Romania’s Lookalikes Football Shirts
Templates are a fundamental part of football shirt design, dating back to the 1970s. They feature versatile and complex designs that engage fans. This story is aimed at Romanian football fans who may not be familiar with shirt design and brand templates. For those who know there will be no new information.
From 1983 to 2015, Romania used Adidas template kits exclusively. This story explores those kits and other teams that used similar designs but in different colors. In 2015, Joma became the new sponsor, bringing personalised designs for Romania’s football shirts.
In January 2024, I was chosen to design Romania’s kits for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers due to start in March 2025. Inspired by the past, I proposed various designs, including three-color kits, so we could avoid this lookalikes template effect that happened in the past decades for our kits but it was not well received. Then my focus shifted in preserving the essence of Romania’s most appreciated past designs that I am going to expose in this story.
What is a template?
A template in football shirt design is a set of specific features like collar styles, patterns, or trims that can be replicated for different teams using various color combinations.
Example:
On the left, we have a plain red shirt, a 1996–98 Adidas template shirt that was manufactured and distributed worldwide at the time. Adidas would customize this design template for various football teams by changing the color, fabric, or adding the team badge.
On the right, we see the Turkey National Team shirt used in 1996. Each team using this template shirt had the opportunity to customize it as they wished. They could change the color of the “Adidas” logo, alter the color of the white shoulder stripes, and select different fabrics. However, the patterns, trims, and collar design had to remain the same.
The goal of this story, in continuation, is to provide information and showcasing that Romania never had a true “original design” kit or shirt. Romania National Team always played in templates shirts until 2017.
Based on images available online will try to show here, for “educational” purposes, the different templates Romania used and with which other teams shared it these designs. I focus on the Adidas era, starting 1983–1984, as there is limited information available before mid-80s.
Bruised banana
Starting with the “bruised banana” design, often referred to as the “pajamas kit” in Romanian football lore, this design was not well-received by Romanian fans and did not meet the design expectations of the average Romanian supporter. Despite this, it remains an iconic piece in the world of football kits, famously associated with Arsenal.
The “bruised banana” term is indeed tied to Arsenal due to the unique yellow and navy pattern resembling a bruised banana, used between 1991 and 1993. Romania adopted a similar design and debuted it in 1993 against the Faroe Islands, after Arsenal introduced it. The kit was used by Romania in other three friendlies in February 1994: versus Hong Kong, USA and South Korea. (source)
In recent years, this design has seen a resurgence in various forms of merchandise and is still being marketed by Adidas. Back in 1993, this template came in different colorways, which were used by several other teams. There is a high chance you will find one of those in second hand shops around Europe or on eBay.
When working on the upcoming shirts I tried to avoid this crazy patterns to be displayed on the shirt. Due to the backslash of these “bruised banana” shirts, in the past, I came to realization that Romanian fans are not up for experiments or bold statements.
1994 template
The Romania 1994 World Cup kit is revered by fans and collectors alike, often considered one of the greatest kits in Romanian football history. This kit, designed by Adidas, gained iconic status due to Romania’s impressive performance at the 1994 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals. The kit’s popularity has led to numerous replicas and fakes still being produced today.
This kit’s design includes the iconic Adidas three stripes, first seen in England with Liverpool’s 1993 kit. By the summer of 1994, this style had become well-known. During the 1994 World Cup, four out of Adidas’s ten sponsored teams, including Romania, sported variations of this template. The templated was called “Equipment-Trikot World Cup”.
Adidas had other two shirt templates at that time besides this one. But to this day it remains iconic for Romania as is one of the rare teams that used all 3 colors in the pattern creating what we called these days “that 90s look”. While the other teams using this template limited to a less chromatic pallete.
Links and sources:
-> Sweden 2 Romania 2, July 10, 1994
-> We need to talk about templates
1996 template
The second most beloved kit by Romanians is the 1996 adidas template. But only few know that Romania home 1996 shirt was a lookalike Crystal Palace and Stockport County third shirts. Nevertheless adidas made a thing out of this design as many more teams adapted this template through the mid 90s: Australia, Turkey, Crystal Palace, Argentina, Ghana, Sweden, Leverkusen, River Plate, Spain, France, Rangers, Finland, Romania etc.
Links and sources:
-> Stockport County collector
-> Crystal Palace third shirt
Teamgeist template and others ( 2004–2010):
By the end of the 90s adidas managed to standardize the design of their sports merchandise. It was the early stage of what would become through the 2000s the age of football shirt templates. A time where a brand would come with 3 to 5 design templates of a kit and then change the colors based on each team they sponsored. The culmination of these templates was the Teamgeist model.
“Teamgeist” was the name given to the entire adidas range for 2006. The range had three design shirt templates: “United” (eg: Germany), “Aquila” (eg: Argentina, Spain), and “Libero” (eg: Romania).
Adidas Libero blended nice with Romanian’s three color scheme and pretty dull on the other 50 teams that used only a two color scheme. Over 50 teams, big and small, used this template in 2006 besides Romania.
The Teamgeist range was so popular that Adidas revived it for Euro 2024, reimagining it with a modern design style. After the iconic Teamgeist 2006 moment, everything became template-based. Adidas began creating their own range of templates each season and distributing them to teams.
This marked the beginning of the “pyramid of sponsorship”. Adidas started designing template shirts based on a team’s status. Elite teams with a rich tradition and high shirt sales received unique designs, design templates limited to only elite teams, that broke away from more standardised templates. In contrast, lower-selling teams were given basic templates with minimal customisation options, limited to changing colors only (if they were lucky, if not they would get the standard template sold in shops worldwide). This practice continues to be in use as of 2024.
From the 2010s onwards, Adidas began incorporating new technologies such as “formotion”, with their afferent mini-logos on their shirts. This innovation helped collectors, like me, distinguish between fan versions and player versions of the shirts. Adidas introduced a new layer to their design templates from this point, creating shirts with the same design look a like but manufactured differently in different parts of the world. The fan version, made with more cost-effective materials, was aimed at the general public and sold in shops. In contrast, the player version was more exclusive and designed for better performance. Harder to get your hands on unless you knew somebody at adidas or working within a football club.
The distinction between fan and player versions of Adidas shirts became evident only by obtaining a match-worn shirt from an actual player. Many people mistakenly believed that both versions were identical because they looked visually the same. However, the shirts worn by players on the pitch were not the same as those sold to fans. This was happening a lot between 2006 to 2012. The world of shirts became more transparent after 2012 as many sports manufcaturer were looking to sell more, so they would put up for sale from now on the player version shirts.
2006 and beyond designs:
2008:
2010:
2012:
Adidas equipment late-90s to early 00s (1998–2002)
Between the late-90s and the “Teamgeist” period, Adidas introduced the "Adidas Equipment" (or "EQT") line, followed by ClimaCool technology from 2002 to 2005. ClimaCool shirts, which I won't cover here, continued to be also some kind of shirt templates used by Romania and other teams worldwide.
But this section below only shows Romania's template shirts from 1998 and 2000 compared to other teams using similar designs.
World Cup 1998:
Euro 2000:
Adidas 1986–1992
One of the first attempt of Adidas creating templates at a large scale was seen in the mid 80s. Some of these templates did not have an “official” name as “Teamgeist” had but it was used by all adidas teams back then. One of these templates was greatly displayed at the 1990 World Cup. I first saw it on a 1986 Bayer Leverkusen shirt. But this template was used extensively until 1991–1992.
Romania, Bochum, Hamburg, Beşiktaş, Bayer Leverkusen, Portugal, Tunisia, USA, CCPP are some of the teams that used this template. Romania shirt would be the only team that what break the template by having three colors on it instead of only two.
Take a look at the examples below to see how other teams’ adidas shirts typically featured only two colors. For instance, the kits for the USA, Bochum, and Besiktas primarily used two-tone designs. Portugal’s kit added a twist with a green v-neckline. However, Romania stood out by incorporating blue on the block/stripe from the sleeves and armpit area, making the design unique and more dynamic for us the viewers.
In 1990, Romania was navigating a period of significant transformation following the fall of the communist regime. At this time, the national football team did not yet have a newly designed crest for their shirts. However, shortly after the Italia ’90 World Cup, a new crest was introduced, which appeared on the national team shirts until 2017. This new emblem marked a step towards rebranding the team during Romania’s transition to a more open and democratic society. The badge was resembling the New York Cosmos crest. Itwould be changed again later in 2017.
Crest introduced on Romania shirts from early 90s onwards to 2017:
Links and sources:
-> Adidas “Horizon” template
-> New Romania badge introduced in 2017
Adidas basic templates (early 80s)
During the communist era, information about Romania’s football kits was scarce and secretive. Most details surfaced years later through TV interviews with sports figures. Based on available footage, it’s evident that Romania wore whatever Adidas gear was available, with the main requirement being that the colors had to be red, yellow, or blue. The limited availability and choice were typical of the period’s constraints, reflecting the broader economic and political context of the time.
According to the information available Romania would play their official football games in adidas from 1983. Previously for a short stint of time it was Le Coq Sportif.
Links and sources:
-> The history of Romania’s kits from 1984 to 1997
Final words
As a collector and football shirt enthusiast, I've known about this for many years. However, as a designer, it was challenging to identify what makes the Romania National Team shirt stand out among all the international team shirts. Through research highlighted in this story, briefly, I've concluded that we truly love vibrant colors. A tri-color shirt idea was an excellent starting point in my creative process.
While designing Romania's kits for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, my guiding principle was to emphasize colors. My goal was to bring back all the flag colors onto the shirt and, if possible, break away from the standard templates.
Shirt is due to launch to the public in March 2025, ahead of the first qualifying games for USA / Mexico 2026.
Fun fact:
Believe it or not, the first truly personalised, non-template shirt, non-lookalike, for the Romanian National Team was launched in 2017 and was in use until 2020. This unique design was the result of a collaboration between a branding agency, the Romanian Football Federation, and the Spanish brand Joma.
Since then, all subsequent shirts have continued to feature more personalised designs that incorporated the Romanian Football Federation branding elements, moving away from generic templates that were used in adidas times. For more details on how these changes came about and to see the designs, check out my blog articles.
I post stories about Romania match worn shirts on Instagram. If you want to get in touch with me you can find me there as onromanianfootball:
https://www.instagram.com/onromanianfootball/
*I used a lot of images and sources in this story, I tried to link and source back to all of them, but If I missed one please send me a message and I will add it
