It brings me no pleasure to reveal that #16 on this Kit Countdown is the newly-rechristened Sporting Kansas City. I had such high hopes for the club’s rebranding when they announced they would no longer be known as the Kansas City Wizards. And while it’s true, the European-style “Sporting” is a step up from the childish “Wizards,” it’s not nearly as much of a step up as it could’ve been.

North American soccer fans are split on whether MLS clubs should copy European names, or be “proud” of our own sporting heritage and go with the “[City Name] [Plural Nouns, usually a ferocious animal]” format. As you may have deduced from my sly criticism of North American team names, I’m a fan of the more elegant European names. But not when it’s Sporting Kansas City. You see, while “Sporting” is a word in English, this team prefix doesn’t come from English-speaking countries. No British club has Sporting in the name. It comes from countries like Portugal, whose Sporting CP are a fantastic team, but who nevertheless misuse the word “sporting.” And that’s okay. Because Portugal isn’t an English-speaking country. They’re allowed to use broken English. Kansas City isn’t.

I’m not saying British teams are better than Portuguese teams; I’m saying MLS names like D.C. United and Toronto FC work because they’re borrowed from names that are at least in the same language that D.C. and Toronto speak (don’t even get me started on the abysmal “Real” Salt Lake, but that battle was lost when they won the MLS Cup). Kansas City even had a great British-style name staring them right in the face: they could’ve followed in the footsteps of the Premier League’s Manchester City and simply call themselves “Kansas City.”

Anyway, what were we talking about? Uniforms? I guess SKC realized how controversial their new name was, so they decided to go with the blandest, least-offensive shirts they could find. They’re not ugly, per se, just… boring. They seem to have taken Colorado’s recently-discontinued sky blue away jerseys and made them the new KC home shirt. There’s a reason Colorado only used it as an away shirt. Sky blue evokes zero emotion. Yes, Man City wears light blue as well, but theirs is dark enough to make it one of my favorite shirts in the Premier League.

If SKC wants to make sky blue work, they need to somehow incorporate darker colors to create contrast and make the kit more noticeable (much like what I said about Columbus’ yellow shirt). But like I said about New England’s subpar home shirt, “the collar is nice though.”

The away shirt is a little better. I admire Kansas City for switching it up and making the lighter shirt the home shirt, but the darker away strip is simply a better color. It definitely pulls off navy blue better than New England does. Plus it’s got this nifty stitching, I guess. But it still has most of the same faults as the home shirt.

Then we come to the logo. Ignore the fact that it looks eerily similar to the MLS Eastern Conference logo. Like the rest of the shirt, the crest is a missed opportunity to create something awesome. The club created a cool little “explore the new look” website explaining the meaning behind some of the design choices, but it’s still suspect. I appreciate that the stripes represent the Kansas/Missouri boundary line, but the “SC” as a tribute to SKC’s parent corporation Sporting Club is pretty weak.

All in all, Kansas City has a better crest than when they were the Wizards, and I’ll give them extra points for not putting a giant KANSAS CITY logo on the chest. I also appreciate that they got rid of the white away jersey. But for every step forward, there’s a step back-the Wizards wore a more striking shade of blue, and their yellow accents made it stand out much more. So it all evens out.