A Comprehensive Analysis of Wave Soccer's New Jerseys

by Alex Hager

Sports are all about branding. Nothing can define a team’s identity better than the clothes the players wear. From Blue Wave Baseball's camo jerseys last spring, to the Basketball team opting for all-black uniforms in the winter, teams at Darien High School have tried their hand to stay up to par with the latest trends in sportswear. Now, with the fall sports season mere days away, the Blue Wave Boys Soccer squad is debuting a slew of new jerseys that it’ll be taking to the field for this year’s campaign.

Soccer is a sport that lends itself to bold stylistic choices. International clubs are known for regular and exciting jersey (referred to as a “kit”) updates. It is not uncommon for a pro team to change its set of kits every year, often maintaining patterns and colors as dictated by tradition, but sometimes opting to dabble in eye-catching new design that often deviates from the colors and patterns of bygone days.

The Wave will be wearing an assortment of jerseys this season, including a home kit, an away kit, and an alternate third kit with long sleeves. While the sleek, polished nature of the shirts is akin to that of some of the globe’s top clubs, there is an interesting fact about DHS’ jersey palette that sets it apart. Pro teams are generally bound to one uniform supplier, and their entire kit set is made by a single brand. The Wave, on the other hand, will boast home/away jerseys made by Nike, and an alternate shirt made by Adidas.

To kick off the review, here’s the home kit. Darien’s home number is a clean, white, classic shirt that forgoes the glitz of many modern kits to make way for a more traditional, classy look (below left). The jersey is reminiscent of another Nike creation, England’s kits from this summer’s FIFA World Cup. Both shirts strive to achieve a look of no-frills excellence, with nothing more than Nike’s trademark swoosh and the team crest. The English use their classic three lions crest, while Darien displays a logo which has become known as “the angry wave”, seen below and to the right. Most people recognize the angry wave from DHS Hockey's third sweaters, but the original logo is borrowed from the Tulane University Green Wave. The angry wave serves as a dash of Darien-unique branding on an otherwise plain jersey. Overall, the soccer home kits provide a traditional, if not somewhat underwhelming, look for the Wave to wear with pride on the oval turf.

Next, Darien’s away kits show off some more Nike craftsmanship. These blue jerseys (below left) are a tad more exciting than their home counterparts, but still exude a conservatively classic look that matches the oft-assumed caliber of the off-the-field attire choices of Darien’s residents. The majority of the jersey is a vibrant shade of blue, not entirely dissimilar to a gradient-free version of Brazil's secondary kits from the most recent World Cup, another Nike masterpiece. While a large portion of the shirt is no more than the plain blue, the left side of the shirt features a single, bold white stripe, seen below and to the right. Multi-stripe jerseys exist in abundance across the world of international soccer. From Argentina to Madrid and Wellington to Southampton, vertical stripes are far from special. What is rare, however, is the single stripe design. Rarely seen in any sport, much less soccer, the only pro kits with a single stripe in recent memory are the Umbro jersey worn by England in the 2002 World Cup and Bayern Munich's 14-15 third shirt. Oddly enough, the Wave’s single stripe calls to mind the alternate jerseys for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. The stripe, along with a singular white band on the opposite side’s sleeve, create a simple, but moderately interesting look that’s complemented by the loud “WAVE” written vertically down the stripe. This shirt lacks the branding of a crest, like the angry wave, but the text is enough to compensate for that. Altogether, DHS’s away kits are worthy of pride and should look great on the many fields of the FCIAC.

Lastly, but definitely not least, are the Blue Wave’s Adidas third kits. These are by far the most exciting, and seem to be the favorites among members of the soccer team. Creating a jersey that is both flashy but modest while staying within Darien’s fairly tame color scheme is a challenge, but these Adidas shirts surmount that challenge with ease. The plain black front and back, as can be seen below and to the left, give the jersey a sleek, conservative base, but the bright paneling on the sides and the white stripes down the arms add a nice touch of vibrancy. The black-blue-white color combo is one that rarely fails to impress, (see: San Jose Earthquakes) and that couldn’t be truer here. Even the font of the lettering is a touch that has been taken into consideration. The front and back feature numbers in a stylish, modern typeface that is identical to the one donned by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2014 World Cup squad, as can be seen below to the right. This jersey is impressive from every angle, and it looks to be an exciting feature of the Blue Wave Boys Soccer season this fall.

All in all, the Blue Wave has assembled quite the collection of kits this year. From the classy and traditional, to the flashy and innovative, Darien’s fashion-first designs are some of the best in the FCIAC. Combined with the latest in athletic apparel technology, the shirts could be a part of a championship-caliber bid. Hopefully, by the end of the year, these jerseys will be on the backs of champions.