On Romanian Football: National Team kit 2018 — 2020
If you are looking for the Romania national team kit 2021–2023 details then it is here: National Team kit 2021–2023. Below is a documented article of its predecessor.
Brand: Joma
Release: November 2017
Versions: Home, Away, Goalkeeper
Era: EURO 2020 qualifiers, Nations League 2018–2019, 2019–2020, European Championship Under-21 2019
Price: 85€ (player edition) / 55€ (replica)
Design: personalised by Brandient
Made in: China
Material: 100% polyester
The new home Romanian kit for EURO 2020 qualifiers comes in the traditional yellow, with a band in the colors of the Romanian flag running down on the left side. An embossed eagle print is visible on the lower right side of the jersey.
Two small prints, ‘Romania’ on the upper back below the collar and ‘Împreună suntem fotbal’ (Together, we are football) on the inside neck complete the design.
Us, the Romanian fans, were mocking on social media the poor yellow color that has been chosen for the year before kit. It did not look “quite right”. We were used with a more golden type of yellow as seen in the Hagi era, and the one chosen for the kits between 2015–2017 was totally off.
Romania Kit supplier:
Le Coq Sportif — 1977–1983 (6 years)
Adidas — 1984–2015 (31 years)
Joma — 2015–present (5 years considering Euro 2020 kits)
Nowadays, after Joma installed for some couple of years on the local market they have changed it to a yellow that is more “wearable”. But I do think this is not their work. It was rumoured, and later confirmed, that the national team had been working with two Bucharest based branding agencies called Brandient and Webstyler. A new identity made by the agency and put by Joma in the new kits.
Some kind of collaboration happened here between all parties involved: Romanian Football Federation, Joma and the branding agencies. Because if you would look at all Joma latest kits releases before this they do not do so much in-detail work or personalised kits at all.
As a sidenote I just want to mention that Romania never played any friendly or official games yet in red equipment since they announced their partnership with Joma in 2015.
After the official presentation, the GK blue and has been replaced with a Green color, as seen on the last official matches. Although I would really see the use of the blue one as a third kit, as Romania never played in a completely blue equipment ever in recent history.
A blue jersey looks more fashionable and wearable in a day to day routine (at work or out with friends) and it is a color that works all year around. Same for red. While the yellow is more a summer/spring color and popups everywhere you go. Attracts all kind of insects during the hot summers.
This reminds about my time in Brazil, during the World Cup in 2014. I was down there for a project and proudly displaying my Romanian jersey even if Romania did not qualify. I got a lot of compliments for reaching the quarter finals and losing to the home team Brazil. As everybody thought I am wearing a Columbian jersey.
The nickname of the Romanian national team is “Tricolorii” (The Tricolours) but games were played only in one color since Joma took over: yellow.
There is also the superstition of the Romanian red kits: that they bring bad luck. Something that reminds the Romanian fans about the World Cup quarterfinal game lost in 1994 at penalties.
An in-depth article on the away red shirts: National Team Away kit 2018–2020
For a marketing purpose or PR stunt I would really like to see a game played in the Blue kits. See if there will be an increase in shirt sales. A yellow/blue color combination would really bring that vibe of Boca Juniors. Another great design I have seen, and could be an idea for a possible 4th kit of Romania, is the 1. FSV Mainz, anniversary, 3rd kit.
Details of the Romania National Team home shirt
Embroidered:
- Joma logo on the top right side
Heat press:
- Romania team crest
- Match details under the Joma logo
- Official Product Joma trademark on the bottom left of the shirt
- Tagline on the collar
- Player number and name on the back
- “J” trademark on the shoulders
Incidentally, if you’re ever looking to buy a Romanian match worn shirt from the new era, a good rule of thumb is to look at the details above for verification. At the moment there are not so many fakes on the web due to the kit being fairly new. Although I expect couple of new replica versions to popup in shops from 2019.
Personal thoughts
Pluses:
- Slightly improved quality than the previous ones in material. The stitches are more resistible to movement.
- The sizes are bigger than previous year. A size S would be now a size M. The previous Joma kit shirt was skin-tight.
- The font choice is what make me fond of the new kit, you could really see that an brand designer has been used for the collaboration.
What would make it better:
- Remove the “J” trademark logo from the shoulders.
- Joma does not manufacture Long Sleeve version. Probably a manufacturing rule as I never seen a modern LS Joma.
- Design wise, I do not understand why the flag running down on the shirt does not connect with the flag on the shorts.
- Color combinations. In a previous article I wrote how Macron designed an Away and Home kit for the Romanian side: Dinamo Bucharest. The best part about that kit was that the Shirt from the home kit can been combined with the pants from the away kit — making automatically a 4th kit design if necessary.
The Joma kit design was unique when it was released in November 2017, but Sampdoria, also Joma as a sponsor, just announced their new kits this summer which is heavily inspired and similar to the Romanian design kit. The flag band design was received very well since the Icelandic national team were storming the Euro in 2016.
For this article I used a player edition jersey of Dorin Rotariu. From a friendly game of Romania — Sweden that took place in March, 2018. When he has scored his first goal at an international level.
Overall, as a fan, I am very happy with the new Romanian Kit design. The templates used by Nike and Adidas this World Cup were designed poorly in my opinion. The fonts used in the designs, the design patterns and the lack of small details in the kits was astonishing low.
I regularly post stories about Romania match worn shirts on Instagram.
If you want to get in touch with me you can find me there: https://www.instagram.com/onromanianfootball/
On Romanian Football articles:
Other subjects:
Telling a Sports Story with Instagram
Interactive Football Installations: concepts and ideas
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