Although we like to dabble with ranking articles when it comes to the MLS, it has been a very, very long time since we’ve turned our eyes to this North American league for a specific club shirt. In fact, we haven’t done so since the very moment this site went live, with our Chicago Fire write-up being the fourth of the six articles that were available on Club 25 from day one. We do have a very good reason for this which we will come to shortly, but our main focus today is taking you along for a closer look at the inaugural home jersey of Philadelphia Union;

What a beautiful shirt…. it’s gorgeous! Unbridled praise is not usually how we start off our articles, but it is deserved in this case; we fell in love with the Union’s home kit from the moment we first saw it. An attractive combination of navy and gold (we recall it being marketed as ‘khaki’ at the time) that was without parallel in the world of soccer. How could you not immediately like this expansion outfit from the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?

To answer that question, if you were a New York Red Bulls or DC United fan, you probably didn’t fancy Union much (although some supporters most likely did appreciate having an extra rival). If you hated the city of Philadelphia and/or its sports teams competing in the ‘American’ sports (Eagles, Flyers, Phillies, 76ers), you most likely wouldn’t fany this new expansion franchise much either. But for neutral onlookers, the advent of the Union promised to enrich the MLS with an amazing colour scheme and boundless potential for amazing jerseys.

And then adidas and whoever in Philadelphia picks the designs ruined it all with some of the most soulless kits in modern history – at least to us.

For the first eight seasons of its existence, Philadelphia Union played in four different yet equally gorgeous navy and gold kits, with the jerseys introduced in ’12, ’14, and ’16 all more or less being new but ultimately faithful takes on the original shirt we have before us today. Then, in 2018, adidas yeeted the gold out the window and dropped an all-navy shirt with gold detailing that was so incredibly awful, it ended up finishing in last place in our 2019 jersey rankings article. No gold stripe down the middle of the shirt, no soul, no effort. Garbage.

Two long seasons we waited for it to be rotated out, clinging to the hope that the 2020 season would see the return of the ‘original’ Union shirt – only to get sucker punched by adidas once more as they forced Philadelphia fans into the straitjacket that is the ubiquitious EQT-template. Like a smelly, suspicious man luring children to his van with the promise of candy, adidas hoped to draw in fans by embossing the club’s snake talisman into the torso – but we didn’t fall for it, because the ’20 shirt is once again near the bottom of our latest ranking list.

Life as a Philadelphia Union fan obsessed with jerseys (admittedly a very niche crowd) is suffering.

Those less bothered by adidas’ sartorial crimes and less attached to the shirts of yore might consider us to be whining about something inconsequential (‘I couldn’t care what they wear, Union are my team’), but then one needs to consider the importance of primary jerseys – or home shirts as those pesky Europeans call them. A club’s identity is encompassed by its shirt, the gear it wears on the pitch, the colours it associates itself with at its home ground. To stray from an established design and/or colour scheme is a sin from a European perspective, even if it is more commonly accepted in the States as a result of franchise-based sports leagues (relocations and rebrandings aplenty).

What makes the case of Philadelphia Union shedding its gold skin – to stick with the theme set by the mascot snake – all the more poignant is just how succesful and iconic this original jersey is. The contrast between the navy and the gold (or khaki if you will) is stunning, evocative, and so very rare that the ease with which the franchise has disposed of it borders on the absurd. Why oh why would you switch to plain navy shirts with gold detailing when you started out in such a lovely design that became synonymous with your identity during the years in which it was worn?

It’s not even the case that this original design was without faults – hardly so – but stepping away from it could only ever lead to disaster, as we have now seen since 2018.

This original shirt, introduced for the 2010 season and kept on for the 2011 season as per the usual kit rotation policy of the MLS, was the first stab the Union and adidas made at a home shirt; opting for this striking colour scheme, the designers opted to take a risk by truncating the central khaki stripe at chest height, cutting it off with a light(er) blue horizontal pinstripe. This allowed the collar room to include further gold detailing along its bottom edge.

Fans of the club will know the meaning of the lighter blue but we appreciate it is not directly apparent to the neutral reader; this colour is derived from both the municipal flag of Philadelphia and the state flag of Pennsylvania, and served as a tribute to both as well as being a nod to the Sons of Ben, the Union’s first supporters group (taking their name from Benjamin Franklin and having been founded on his birthday). It’s rather remarkable that these three elements – both flags and the Sons of Ben – are all able to be represented by just this one colour, tastefully added as a subtle detail along the chest and the bottom hem. It is perhaps telling that this light blue has not featured on the ’18 and ’20 shirts – just another loving element of the earlier jerseys that was carelessly thrown to the wind.

Navy and khaki colours, good. Massive multicoloured sponsor logo, bad.

In all seriousness, we strongly dislike big sponsor outings that clash with a club’s established colour scheme and especially when the sponsor sounds as silly as bimbo (which has a less-than-jovial meaning in some European languages), but in this case, we are actually happy with it. We imagine that’s rather shocking to our long-time readers, but it’s the honest truth.

Bimbo were Philadelphia’s first sponsor (joining in 2011 – these shirts were blank throughout the 2010 season) and have remained on the chest of primary and secondary jerseys for the entirety of the club’s lifespan – eleven seasons and counting now. This has made them and their wordmark synonymous with the club, and their patriotic colouring is a welcome sight compared to many of the other sponsors that have tried to find exposure in the MLS.

Bimbo is the American branch of Grupo Bimbo, a huge Mexican baking company that is active throughout the Americas and sells boatloads of bread and related foodstuffs. The American headquarters of the company is located in the Philadelphia suburb of Horsham, Pennsylvania – making them as close to a local sponsor as you can get in a country as expansive as the United States. Definite bonus points for that, which just add to the massive pile that Bimbo have from their loyalty and how well their logo fits with the Union’s shirts (when it, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t).

The classic MLS league patch, which was sunset a few seasons ago but still in full use back in 2010, is found in its usual spot on the right sleeve – adidas was even kind enough to interrupt their obnoxious trademark spaghetti to place the patch here.

By mentioning adidas we get to the crux of our problem with the MLS; the competition has been in adidas’ all-encompassing stranglehold since inking a league-wide deal in 2005 which would force all participating clubs to wear the three stripes. Initially spanning five seasons until 2010, this partnership was extended to 2018, and then through to 2024 – almost two decades on from MLS commissioner Don Garber putting his name on the contract with the German brand.

Although adidas has delivered excellent work here and there – today’s shirt being a particularly strong example of what their design team can achieve if they manage to put in some effort – and has contributed to the Generation adidas youth development scheme, having the brand with the three stripes put a full league on lockdown like this ultimately stifled creativity – evidenced by most of the league wearing variations on the same template in 2020.

However, that’s not the full extent of our beef with adidas, for this company is almost beyond compare when it comes to offering a very bad price/quality balance on its products. A small ‘official product’ tag sits on our almost virtually unworn shirt, yet it has started to come apart without a washing machine being involved. adidas products aren’t made to last; they are made to break and force you into buying a replacement, which adidas and adidas alone will be happy to sell you because they’ve got an exclusive contract with the league.

Outside of the tag, our shirt still holds up – although this is essentially down to it being unworn. It is perhaps a miracle that, knowing adidas’ manufacturing standards, the Bimbo sticker on the front (awfully applied over the seams of the central gold stripe) hasn’t crumbled to dust yet.

Shocking quality then, but you’re not off Mr. Dassler’s Wild Ride just yet because we need to have a chat about pricetags – the type that will make your eyes water even if your jersey has a nice little strapline inside its collar and a contrasting bit of gold on the outside.

Small brands typically sell just one type of jersey; a player-spec garment that is worn by both players and fans, with a level of quality matching what professional athletes would expect from their equipment. adidas, however, thinks doing that is for suckers, because for over a decade now supporters of MLS teams (and adidas’ big customers elsewhere in the world) have been treated to a disgustingly exploitative scheme involving different version of the same shirt.

For you see, adidas sells what it coins ‘replica’ (or fan) jerseys and ‘authentic’ (or player-spec) jerseys. The former retailed for 70 USD back in 2010 but are now priced at 90 USD for 2020 season shirts while the latter now sell at between 130 and 140 USD. Yes, this kind of trickery is rather commonplace in American leagues regardless of which sport is involved, but its pervasiveness does not excuse it being a particularly slimey business tactic.

Here at Club 25 we own three ‘authentic’ MLS shirts as well as this Union replica, and the difference in quality is minimal; they’re all competent sportswear products but nothing that’ll set the world ablaze. Yet, these products retail for prices that simply do not line up with what you get. This, then, is why we barely ever cover MLS shirts; we’re not about to settle for an inferior yet official copy of a shirt, yet refuse to pay anywhere near what adidas hopes to receive for authentic products.

What do you get if you decide to go for an authentic shirt over a replica? Well, in the old days the Climacool or Climalite tags in the lower left of the front would be replaced by Formotion or TechFit to signify that the particular kind of polyester being used is slightly different; you’d also get the benefit of heat-sealed sponsor logos, crests, and adidas stripes, which are normally stickered and embroidered on replica jerseys. The authentic shirts also feature a slimmer fit, but that most certainly does not put them anywhere near 130/140 USD in value.

But hey, adidas have an exclusive contract so, conversely, fans don’t have a choice; it’s either adidas-made jerseys or nothing (unless you want to dip your toe in the Chinese counterfeit market which we would not recommend). One may appreciate that the deal between adidas and the MLS does generate quite a bit of money which is distributed equally across the competing franchises, but any Economics 101 lecture will start with the golden rule that monopolies are never a good idea, for any market. Bring on the end of 2024 and the expiration of that contract, please.

70 Dollars for this shirt and the crest – one of the most important parts of any jersey – sits crooked in the centre of the shirt. We really wish Käthe Dassler failed in her attempts to convince Allied Forces not to blow up the adidas factory at the end of the second world war.

Ahum, no use crying over spilled milk or spared production facilities. Despite not sitting entirely flush due to being roated a few degrees, this is a lovely and competent crest – one which remains in use today, although with a slightly altered colourset. The club’s name sits proudly in the upper half, divided across the outer navy band and the central shield – it was the clear winner in a fan vote for the club’s name, beating out AC Philadelphia, SC Philadelphia, and Philadelphia City. Gotta love democracy, because Union is by far the superior name.

The lighter blue of the flags of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and the Sons of Ben features prominently in the inner circle, best alongside gold/khaki to cut out a colour-reversed miniature of the club’s inaugural shirt (mimicking the original away shirt, which swapped gold and navy around). The Union’s proud snake features in the dead centre of the chest, and was inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Join, or die’ political cartoon – providing another tie between the founding father and the club. Do note that our slithery friend there can also be said to have been based on the old Gadsden Flag.

Finally, thirteen stars sit in the lower half to represent the original thirteen US colonies whilst the colours of navy and gold themselves are entirely derived from the uniforms worn by the Continental Army during the American Civil War. This rounds out a terrific overall design that is both steeped in history and immediately identifiable – a bit like the overall design of this inaugural shirt then. Makes you wonder how long it will take for the Union’s board to bin it in favour of some new-fangled abomination like they did with the shirts.

A recurring theme every week here on Club 25 is the notion that we love it when the design features found on the front of a jersey are repeated on the reverse, but in this case we have to sadly note that the back is entirely navy blue and entirely devoid of any detailing.

adidas must have been laughing all the way to the bank back in 2010; they made us and the rest of the Union’s fans pay 70 USD for half a shirt worth of effort. Seriously, would it have killed this multi-billion Dollar company to include something – nay, anything – on the back of a premium product like this? Would it really have killed their bottom line for that fiscal year? Appalling stuff, really, and just another reminder that the deal between the MLS and adidas is a disgrace (say it with us, monopolies are bad). Why would the Germans care whether fan complain about the complete lack of effort on adidas’ part? It’s not like the club can decide to let the contract run out and find a more willing partner, because the adidas agreement is between them and the league and thus going above the heads of the individual clubs.

Sure, if enough fans and owners raise their voices suely something could be done, but with the sartorial violence perpetrated by adidas having been an ongoing topic for some fifteen years now, it is safe to say that most people are now either used to it or simply don’t care enough. A crying shame, and a continued blemish on the league when it and the fledgling Canadian Premier League are the only top-level soccer competitions in the world to still operate with league-wide kit contract. Australia’s A-League got smart years ago and booted Reebok following extended complaints by fans, and has by and large done fine since – showing that it can be done (as if all the other leagues that don’t have these bizarre contracts weren’t proof enough).

It’s always a shame to have an article be hijacked by having to consider malpractices on the part of kit suppliers, but then if no one speaks up nothing will ever get solved. There is no reason at all for the back of this shirt to be full navy blue instead of have extra details and perhaps even a continued gold stripe from the front, just like how there is no reason at all for a split between replica and authentic jerseys, no reason for pricetags as high as 140 Dollars, and no reason for having adidas spaghetti all over every single team in your league. What a shame.

Even with the MLS having gone through impressive growth in terms of revenue, specators, TV deals, and expansion clubs – as well as supply a bit of talent to the national team – the adidas issue continues to be a blight on the league. Perhaps it is the fact that the scummy business tactics employed by adidas are so commonplace in American sports that the MLS’ domestic audience has found the three stripes’ dominance and exploitation of soccer fans to be hardly a bother – but it does not necessarily bode well for the future.

Looking at our recent rankings article, we have perhaps arrived at a breaking point where something might finally be done about adidas’ repeated transgressions – templates become more and more overused and pricetags keep increasing – but we are guaranteed another four full seasons of this garbage following the end of 2020. A thought that is becoming increasingly hard to stomach, even after 15 years of exclusivity. That this continues to impact fair clubs like Philadelphia Union and its supporters makes it a downright disgrace, which the money adidas pumps into the league should not necessarily assuage.

That’s just about all you need from us for now, but as always, we would like to remind you that Club 25 is a weekly publication – expect a brand new article from us next week, so keep checking back for when we have a new shirt going live. Additionally, keep up to date with us on our Twitter page and flick through the site’s Shirt Archive to see what shirts we’ve covered in the past.