Want that Moreno Jersey? Get it soon.

MLS has announced they'll be debuting the new Adidas kits for everyone but Houston tomorrow. DCU fans, get your old jerseys now. Why? Because if the various internet images floating about are to be believed, the new DCU kit messes around with a core part of the DCU identity. See, the DCU look, when it first came into the league, had three key aspects:

1. The Black (with white and red)
2. The Shield
3. The three parallel stripes

Those three things are essential to the DCU identity. And the new Adidas kit is probably going to much around with the stripes. DCU's uniform history shows they tried to much around with the stripes once before, in 1999. Mistake. They got it back the next year. I don't mind if the stripes are vertical instead of horizontal, or if they are red or black instead of white. But there are simple rules for the stripes. There are three of them. They are parallel. They are identically sized. They go in a straight line. The following stripes are acceptable:

Classic:        1998-1999 Away          Barra-Brava Special
__________

__________          | | |                   \ \ \ 

__________

This is unacceptable:

2005 Rumored Adidas:

\._______________./
___________________
  _______________
/'               '

Again, you can make slight modifcations to the shield, or the colors, or the stripes, but you can't change the fundamental rules. You can't have four stripes. You can't braid them. You can't use blue. And you can't put El Pollo Compero on the shield instead of the eagle.

Of course, if Adidas's design does end-up matching these requirements, I will be happy to plunk down the cash for a new jersey.