adidas brings the old kits back

These are the kits you see on the street today, hunt for in vintage stores, and pay several hundred euros for in the original. Now adidas is bringing them back itself.

The collection is called "Bringback" and gathers designs no brand puts on the pitch anymore: large chest graphics, tone-on-tone stripes, broad blocks of black, red and gold, plus the loose cuts you'd happily wear on a normal kit. It's the loose cut of the old days – and for many it fits the streetscape today better than the tight, smooth kits of the present.

The German pieces sit at the centre. The green away kit from 1990 with the angular graphic across the chest. The home and away kits from 1994, which used larger black-red-gold elements and were more striking than almost anything before or since. The home kit from 2006. And the black away kit from 2014 with the red chest graphic, slim-cut, different from the rest. Alongside them come designs from Spain (1994), Sweden (1994), Belgium (1986, as a long sleeve) and Japan (1993, white with blue flames).

Anyone who knows the originals knows the details: the wider collars, the sloping shoulders, the graphics running across the whole kit. That's exactly what adidas is bringing back. Beyond the kits there are pieces from the Originals line and shorter-cut replica versions.

The timing is ideal. The 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico is the last major tournament Germany will play in adidas. The contract ends in late 2026 after more than 70 years; from 2027 the DFB will be kitted out by Nike. Anyone who likes the three stripes on the German kit gets them, for now, in a new edition one last time.

The "Bringback" collection is available now, among others at adidas.com.