Nike reveals England 2018 football kit, with custom type and classic icons

Nike has revealed its England 2018 football kit for the World Cup in Russia this summer. Described by Nike Football’s senior design director Pete Hoppins as having a “classic identity with a modern edge”, it brings together a custom typeface by Craig Ward and three traditionally English icons: the rose, St George’s Cross and the Three Lions crest.

“As design elements, each of these iconic emblems plays a prominent role in the England Football Association’s 2018 collection,” Nike says in a statement. “They root the kit in history, and when married to Nike’s latest game-changing kit innovation, fast-forward tradition into an emboldened present.” The cross sits on the back neck of the shirts, a rosette features on the inner neck, and the crest on the front.

Player names and numbers are shown in a custom typeface, which Nike says “draws from Johnston and Gil Sans, both quintessentially English fonts (the former with overground transport and the latter for association with London’s underground)”. The collection is based on England’s “archetypal colour palette” of white, red and blue, which manifests in various combinations for the home, away and pre-match kits.