. So seems the foundation of any German home shirt is where you put the colours.

This time adidas have gone with three thin vertical stripes down the same side of the jersey as the crest. Not everyone’s a fan, but I quite like the subtlety of it. My one complaint is that in every image I’ve seen of this jersey, the gold doesn’t look quite gold enough. More like a yellow or a sandy colour. I’ll give adidas the benefit of he doubt though, as this may just be to do with the lighting. Or maybe the gold colour becomes deeper when Michael Ballack sweats? (Note to self: Pitch idea for Global Hypercolour jerseys to adidas, Nike and Puma.)

Also, and I swear I didn’t know this before writing this post, on closer inspection you can see that the black, red and gold stripes are part of a bigger pattern of 11 stripes:

11 stripes

Presumably the total of 11 stripes represents 11 footballers, teamwork and so on. Nice symbolism, and I particularly like the way it intersects with the DFB crest, which by happy design co-incidence features three prominent stars for Germany’s three World Cup wins (1954, 1974 and 1990). Makes everything nicely balanced.

Germany Away Shirt

germany away

Want one? Find your 2010 Germany away jersey in our store.
This came as a bit of a shock. Genuinely wasn’t expecting to see a black Germany away shirt for this World Cup. But that’s exactly what we’ve got. Seems to be a bit of a theme with adidas this year, as they’ve also given Mexico black away shirts.

First of all I thought “cool”. Then I thought “meh”. Because aside from being black, this shirt strikes me as being a little dull. Black body, touch of red, gold stripes. Feels like there should be something more going on.

The one thing I do like is the DFB written in cursive on the back, below the neck:

dfb zoom

The home shirt has the same feature, but it doesn’t stand out quite as much. The black and gold makes for a much better contrast with the lettering here, but I still much prefer the home shirt, mostly for that 11 and 3 stripe design.

That’s my take. What do you think of these Germany World Cup kits?

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Rob

I was all up for hating the German Shirts, but they are actually quite good.
Greekfreak

Both shirts are quality–the black one is excellent, and looks really good when worn. It’s essentially the same as this year’s Liverpool template.
http://bayern.theoffside.com Luke

The away shirt is a little too similar to the “practice” shirt that was sold around the Euro.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

“It’s essentially the same as this year’s Liverpool template.”

I don’t imagine that’s too encouraging for Germany fans…
James

Oh my g… man I wish Adidas would make the Mexico jersey’s that nice. Without the stripes it looks even better. I’m Mexican, but I could see myself wearing a German jersey. :D
Richard

I read this on another website about the away kit

“Black and red are colors used by a unified Germany. Green was a useful “neutral” color for post-war West Germany, which was consciously downplaying nationalism. Now that German nationalism seems to have exorcised the demons of its past to become as “positive” as anyone else’s nationalism, it’s appropriate once again for German teams to wear black and red.”
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

That’s an interesting explanation Richard. Sounds plausible too.

Do you have a link to where you read that by any chance? Not that I don’t believe you, just that I’d like to read a bit more about it.
http://germany.worldcupblog.org/ Nick

Richard if only it were true! The official explanation is that it’s the color of the playing field and part of the DFB logo. Before the war football in German did not have anything to do with nationalism only regionalism mostly because the national team was not successful and thankfully too.
tomas

Nick is right. The green/white colors are because of the DFB and the playing field. The white/black is derived from the Prussian flag and red was introduced from Klinsi stating that historically teams in red win more and its the color of intimidation.

Regarding the new home kit, for me its the best of the last decade by far! I like the fit a lot better than the ‘08 and ‘06. And I love the subtlety of it. Very classic!
http://torontofc.theoffside.com Mark

I bought my home jersey already and it looks really nice! The gold stripe is much more pronounced than the pictures show. You can see the 3 colours of the flag quite clearly. Another nice touch that you can’t see in the photo is that on the opening of the sleeves, under the black trim is an under-trim of black, red and gold as well. If you look closely at the photo above you only see the gold part of it, but when you flip up the black trim you see the 3 colours. Very nice. Also, the years of the world cup wins are embroidered into the 3 stars too.

Overall I liked the 2006 jersey better, but it has become a little dated now. The 2008 jersey was just weird, but this 2010 jersey I think is quite classy. The black away jersey is nice too, but how often do you actually see Germany play in their away jerseys anyway. That’s why I bought the home one.

One last comment – when you see the away jersey with the gold name and numbers on it, the gold gets to be a bit too much and kind of wrecks the jersey I think. But the black numbers on the home jersey just contribute to the overall look.
pencho15

I have read that the green shirt was a homage to the Ireland kit wich was the first team that played agaisnt Germany after the WW2
tomas

pencho15, thats false as well. We played the Swiss right after WWII.