Are you also tired of all these Nike kits? Well, fortunately there has been quite the influx of kit makers into UEFA’s national teams and one of them is Joma who is expanding into the Eastern European market. And probably their first signing was Romania.
After years of being served one (mostly bad) Adidas template after another, the Romanian FA seemingly had enough of that. Well, that and Adidas’ new strategy. In case you are actually interested in the very old Romania Adidas kits, I found actually a very interesting article – talk about inconsistency!).
In any case, beginning in 2015 a new supplier contract woth Joma was signed and the new kit was immediately presented and worn for more than two years – including EURO 2016. Clearly, the question is whether the switch was worth it.
Frankly, no! Except for the missing three-stripe branding, these kits still had that luke-warm template feel to them. I like that all three national colors were employed (blue for the V-neck and numbers, red for sleeve cuffs and side panels), but of course this is mainly a yellow shirt. The yellow is actually a bit brighter than previously under Adidas.
The jersey retains the classic Romania crest which to me has the obvious flaw of featuring the clipart-style Tango ball. For that reason, I was never really a fan although I appreciate the three-color swirl around it.
On the bright side, it is a simple style that continues a traditional look and feel. I also like the font used as it is a) simple and b) fitting well with the shirt.
So, it is not exciting, but also in no way offensive. You can guess the rating then.
My rating: 6/10 stars.
For the away jersey, there is actually nothing more to add except that red and yellow are swapped and that all names and numbers appear in yellow (you know better contrast). So, to me I keep the same rating.
So, it is not exciting, but also in no way offensive. You can guess the rating then.
My rating: 6/10 stars.
As you could imagine, with a new supplier and a pretty dated crest a re-design was in the books. And for 2018, we really got a new look Romania: new kit, new crest, new design! Just have a look:
Romania 2018 Home Jersey 
Romania-Serbia 0-0 (Bucharest, Oct 14, 2018) 
Close-up of the new crest.
Now, full disclosure, I am a huge fan of the off center band through the crest. So, automatically you are getting better marks from me. That is in the colors of the Romanian flag, makes it even better! It is also a very distinct design that Romania has not been using.
But there is one big drawback to me: while I like the simple and plain overall style the whole thing is simply too yellow – especially when worn with yellow pants and socks. I think just increasing the thin blue trims would do wonders here. At least the red is used for the numbers once more thus adding a bit more of the third national color.
Still, given what has been before, the shirt is a big improvement. And we haven’t talked about the biggest change here, the crest! First of all, there is no soccer ball!!! Already a winner! Now, at first it looks a bit clunky but upon closer research and inspection it is actually really nice: the five panels on the shield are simplified versions of the coat of arms of the five main regions of Romania. They are arranged the same way as they are on the shield in the Romanian coat of arms. The pentagon in the center not only represents the country as a whole, but also links the five regions into unity. And given the slogan on the inside of the shirt (Together, we are football in Romanian), it is meant to represent Romanian unity. While at first it looks unusual, I actually warmed up to it a lot and I am quite happy with the change.
Now, the full coat of arms is also featured as a stylized version on the shirt as the shadow pattern adding another nice detail to it. However, upon close inspection it does resemble a bit a kid’s drawing of the coat of arms. Whether intended or not, this might be messing a bit too much with a national symbol. Still, the idea is nice and it is rally only visible upon closer inspection (check out the pic of the away shirt below, too).
Well, the yellow might be a bit overbearing, but overall this one is a winner.
My rating: 8/10 stars.
Now, of course with the home shirt alternatives had to be issued and while they follow the overall pattern present in the home shirt, they are not quite as distinct:
Romania 2018 Jerseys 
Home and Away Jersey 
Romania 2018 Away Jersey
Now, the blue jersey is probably mostly used for goal keepers and is somewhere between the hoe and away jersey for me. I like the color, but the flag band gets a bit lost due to no proper separation from the base color. I therefore will forgo rating this one.
The red away jersey is also very similar to the home jersey basically swapping red for yellow and yellow for blue (except for the collar which is still trimmed in blue). However, it is weird that the band only uses two yellow stripes and no blue. It kind of makes it look quite boring and this less appealing than the home shirt.
I have been thinking long and hard of how the flag band could have been incorporated there without having the issue of the blue shirt where the blue side of the flag is barely distinguishable from the blue base color. First I thought about changing the stripe order, but you don’t do that with a flag. But, as the band is housed in a separate panel, why not use the yellow panel from the home shirt on the red shirt? It would retain the flag stripe and it would put some more color on there. I might be wrong, but I would love to see that.
As I said, the basic template is not bad, but this one is a bit boring. Especially the lack of blue drops it for me!
My rating: 6/10 stars.
How would you rate these shirts?
My Soccer Universe 
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