23. Adidas Equipment (2000-03)
Chris Oakley | 5 June 2026
For the fourth article in a row, we remain in the 2000s — this time focusing on the start of the decade. Here, we look at an Adidas template that arrived just before the recently discussed Puma 'Prague' * and Nike Total 90 designs.
From left: Brøndby (2001-02 home), Canada (2001-02 home), Dynamo Kyiv (2001 home), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (2000-01 home).
It was worn by five teams at Euro 2000, including Romania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, both of whom reached the quarter-finals. It also appeared on Canada's kit at the 2001 Confederations Cup, although they too fell short of lifting the trophy. In that sense, the template mirrors those teams: admired and respected for its qualities, yet rarely ranked among the era's true elite.
That's something of a pity, because Adidas did a wonderful job with this design. The remit was clearly to tackle the occasional running sore of how to decorate the sides of a shirt in a new and interesting way. For many years, brands have attempted to solve the problem through straight-sided panels, parallel stripes, patterned inserts and countless other variations. Adidas, to their credit, opted for side panels that bowed slightly outwards from the centre of the shirt.
From left: Ferencvaros (2000-01 home), Finland (2000-02 home), Germany (2000-01 away), Halmstads BK (2001 home).
The clever thing about those panels was that they ran almost up to the shoulder, rather than stopping under the arms. By extending these blocks of colour, the centre of the shirt felt fully contained while the shoulders appeared broader and more pronounced, subtly suggesting muscularity.
All versions of the shirt featured a traditional winged collar combined with a y-shaped neckline that formed an eye-catching element in its own right. The obligatory three-stripe trim on the shoulders and sleeves told everyone that Adidas were the designers without actually having to spell out their name, and the design was completed with some 'proper' cuffs.
From left: Lebanon (2000 home), Liechtenstein (2000-01 home), New Zealand (2001 away), Nürnberg (2000 away).
As an overall look, the design is robust, well structured, balanced and conveys the colours of the team very well indeed - even for those using a three-colour palette. Striking without being annoying, Adidas provided an attractive off-the-shelf option for its teams that wanted nothing more than to just look great on the pitch. It may not have broken much new ground, but as a complete package it was difficult to fault.
If there was any detrimental aspect to this template, it could be argued that clubs with multiple sponsor logos had to cram them into a narrow space down the middle of the shirt. Honestly, though, that's about all I can say to provide some balance to my assessment, and even that's sounding a little forced.
From left: Romania (2000-01 home), Servette (2000-01 home), Slovenia (2000-01 home), Steaua Bucharest (2001 home).
How sad it is, then, that for many people, this fine Adidas creation will forever be associated with a Germany team who, in 2001, were beaten 5-1 by England while wearing it. Undoubtedly a high point in the history of English football, it's the kind of result that can cause some teams to ditch a kit design for fear that it'll bring them bad luck again. Maybe that's what happened after Germany's next match while wearing their dark green shirts. A month after their defeat at the hands of England, they drew 0-0 at home to Finland, ending a series of five games where Germany failed to win in this template design. Never was so little achieved by so many wearing such greatness.
My very grateful thanks go to Adam's Shirt Quest and Football Shirt World UK for their help in researching this template.
Update:
Shortly after publishing this article, I heard from Denis Hurley who informed me that the official name of this template was Adidas Equipment. I'm very grateful to Denis for this very useful information, and don't forget, if you know of any official template names I've missed from earlier in the series, please do get in touch to let me know.
To see the full set of Adidas Equipment kits, visit the Adidas Equipment template gallery page.
See also:
* Unofficial template name