The Rondo: From the nostalgic 1994 'denim' jerseys to the iconic 2012 'Where's Waldo' shirt, US Soccer has had some memorable kits - how do the 2025 releases rate?

Jacob Schneider: The Brilliant kit is a beautiful shirt for the USWNT. It's an upgrade, and simple - which is also what makes it great. Lots of minor great features. The Heartbeat kit? Interesting. Fantastic streetwear, but it's not something you would typically picture on the pitch. It's a VERY welcome change from the current away shirt for the U.S., but would you wear it at a World Cup? It's cool, but with a short shelf life.

Celia Balf: Really like the sentiment behind both kits, especially the stripe look - and with vertical lines. The detail is simple, and emphasizes the crest and accent colors on the collar and arm lines. It also pays homage to 1994 and also the original U.S. Soccer crest that had lots of red vertical stripes. The Brilliant kit is crisp and feels similar to what we’ve seen before. The denim accent detail throughout the jersey is cool, don't love the pop of color on the collar and on the arms. It would be even cleaner with the same pattern throughout, without any outlined detail.

Alex Labidou: The Heartbeat kit seems bold and sleek, especially with its unique color scheme. It would be fresh on or off the pitch. Add it to the must-buy category. The Brilliant kits seems like it's been done before, and it's a slight riff off the 1994 kit. Not horrible, but not memorable either.

Ryan Tolmich: The Brilliant kit is fine, and the pattern on the kit does give it life. The splashes of blue and red on the neckline and sleeves make it pop, too. As for the Heartbeat? Big fan. It's unique, which is what you should generally say about any team's secondary jersey. It's a step in the right direction and, hopefully, a sign of things to come for the kits in 2026.

JS: Just give us the 2012 home kit again - that's literally all you need. Red, white, blue and stop with the tie-dye and splatter paint. Horizontal stripes of some sort and a color scheme that actually looks good on and off the pitch, with a crest on the chest off to the side - none of this front-and-center BS.

CB: We need to see some more stripes! Bring back the 2012 "Where’s Waldo" look, or the 1994 home kit, but without the moving stripes. Over the past few years we’ve seenpatterns that are funky, but not as simple or profound as classic stripes. Didn’t love the paint splatter kit in 2023 and then 2024 was classic, but a bit of a snooze-fest.

AL: Either do something with the 1994 kit style that nods to the classic while being new and fresh, or go SUPER American - basically be the flag across the whole kit. The U.S. is the primary host of the 2026 World Cup, so the team's kit should be indicative of it. Canada and Mexico, of course, should do the same.

RT: Do something fun with it! This kit, for any fan of American soccer, will be iconic given the circumstances - and the 1994 kit has proven that "iconic" doesn't always have to coincide with "eternally fashionable." Do something that separates this kit from any other, something celebrating this moment in time. No plain white shirts, no boring single-color away kits and no safe decisions. Take a swing and, even if it misses, we'll all look back on this in 30 years and remember the moment and how it made us feel.

JS: Call it nostalgia, but the 2014 World Cup away kit is what pops into my head as the greatest. Clint Dempsey was iconic in it, Michael Bradley recorded a memorable celebration in it, and it was the last GREAT tournament for the USMNT. It has a brilliant color scheme, and was a shirt that could be worn on and off the pitch. Just pure excellence.

CB: Easy, 1994 away.

AL: The 1994 kit gets all of the love and rightfully so; it's an all-time banger - not just in the U.S. but in global football. Since we're all well aware of its brilliance, let's go with two kits that don't get as much love as they should - the 2010 World Cup sash, and the 2013 Gold Cup Waldo kits. Both would be standouts of the modern kits for the U.S. team. And the Waldo kit is likely the best women's kit of all time, as well.

RT: It's the Waldos, and it's not particularly close. There was something so iconic about the whole combination, from the red-and-white striped shirt to the blue shorts mimicking an American flag. For a program whose kits often lack a real sense of identity, the Waldos seemed uniquely connected with the country - which should be the goal of all national team kits. All of the world's top countries have a signature kit, and it wouldn't be such a bad thing if red-and-white stripes became the calling card of the U.S. Worth noting: the red-and-blue stripe kit from 2017 was also good, too.

JS: The 2022 World Cup away kit was just an abomination. Design failure. Can we not bring this up again?

CB: The 2004 home kit.

AL: The 1990 World Cup kit is T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. It was reminiscent of an Eastern European jersey, and the Americanness of it is very understated - almost as if the designer was trying to hide any sort of U.S. connection. Awful, awful kit. A distant runner-up: the 2022 kit, with its weird neckline pattern, is hideous. Skipped it then and would be glad if it's never seen again.

RT: The 2022 World Cup kit still feels wrong. Designed to look like an American football shirt, it just wasn't one that screamed "U.S. national team." There have been plenty of other boring white kits throughout the years, but that one, in particular, felt like a step backwards as it lacked the creativity and identity that should be staples of a World Cup kit.