Talking Trikots: Will Germany not be releasing a new kit for Euro 2024?

Welcome back to Talking Trikots! In this episode, we look at the slightly somber situation facing the German national team and its apparel.

According to the good people over at Footy Headlines, German retailers are currently dealing with massive unsold amounts of the current national team kit. Due to the team’s vast underperformance at the 2022 World Cup, less and less fans are purchasing merchandise than ever before.

The German Retail Association has gone as far as to name this World Cup a “disaster” in terms of merchandise sales. (Truth be told, it’s been a disaster in a lot more ways than just that). Sales are currently at an all time low, despite many sales on multiple platforms. The remaining amounts of stock are so large that retailers are apparently trying to convince the DFB to not release a new home kit for Euro 2024, but instead to suit up in the same kit when Germany hosts the tournament in a year and half.

It would be quite a surprise if the DFB actually refrains from releasing a new kit for the Euros, considering most national teams take tournaments as an opportunity to change up their colors. What’s more, national teams only get to change their kits once every two years, with only a handful of exceptions (Germany and Spain both released new kits for their Confederations Cup campaigns in 2017 and 2013, respectively, while Canada didn’t even get a new shirt for this World Cup), so wearing the same kit for four years could get pretty boring for the fans. The longest that Germany has worn the same kit in recent memory was from late 2019 to mid-2022, which was mainly due to a combination of the postponed Euro 2020 and the winter World Cup.

Moreover, if the fans are not buying the kit now, there is no guarantee that they will in the future. The kit already has a bad tournament associated with it, so it remains to be seen if the players even want to wear it, let alone the fans. Bayern Munich made a similar decision by deciding to wear the kit from the tragic 2011/12 season in the following season. That kit ended up reaching legendary status as the team won a treble. But at least that kit was a great looking kit, while this current Germany kit is probably among the worst of the 21st century’s German kits.

At the time of writing, Germany has played five games in the new home kit, winning once, drawing twice, and losing twice. Not exactly a record that fans want to remember it by. The away kit, meanwhile, was only worn once, in a last gasp win against Oman.

It remains to be seen as to whether the current kit will also be seen at the Euros, but whatever the case, this is definitely an unorthodox situation.