Euro 2008 kit reviews - Czech Republic, Turkey, Switzerland, Portugal

The next round of Kit Aesthetics reviews comes as we begin the second series of Euro 2008 matchdays. Group A is odd, color-wise, because every single team’s main color is red. Kit Aesthetics regular readers (all two of them) might have noticed that I tend to harp on red being the most common football jersey color. Alas, group A has a lot of uninspired variations on red for me to get bored with. Looks like Portugal and the Czech Republic have the best chance, but Switzerland does have ‘host nation’ power, while Turkey seems to have the hardest road.

The Czech Republic kit is brought to us by Puma. The home kit is the typical red shirt that the Czech Republic likes to sport. The away uniform adds a collar, and not much else. There just is not much going on with these kits. I do like the crest. But there is only one color for the trim, and it’s just dullsville.

Turkey’s kit from Nike has a slightly better take on their red as they decided to slap a white horizontal stripe across the chest of the home jersey. I will give them some minor props for the boring white away kit—because they chose an interesting shade of blue trim. The team’s crest, in a stunningly amazing turn of events, is the flag of Turkey. It’s a nice pair of kits, but it does nothing to inflame much neutral passion for the country.

Co-host nation Switzerland has Puma as their kit sponsor. The red home kit bears more than a passing resemblance to the 2006 Manchester United uniform, especially the neck line. Just like the Czech Republic’s away kit, the Puma uniform designing brain trust has decided that they should always slap a collar on their away kit. To distinguish it, the collar is red instead of white. Check out the team crest! Yikes. That strange half-formed ghost guy is supposed to represent the glory of the Swiss national side?!? Strangely fitting. I am a little concerned about the numbers font Puma has decided to slap on the back. They look like the dumb t-shirts that morons like to wear to show how much they love ‘clever’ slogans and beer.

Portugal: must be happy with their draw in group A. With world hot dog #1 Cristiano Ronaldo’s powers in fine form they should be able to advance out of the group stage. They will be doing it with their slick red home uniforms. The rest of the group has blue or white for the trim. Copping the color from the flag, I like the green trim of Portugal a bit more. The white away kit looks pretty nice too. They actually have TWO trim colors, red around the neck, and green on the sides. That’s all Kit Aesthetics needs to be happy: a little extra effort to show they care. The crest is fine, the Portuguese cross—which not being a Portuguese national, makes me mildly interested.

Chris Ketcham is our resident expert on the pros and cons of soccer style. He'll be reviewing the kits of every Euro 2008 team over the next couple of weeks.