For the first two years of their existence, New York City FC II used the same kits as the Senior Team. In 2023, that meant wearing light blue Interboro Kits at home, and Volt orange on the road.
No more. NYCFC II, along with other teams in MLS NEXT Pro, now have kits they can call their own. The new uniforms draw on the traditions of the parent club, but they stake out their own visual identity.
NYCFC II's white kit with sky-blue pinstripes and detailing inverts the classic color scheme of New York City. The navy blue kit with orange pinstripes has the same sky-blue stripes on the shoulder as the white kit – maybe orange stripes would have been too much? Both are understated and elegant and have the feel of instant classics.
And neither are on sale to the general public. The club confirmed that the kits aren't available for purchase, and that there are no plans to sell them.
The shirts off their backs
If you want an NYCFC II kit, your best bet is to join a rival MLSNP team, make the lineup, play well, and exchange shirts with midfielder Maximo Carrizo after the match.
The lack of retail availability feels like a miscalculation on the part of the league and Adidas. The decision by Major League Soccer to field 11 MLSNP teams in the 2024 US Open Cup put a spotlight on NYCFC II and others, and has generated a fair amount of buzz. Usually, MLSNP teams are simply working through the early season schedule in March and April. This year, a handful are playing for national glory in the most storied soccer tournament in the country.
A reported crowd of 719 watched NYCFC II beat New York Red Bulls II in the driving rain last Tuesday — not bad for a midweek game held on a freezing night at Belson Stadium in Queens.
You'd think a few of them would have happily used their Apple Pay to bring home the pinstripe kit of the winning side.
A league of their own
The new slate of kits looks to be part of a larger move by MLSNP to establish itself as a legitimate part of the third tier of the US soccer pyramid, and and not just a farm league for MLS.
New York City president and CEO Brad Sims said as much about NYCFC II in an interview Hudson River Blue published last year. "I want them to be a commercially viable, stand-alone, marketable entity with a name that’s not NYCFC II, that is its own brand, which means playing somewhere in a facility that is appropriate for that level of play, 2,500 to 7,000 seats depending on that market, somewhere nearby but probably not in Queens if we have our First Team in Queens," Sims said.
Other teams did exactly that before the start of this season.
Earthquakes II, the MLSNP side of the San Jose Earthquakes, are now The Town FC. They're run by an entity that's officially separate from the Earthquakes, and play in Saint Mary's Stadium in Moraga, 50 miles away from San Jose. LA Galaxy II are now Ventura County FC, and play in William Rolland Stadium in Thousand Oaks, 60 miles away from Dignity Health Sportspark, where the Galaxy play.
The Town and Ventura County don't just have new names, they have new identities that reflect their communities. The Town are in the East Bay, a region with 2.5 million residents, and while St. Mary's Stadium might be in a quiet suburb in the jaw-dropping foothills of Las Tampas Peak, their crest and kits have some Oakland to them.
Ventura County are in Thousand Oaks, a hot, sleepy town with 125,000 people that hugs the base of the Santa Monica Mountains. The team are reaching out to the agricultural center of Oxnard and the surf town of Ventura — two communities that are a world away from where the Galaxy play in Carson.
Nashville SC is ahead of both of them. Last year, they launched Huntsville City FC, which play in Huntsville, AL, a full 110 miles – and one state line – away from Nashville, TN.
You can buy Huntsville City kits. The primary Countdown Kit in blue and the secondary To the Moon Kit in white pay tribute to Huntsville's role in the US space program, and both are available for purchase.
Will NYCFC II follow the lead of The Town, Ventura County, and Huntsville City, and become a team that looks and functions like an independent club? New York City's Sims usually makes good on his promises — it's just a question of when. (See: Stadium.)
And when they do, you'll all but certainly be able to walk into the team shop and pick up a kit.
