35. Adidas Condivo 20 (2019-22)
Chris Oakley | 17 May 2025
We welcome back friend of Kitbliss and occasional contributor to this series, Jay, who's been given the unenviable job of discussing a design that's as complicated in its make up as it is in its back story...
When the Condivo 20 template was first leaked, mainly by way of big club and international team deployment, little did we know how notable the time it would spend on the scene would be.
Glimpses of the 2020 Condivo variant’s structure were initially celebrated by followers of kit fashion thanks to its neck nodding to creator adidas' "Equipment" releases of the early-to-mid-1990s.
From left: Argentina (2019-20 away), Belgium (2020-21 away), Cagliari (2020-21 third), Cape Verde (2020 home).
Whether that meant the Liverpool shirts of 1991-92, say, or Romania’s iconic USA ’94 World Cup getup, to recall another high-water mark, the evocation was strong with this new kid on the block, and its full launch in the spring of 2020 was hotly anticipated.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. The dust had barely settled on MLS’s "FORWARD25" kit reveal when the Covid-19 pandemic got into full swing and football took a very unfamiliar form.
From left: Colombia (2020-21 away), Columbus Crew (2020-21 away), Germany (2021-22 away), Houston Dynamo (2020-21 away).
Those flagship MLS examples of Condivo 20 (handily, an anagram of "Covid, no? ’20?", if its name alone isn’t reminder enough of the time of its emergence) were special cases anyway. Due to top-level football in the USA (and, arguably, Canada) being tied into an exclusive supply deal with adidas, regulations were more forgiving of the German behemoth’s bold branding.
So we got, in addition to inflated mid-calf hoops on the socks, oversized trademark three stripes on the right shoulder of shirts for the likes of Orlando City, the Portland Timbers and LA Galaxy.
From left: Japan (2020-21 away), LA Galaxy (2020-21 home), Mexico (2020-21 away), Mirandés (2020-21 home).
These offerings also drew the eye to the aforementioned stylised raglan-sleeve-esque structure - the pinch point of the neck joining an armpit-to-armpit chest seam - and this could act, and often did, as a catalyst for contrast or framing of graphical embellishment on the trunk.
Indeed, whilst missing from the MLS catalogue - and replaced with more variation - European releases, and the customisable adidas "miTeam" teamwear option, boasted a paint-daubs-cum-camouflage effect, and this could be presented with varying degrees of tonality/colour combinations.
From left: New York Red Bulls (2020-21 away), Northern Ireland (2020-22 away), Orlando City (2020-21 away), Real Madrid (2020-21 home).
Giants like Real Madrid sported the template, though Manchester United and Arsenal, curiously, did not, and an allocation to Wolverhampton Wanderers led to one of the most famous football fan memes of the pandemic, when a Wolves supporter combined a two-year-old Away with a top belonging to his wife to pretty accurately replicate the look.
Of course, longevity for Condivo 20 was secured by that dastardly pandemic, with production issues and delays to tournaments resulting in teams such as Belgium and Colombia carrying the look through to the Euros and Copa América, respectively, in 2021. ("Covid, no? [Euro 20]20?" works, but CONMEBOL changed the year on their flagship international competition’s name to 2021.)
From left: Real Salt Lake (2020-21 home), Seattle Sounders (2020-21 home), Sweden (2019-22 home), Wolverhampton Wanderers (2020-21 away).
I raved about it and salivated at the potential, much of which was realised, but whether you loved it or hated it, there’s no doubt it will forever be tied to a traumatic period, and it will, whatever its sartorial impact, retain historical significance that many templates get nowhere near.
My very grateful thanks go to Jay for writing this article, and also to Adam’s Shirt Quest and FSWorld for their help in researching this template.
To see the full set of Adidas Condivo 20 kits, visit the Adidas Condivo 20 template gallery page.