USA Eagles Rugby 2017/18 Adidas Home & Away Shirts

It’s been less than a year since USA Rugby signed up with Adidas, but already this is the second batch of shirts the German sportswear giant has produced for the Eagles – excessive? Maybe, but there’s a very good reason for that. The Eagles’ deal with BLK had been cut short at the start of 2017 due to the Australian firm’s well-publicised financial problems, and when Adidas came on board in March, they barely had any time to create and produce anything but the most basic, off-the-shelf design for the USA to wear.

Thankfully, Adidas have had a bit more than 12 weeks to create their new jerseys to wear in the November international tests – still not as much as normal mind you – and the results are a good deal more involved as a result.

Adidas always loves a theme on its jerseys, and ‘Eagles United’ is the concept that they’re using on this year’s designs, a fact that’s emphasised by the pattern on the front.

The striking grey pinstriped chevron pattern is actually modelled on an eagle’s feather, albeit in mercifully stylised form, and it certainly adds a degree of dynamism to a minimum.

Unlike recent USA jerseys, it also keeps things pretty clean otherwise – the blue and red have been prominent often in the past, but here they’re kept to the stripes and sleeve cuffs respectively.

The change shirt echoes the design of the home, with the same stylised Eagle feather pattern on the front, though here the dark blue shirt is accented with a bright blue pattern.

It’s a nice and simple twist, and the use of a bright contrast colour certainly makes it stand out – smart move not cluttering things with any more white and red, too.

Other than that, it’s all quite clean and simple – keen-eyed jersey spotters will have noticed that there’s a new sponsor on the back of the shirt, making the Eagles the latest test team to succumb to the dual-sponsor curse. There’s also the inclusion of Adidas’ latest collar design, replacing the NZ-style design they used previously.

With Italy moving to Macron and France due to follow suit next year, we’ll soon be in the curious position of Adidas only supplying two test teams – the All Blacks and the Eagles. It’s a good sign then that the German giant is putting a lot of thought into the USA kit, and these new designs are a very positive first step.