The Worst Alternate Jerseys in Sports

The Worst Alternate Jerseys in Sports

James Caughlin

Every season we see a litany of new football kits as clubs from around the world try and make some more money sorry, freshen things up.

It’s an unenviable position if you are one of the kit manufacturers who have to come up with three new designs per club per year.

Sometimes they might just copy and paste a template across multiple clubs.

Puma have taken that to the extreme, releasing the third kits for six teams across Europe all at once, all of which have the exact same design.

Ask any football fan and they will tell you how important the club crest is, and Puma have taken them away from their usual spot on the chest.

Lesson for next season: if you have to explain that the badges are still on the kit, you might not have done your job properly.

It’s a good thing City’s kit was released after our definitive Premier League Kit Rankings came out for the coming season because their one would have seen them knocked down a few spots.

Puma have already been guilty of copying and pasting from a poor template this year with their away kits in the Euro tournament.

In an era where alternate jerseys are becoming the norm as teams try and expand their branding, there’s some efforts that we can’t believe got signed off on.

Colorado Caribous

The world of football warrants not just one blog post but a series with some of the atrocities the world game has brought us, but here’s some of the best (and by “best” I mean worst).

We’ll lead off with the big hitter, the Colorado Caribous design for the NASL which included beige tassels.

CD Palencia

Something for the anatomy students to work with.

1860 Munich

There are ways to commemorate the rich history of a European football club and 1860 Munich found one of them.

Maybe this should have been done as a mural on the wall at the club base rather than on an anniversary kit?

Athletic Bilbao

When a blood spatter pattern has the colour altered so it’s not as confronting, it looks like there has been an accident with a jam donut.

Cultural Leonesa

On the plus side, the team won’t have to change before the post game function.

Seattle Seahawks

Seattle burned themselves into the memories and retinas of NFL fans with their fluoro green alternate jersey.

Sure bight green is a part of the Seahawks colour scheme (they do play in the Emerald City after all), but it really did not need to be the feature for their third strip.

Let’s be honest, Seattle’s eye meltingly bright jersey is just the tip of the iceberg, let’s just be glad they didn’t wear the matching pants.

Denver Broncos

In 2009 the NFL marked the 60th Anniversary of the American Football League (AFL) and the eight original teams wore throwback uniforms in selected games.

Denver was getting punished for something, I’m not really sure what, but it must have been something pretty bad since they had to wear these things.

Florida Gators

If you ever are worried about your job performance, just remember that someone at Nike once said, “hey this team is nicknamed the Gators so let’s give them an Alligator style jersey!”

Arizona State University

Why does Ned Flanders think Arizona State so hard to get into?

Syracuse Orangemen

Your nickname might be the Orangemen but you don’t have to take it literally!

https://twitter.com/RothenbergJosh/status/891016380723724288?s=20

University of Louisiana Monroe

If there was ever a reason for college footballers in the US to hold out for pay, at least the players from the Battlehawks would get something for wearing these other than utter humiliation.

Anaheim Mighty Ducks

You can’t help but look at this and think, “Mighty” Ducks… really?

Montreal Canadiens

May Canada’s long running Stanley Cup drought continue just because of these atrocities.

You wouldn’t blame any player for faking a hamstring injury so they couldn’t be seen in them any more than absolutely necessary.

Denver Nuggets

It’s a mountain themed jersey… because they play in the Rockies… please laugh because otherwise it’s just sad.

Golden State Warriors

NBA jerseys have taken some weird turns in recent times but none moreso than anything with sleeves

Pittsburgh Pirates

They’re taking the whole Pirates thing a bit far

San Diego Padres

I’ll stretch the criteria for the list just because the Padres are so boring and their uniform history isn’t much more interesting whether it’s their home uniform or anything else.

https://twitter.com/KorverSZN_/status/1264759827340898304?s=20

New Zealand Warriors

This was originally done as a commemorative jersey “for the bush” but nobody would blame for the bush for saying “make it for something else, PLEASE!”

West Coast Eagles

There has to have been some duress involved in accepting this design?

Hawthorn Hawks

If Hawthorn want to break this out next season, it would be a great idea… honest.

Any Change Strip that Doesn’t Involve a Change

Look, I get it, some AFL clubs have an irrational tie to their primary colour scheme, but they really stretch the definition of a “change strip” when there’s a colour clash.

There’s some bad jerseys here but the lack of effort some clubs put in to theirs is horrendous, we get it, you like your stripes or hoops or whatever, but don’t insult our intelligence.

Just swapping the colours doesn’t count.

Stade Francais

There are better ways to highlight your team and city’s rich heritage and diversity than this.

Austria Rugby

How they never became a rugby union powerhouse will continue to baffle me…