At #15 in our journey through the depths of MLS threads is the San Jose Earthquakes. Another team in need of a little rebranding, the Quakes do have fantastic colors going for them, and merely need to shuffle their priorities a little. Their uniform set is unchanged from last year, so hopefully it means at the end of the 2011 season we’re due for a welcome change.

Tackling the home shirt first, it’s really not that bad. But in a league still trying to establish itself with distinguishable teams, the D.C. United “dynasty” has claimed the black-primary look. However, the bright blue works magnificently in both the sleeves and on the badge, and I like the white “superhero cape” piping more than some other critics seem to. The Amway sponsor is well-integrated, too. But I can’t help but feel all-black isn’t San Jose’s look.

The away shirt is fairly generic. Amway gets extra points for adapting their sponsor logo to the team’s colors on this jersey, but the team should really do something more with this bare-bones away uni. Once again, I ask, “why white?” White isn’t necessarily a team color. The Earthquakes could’ve gone with many different colors, and they went with Plain Jane white.

Which brings me to the third jersey (of which I’m using an action shot, since the Quakes don’t seem to have any stock photos of the shirt online). The club’s look should revolve around this. After all, San Jose’s MLS Cup-winning days were when they were wearing bright blue. Black can be integrated like it is on Inter Milan’s uniforms, but blue should remain the primary color.

If San Jose really wants to hold onto black, perhaps blue could be the home color and the black shirt could become the new away jersey. I’d be much more comfortable with that than with the current white away.

And once again, I’m urging a club to replace its logo. “Earthquakes” as a name is subpar, but I’m only analyzing the uniform, not the name. I did rant about Sporting Kansas City’s new name in my previous post, but that’s because it’s so recent it still has the new-car smell.

Anyway, back to the SJ crest. The sun rays are nice because they touch on the whole “sunny California” aspect of the team, but why is the primary feature of the logo… a soccer ball? As cheesy as the Earthquakes moniker is, they could come up with some cool abstract designs that depict an earthquake. Or use anything that actually pertains to the club and the city, not just the sport they play.