The United States men’s national team made headlines on Friday not for their performance against Paraguay, but for their jersey — a striking red-and-white “Stripes” kit inspired by the American flag that players say finally gives them a shirt they are proud to wear on home soil.
The Stripes kit, worn in the team’s opening 2026 World Cup match, will be worn again for their second group game against Australia on 19 June, before the side switches to a navy-blue “Stars” kit for their final group match against Turkey in Los Angeles on 23 June. Goalkeepers wore bright yellow against Paraguay, will switch to blue against Australia in Seattle, and will return to yellow for the Turkey fixture.
For the players, the new jerseys represent the culmination of a three-year collaboration with Nike, born directly out of the backlash to the kits worn at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar — a plain white home shirt and ice-blue away design that was widely criticised by fans and players alike. USMNT midfielder Tyler Adams famously summed up the disconnect between designers and players at the time, joking that Nike had consulted the “wrong athletes.”
That criticism prompted a complete rethink. Beginning in 2023, Nike designers travelled across the United States gathering feedback from supporters before sitting down with players including Adams, Weston McKennie, Matt Turner and Ricardo Pepi, asking them a single guiding question: what should an American World Cup jersey look and feel like? The answers consistently pointed towards heritage, swagger, identity and unmistakable American symbolism.
The result draws on two key moments in US Soccer history. The home Stripes kit takes inspiration from the iconic “Waldo” jerseys of the early 2010s while nodding to the 1994 World Cup, with horizontal red-and-white bands featuring a subtle wave effect designed to evoke the American flag fluttering in the breeze. The away Stars kit completes the pairing, with a deep navy base covered in silver stars woven into the fabric — metallic accents that Nike designers said were inspired by the jewellery and personal style players wear off the pitch.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” Adams said. “We have to have stars and stripes of some sort on our kit, right? So we decided to go navy blue with silver stars, which I think represents us perfectly. I think that’s just going to be an all-time classic jersey.” Nike executive Jordy Romick said the brief had been clear from the outset: “We wanted to make sure we found something that was undeniably American.”
The players were able to see the kits they helped design worn by fans in the stands during the Paraguay match, and are hoping to see them spread further across stadiums, streets and watch parties throughout the United States over the coming six weeks. But for attacker Folarin Balogun, the design itself is only part of the story. “The moments a player makes in a jersey are what makes a kit iconic,” he said.
