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Yohji Yamamoto is no stranger to crafting football kits — his Y-3 label’s long-running partnership with Real Madrid and its work with Palace are proof of that — but his latest effort around the beautiful game is the closest to home yet. Yamamoto created the 2024 kits for Japan’s national football team, and the team’s forthcoming home shirts have just begun leaking on football fan pages.
The Japanese national squad has long been known as “Samurai Blue,” and Yamamoto’s design riffs off that name with an ultra-dark navy base, several shades deeper than the more royal blue used on Japan’s 2022 international kits and the sky blue present on its centenary kits from 2021. Atop this rich blue base sits a simmering blue flame that burns at its hottest down near its bottom hem but also creeps all the way up onto the front left shoulder, using a similar sublimated style as seen on the aforementioned Real Madrid and Palace kits. Final details are provided by Japan’s football crest and a Y-3 logo on the center chest.
It’s also worth noting that flame graphics have long had a special place in the team’s heritage: in 1998, the first year they qualified for the World Cup, they wore now-legendary flame-embellished jerseysASICS.
Seeing as the kits have yet to be officially revealed, there’s no further info on what Yamamoto’s other tops or bottoms look like at the time of writing. Stay tuned for more updates as they’re made available.
