The best jersey in Crew history

With no soccer for over a month now, we are having to get a little creative here at SB Nation in terms of what we write about. This week, we’re focusing on team jerseys, past and present and will have a series of articles focusing on the various kits from the past of your favorite Major League Soccer team. We start with one man’s opinion on the best jersey in Columbus Crew SC’s history:

In the annals of Columbus Crew SC history, the team has had some great jerseys and some not so great ones (looking at you For Columbus kit). While there have been many standouts that deserve recognition, it is the opinion of this writer that the Crew’s best look was the black jersey from 2015 to 2017.

This may be a controversial statement, as many Black & Gold fans deeply associate the team with some version of the Banana Kit. Those who have been around the Crew long enough though will recall that the club’s kits during its first three seasons were primarily black or white with yellow accents. The Crew has just as strong a history wearing black as the team does yellow.

That being said, when the black alternate jersey was released in 2015, Columbus had not worn a primarily black kit since 2011. The jersey would end up being worn by the team for three seasons (partly due to the failure of the For Columbus kit). It was more than deserving of three seasons because it was a good one.

I mean, just look at it, it’s beautiful! The jersey has a lot of great details, without getting overly complicated. The checkered pattern blends well and keeps the design from being too simplistic. Yellow also serves as a great accent for the sleeve cuffs, shoulder stripes and even the sponsor. The long sleeve version is even better.

Usually, long sleeve jerseys just extend with the primary sleeve color. Thankfully with this template, Adidas extended its signature three stripes down the sleeves. To me, the stripes really seal the deal and put the kit above and beyond the rest.

That’s without even mentioning the smaller details. The Columbus Crew SC wordmark is embossed on the back and the inside of the collar features the black and gold checkerboard pattern. The detail that might hold the most sentimental value is a small patch on the inside of the jersey behind the badge that reads “FOUNDING TEAM 20 SEASONS 1996-2015.”

So I think the 2015-2017 black jersey is the best the Crew has ever worn in the team existence. But I’m obviously no fashion expert. Feel free to disagree with me and let me and Massive Report know which jersey you think deserves to be recognized as the best of all time.