Brazil Football Kit History

Original Kit

The bery first Brazilian football kits, which were issued in the late 1910s, were all white with yellow sleeves and a horizontal green stripe across the chest. These were upated to be white shirts with blue collars and blue shorts between the two World Wars. When the Second World War ended, Brazil made small changes to the kit, making it all white with blue collars. These were the colours of the Portuguese monarchy, which had blue and white in their coat of arms. Though Brazil had won its independence from Portugal in 1822, the nation still decided to use the white and blue colours for their football team to give their team a more majestic look, but this was about to change.

Yellow and Blue

In 1950, Brazil hosted the World Cup and had a great run. They won the group in the first round and then in the final round they had to face Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay. Brazil beat Sweden 7-1 and then hammered Spain 6-1. In the final match, Brazil lost to Brazil, and finished second place. The fans criticised the team and the kit, which was deemed unpatriotic

The Brazilian Sports Confederation launched a competition for the general public, to design a new kit. Algyr Garcia Schlee, a nineteen year old, sent in a design that used the four colours of the Pelotas. The design had a yellow jersey with a green trim and blue shorts with a white trim. These colours were formally adopted by the Brazilian national team and in 1954 they played their first match in their new kit.

Second Kit

The 1954 World Cup was the second World Cup in which Brazil played in their yellow and blue kit. The team reached the final in that competition, were they had to play against the host nation, Sweden. Sweden played in yellow, and so the two teams had to make a draw to decide which team could use their primary kit. Sweden won and so Brazil had to quickly find a second kit for their match against Sweden. Pressed for time, the Brazilian team decided to buy plain blue jerseys and to remove the badge from their original kit and stitch them onto the blue jerseys. In this quickly decided kit, Brazil then went on to beat Sweden 5-2 in the final, securing their first World Cup title. The board then decided to formally adopt the blue jerseys as Brazil's second kit.

Most Loved and Hated Kits

The 1970 home jersey by Athleta and Umbro, the 2002/04 home shirt by Nike, and the 2018 home shirt by Nike, are all some of the most popular Brazilian kits. The 1970 kit is a classic: it was all yellow with green trims on the sleeves. Brazil won their third World Cup title, and the last with Pele in the side, with this kit. The 2002/04 kit revokes memories of players such as Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, and more. These players won Brazil's fifth World Cup and they all went on to have amazing club careers as well. The kit is yellow with green outlines. Though Brazil did not win the World Cup in 2018, they had a great kit that was all yellow with a slim green colour and a green stripe along the back. The kit was praised for its classiness and for paying homage to the minimalistic 1970 kit.

The 1994 home shirt by Umbro, the 2011/12 home shirt by Nike, and the 2004 centenary shirt by Nike, are some of the most unpopular Brazilian kits. The 1994 stood out because it had an orange graphic print of the badge stamped 4 times in a horizontal line across the shirt. Though Brazil won the World Cup, the design was highly criticised. The 2011/12 jersey stood out for all the wrong reasons. The kit was pretty standard apart from a thick green stripe, underlining the badge and Nike sign. This kit did not win the fans over and the random stripe was quickly forgotten. The centenary shirt was white with blue sleeves. It was supposed to replicate the pre-1954 Brazilian jerseys, but fans did not appreciate the gesture. Instead, they called it unpatriotic, and the special edition shirt was only used for one match before it was quickly scrapped.