The 1998 World Cup kits are, for a lot of collectors, the high-water mark of football shirt design. France 98 was the first 32-team tournament, and with more nations came more designers taking bigger swings than they ever had before.
Why the 1998 World Cup kits still matter
France 98 landed right in the middle of a kit arms race. Nike had signed Brazil in 1996 and was determined to prove it belonged at the top table, adidas was defending its heartland in Europe, and Umbro was still the biggest name in British football. Around them, smaller brands such as Lotto, Kappa, ABA Sport and asics were dressing debutant nations who had never had a shirt on a world stage before.
The result was a tournament where almost every shirt had a point of view. Cuts were baggy, fabrics were heavy polyester with mesh panels under the arms, and sublimated printing had just become cheap enough to cover a whole front panel. If you like classic jerseys, this is the summer you keep coming back to.
France 1998: the shirt that lifted the trophy
adidas gave the hosts a deep navy home shirt with tonal side panels, red and white trim on the collar and cuffs, and the Gallic rooster sitting proudly on the chest. It is restrained compared with some of what follows on this list, and that is exactly why it has aged so well.
It helps that the shirt is welded to one of the great final performances. Zinedine Zidane headed in twice from corners and Emmanuel Petit added a third in stoppage time as France beat Brazil 3-0 at the Stade de France. Three decades of France jerseys have been measured against that night, and the wider Europe collection still leans on 90s cues.
Nigeria 1998: the boldest shirt of the tournament
Nike went loud with the Super Eagles: a bright green shirt broken up by a white geometric print across the shoulders and sleeves. It looked like nothing else in France, and it was worn during one of the great group-stage shocks, Nigeria coming from behind to beat Spain 3-2 in Nantes.
That shirt is a big reason Nigeria is now treated as a design heavyweight rather than an outsider. It set a tone the country has kept up ever since, and it remains one of the most requested pieces across our national team jerseys range.
Mexico 1998: the Aztec calendar stone
Mexican brand ABA Sport printed the Aztec sun stone across the front of El Tri’s shirt, in green at home and white away. It is one of the boldest ideas ever committed to a national shirt, and it worked because the motif genuinely means something rather than being decoration for its own sake.
Add Jorge Campos in the goal, wearing kits he designed himself in clashing blocks of yellow, pink and green, and Mexico had the most visually memorable squad at the tournament. Browse today’s Mexico jerseys and the rest of the North and Central America range to see how much of that spirit survives.
Croatia 1998: the checkerboard goes worldwide
Croatia arrived at their first World Cup as an independent nation and left with a bronze medal and a shirt everybody recognised. Lotto took the red-and-white sahovnica checkerboard and ran it across the whole front panel, which meant every replay of Davor Suker finishing was also an advert for the design.
Suker won the Golden Boot with six goals and Croatia beat Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals before losing to France in the semis. Very few debut kits have done that much heavy lifting.
Europe’s finest: Netherlands, Italy and Germany
Nike dressed the Netherlands in a clean orange shirt with a dark collar, worn in Marseille when Dennis Bergkamp controlled a 60-yard Frank de Boer pass and finished against Argentina in the last minute. Italy wore a sleek navy Nike shirt that dialled back the busy patterns of the early 90s and pointed towards where kit design was heading. Germany’s adidas shirt kept the white base with black chevrons on the sleeves, while Spain went out in the group stage despite hammering Bulgaria 6-1 in their final match.
Those four wardrobes are still the reference point for the Italy jerseys, Germany jerseys and Spain jerseys we stock now, and the same design language runs through our Portugal jerseys too.
Brazil and Argentina: South America in 1998
Brazil’s yellow Nike shirt, with green trim and a slightly boxier fit than the adidas kits they had worn earlier in the decade, is one of the most reproduced garments in football history. Ronaldo wore number 9 and reached the final, even if what happened on the day of that final is still argued about.
Argentina stuck with what works: adidas sky blue and white stripes, three stripes on the shoulder, no gimmicks. Gabriel Batistuta scored five goals and Ariel Ortega ran games from behind him. If you want either, start with our Brazil jerseys and Argentina jerseys, or browse the full South America selection.
England, Scotland and the Umbro touch
England’s white Umbro home shirt carried a red and navy flash across the shoulders and one of the tidiest collars of the decade. It was worn in Saint-Etienne for the game everyone remembers: Michael Owen’s solo goal at 18, David Beckham’s red card, and another shoot-out exit against Argentina.
Scotland opened the whole tournament against Brazil in a navy Umbro shirt and lost 2-1, which is a very Scottish way to make history. You can see how far the design has travelled by comparing that shirt with the current England jerseys.
The details that defined 1998 World Cup kits
Three things separate 1998 World Cup kits from what you buy today. Fits were genuinely loose, cut for a body rather than sprayed onto one, so a medium from 1998 wears closer to a modern large. Fabrics were thicker polyester with ventilation panels rather than the featherweight engineered knits used now. And crests and sponsor marks were usually embroidered or woven rather than heat-pressed, which is a big part of why surviving shirts still look sharp.
The tournament ball was the adidas Tricolore, the first World Cup ball to break from plain white and black. Full match records and squad lists for the tournament are still available on FIFA’s official France 1998 page.
Collecting and wearing 1998 World Cup kits today
Original 1998 shirts turn up regularly, but condition varies wildly and fakes from that era are common. Check that stitching runs straight around the crest, that any sponsor or federation badge is embroidered rather than printed on, and that the wash label matches the year and the brand. Sizing is the other trap, so measure a shirt you already own chest to chest rather than trusting the letter on the tag.
If you would rather have something new that carries the same energy, modern retro-inspired releases give you the look with current fabrics and sizing. Our FAQ page covers sizing, customisation and delivery, and you can read more about how we source stock on our about us page.
Shop the shirts that carry the France 98 spirit
The 1998 World Cup kits proved that a national shirt can be a piece of design worth keeping for 30 years, not just kit for 90 minutes. If that is the standard you want from your wardrobe, browse our World Cup 2026 jerseys hub, dig through the classic jerseys archive, or move over to club teams and the Premier League range. Free UK delivery, full customisation and quick dispatch on every order.
