Atlético, Nike unveil controversial new 2022/23 shirts

Atlético Madrid on Monday announced new home and away shirts for the 2022/23 season — and popular opinion is not favorable.

The home shirt, first leaked on FootyHeadlines months ago, features wavy red and white stripes that the club insists pay tribute to the Manzanares in Madrid — the river on which the old Vicente Calderón stood between 1966 and 2020, when demolition concluded. It is certainly the most radical Atlético home shirt since the 2017/18 season, the first with the current club badge and slashes through the famous red and white stripes.

Kit-maker Nike — which will be designing Atlético’s shirts to 2026 — drew sharp criticism for the 2021/22 home shirt. Last year’s offering featured four stripes (two red, two white) down the front and a red bar emblazoned with sponsors Plus500 across the middle.

From an aesthetic point of view, the away shirt looks a bit nicer. This shirt is black, with the Nike swoosh and Atlético badge in turquoise. It also features a navy blue collar point with a turquoise-colored tip.

Matheus Cunha, Antoine Griezmann, and Jan Oblak (in a yellow goalkeeper’s shirt) modeled the new look for the men’s team, while Ludmila da Silva and Estafanía Banini did the same for Atlético Femenino. The masculino shirts do not feature a sponsor, as the club’s agreement with Plus500 ends this month and digital investing firm WhaleFin has not been officially announced as the successor.

The shirts will go on sale July 16.