Germany National Football Team - Kit

Kit

Adidas AG is the longstanding kit provider to the national team, a sponsorship that began in 1954 and is contracted to continue until at least 2018. Nike, Inc. had been courting the team, and in August 2007 reportedly offered as much as €500 million to outfit the team for an eight-year period – a figure that is six times what Adidas currently pays – but the federation decided to remain with Germany-based Adidas. In the 70s, Germany wore Erima kits (Erima is a German brand, that currently is a subsidiary of Adidas).

The national team's home kit has always been a white shirt and black shorts. The colours are derived from the 19th century flag of the north German State of Prussia. Since 1988, many of the home kit's designs incorporate details patterned after the German flag. The away shirt colour has changed several times. Historically, green shirt with white shorts is the most often used alternative colour combination, derived from the DFB colors (and the ones of a playing field), though it is also reported that the choice is in recognition of the fact that Ireland, whose home shirts are green, were supposedly the first nation to play Germany in a friendly game after World War II. This is false, as their first match after WWII was in fact against Switzerland. Other colours such as grey and black have also been used. A change, from black to red, came in 2006 on the request of Jürgen Klinsmann, citing that teams in red are statistically more successful, and perceived as more intimidating. He hoped to use the red away shirt as first choice for the 2006 World Cup despite less than impressive results when playing in these colors (for example, the 1–4 loss in Italy), but Germany played every game at the 2006 World Cup in its home white colours. In 2010, the away colours then changed back to a black shirt and white shorts, but at the tournament the team dressed up in the black shorts from the home kit. The new away kit was worn by the team for the first time in a friendly against Argentina on 3 March 2010. The German team has since resumed the use of a green shirt on its away kit.