Sporting KC
Footy Headlines May Have Leaked Sporting KC’s 2025 Kit
Need an early Christmas present? A kit leak of the new Sporting Kansas City 2025 primary almost certainly seems to be out.
While the 2024-25 Major League Soccer offseason moves on, it’s been pretty quiet on the Sporting Kansas City front. There have been just two signings, promising Homegrowns Ian James and Jack Kortkamp. The schedule came out and a bit of preseason. But the team is lacking big news.
Footy Headlines may have provided a chunk of news on Christmas Eve. They appear to have leaked the 2025 Sporting KC primary kit (more photos in their story).
🇺🇸🩵💙 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Kansas City 2025 Home Kit Leaked – State Line x Hoops Design: https://t.co/bZrnoMASwl
— Footy Headlines (@Footy_Headlines) December 24, 2024
It appears to be a merging of the “hoops” concept that has been Sporting KC’s primary kit since 2021 with an old staple, the “State Line” kit. The hoops are obvious (we know hoops go all the way around, but that’s what they call it), but the State Line portion is more subtle. What from a distance looks almost like a blurry ‘hoop’ is actually the Kansas and Missouri state line indention repeating over and over.
Outside of the traditional Sporting Blue we are used to seeing and the Indigo in the hoops, but white reappears on a primary kit for the first time since the stripes on the 2017-18 primary.
Initial Thoughts
Kit leaks seem to be the most unflattering possible pictures of a jersey. I personally love the hoops being the primary brand for the last few years, though I know that’s controversial to some. In these unflattering pictures, the white feels a bit out of place to me. Indigo on the shoulders and sides feels like it would be more in line with the SKC look. However, it’s always possible for competitive reasons there can’t be too much indigo in their “light” jersey. And it’s possible it’s template related problems with working with Adidas.
The use of the State Line feels like a good idea, but at a distance it seems it will be lost. In the hours since the leak, fans are mixed in their reactions. From some anger to harkening back to the 2019 “roadkill” kits as they were dubbed when that season went off the rails. That 2019 primary did look like a tire track, and this is definitely not that, but I see why the comparison would be made. Another, non-roadkill nickname popped up on Blue Sky as “The Comb.”
There have also been more positive outlooks.
For the team’s part, at least whoever is running the social media account is having fun with it.
Hey, it's Christmas Eve. No peeking!
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) December 24, 2024
For my part, I’m in “wait and see,” mode. I generally like the hoops. I love the Sporting Blue and Indigo combination. I’m iffy on the white. But let’s see it in person with proper lighting. On the players, it’ll certainly look better than it will on a non-athlete or lying flat like this.
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I need to see it on a guy. Looks like they started with a lady’s kit and added fabric to make it men’s. Kind of strange.
Exactly what I was thinking. that hour glass shape looks like it is designed to accentuate child bearing hips… but maybe it will make more sense on a person instead of laid out flat.
This hot garbage.
EDIT: I was going to edit, but realized that it wasn’t worth a full sentence.
Yeah, that’s awful. Just do the state line and be done with it.
I’m fairly certain they can’t do the State Line because of competitive reasons. Light Blue with Dark Blue is not allowed for competitive reasons.
See, I think that’s a load of bull because Dallas’s New Jersey this year was straight up two tones, so I don’t understand why we’re not allowed to do it too
World wide there are plenty of two tones. I would also have to disagree about adding a new shade of blue being a good thing. Branding man. There should be a Sporting Dark Blue and a Sporting Light Blue and never, ever anything else.
I know some people like the hoops, but I’m not a huge fan. Although, at least the hoops are an attempt to differentiate the club. I like the argyle better for that because I feel it’s less copied. The State Line though – that was unique.
And last year’s jerseys looked like some random U12 team that had Adidas as a sponsor. Nothing. Just a blank slate.
I gotta push back. Dallas’ jersey is two “dark” colors. Sporting Blue is SKC’s light color while Indigo is their dark.
That means they could feasibly do a proper state line in 2026 with indigo and the new blue they brought in with this past year’s new secondary (2024).
This is gonna sound silly, but the colors matter. When I play EA FC (I know, not real life), if you don’t check the kit combinations you can have teams that are too similar, and you straight up pass to the wrong person (leaving out that the ref sometimes clashes in that broken game).
Fits right in with the rest of the organization!!! It keeps getting worse and worse. It’s embarrassing. Where’s all these fantastic signings? “Our budget has been significantly raised”
How are our kits so consistently mediocre at best the past 4+ years (I think it’s a stretch to even call this one mediocre though)? Every year I hope for a jersey I want to buy, but the only one worth purchasing has been the retro kit from last year.
Every year it looks like they forgot to put together a design, gave the task to a new intern, and told them they have 3 hours to put a design together
I really liked last year’s kit. A new blue in the palette. And I’m pro hoops as a brand. That dang white on this one…
This one had potential. Color looks off. Wrong shade of blue. I don’t necessarily dislike the hoops with the state line slant. But i hate the weird side panels. This looks like a kit from 2004.
If it’s the wrong blue, I’d blame the photography.
The 2004 shout is interesting because I’m wondering if all the teams are doing some sort of retro thing for the 30th season. I forget off the top of my head what year it was they all had a similar theme a few years ago. I’m seeing those side panels on most of the jerseys. But I’m also seeing some in “team colors” instead of this white I’m not caring for.
This is just fugly. Whereas last year’s retro jersey was so good it made me want to rebrand back to the Wizards. And the more I think about it the more I like the idea. Would even give a shot in the arm to a now-moribund franchise, just as the SKC rebrand did.
If that doesn’t fly, go back to featuring State Line or argyle and tell the league’s jersey rules where to stuff it. Pseudo-hoops don’t do it for me at all.
Every year it feels like they’re trying to find the blandest, most boring way to reinvent something they’ve had in the past. I’m all for maintaining a general look, but the aesthetic has been running on fumes for years. I don’t mind hoops as a second option, but it always feels like a placeholder at best.
If I’m being honest I think we’ve only gotten good kits on two occasions (2017 and 2020, although the Adidas shoulder stripes kinda ruined that year). I know SKC really prides themselves on how much time they put into these, but it’s become painfully obvious they have to shake things up.