Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes reveal 2016 away kits

Two teams with long histories that predate their time in MLS revealed new uniforms that paid tribute to their history as teams and their history in their particular city in general, as the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes recently unveiled their new clash kits for 2016.

Earlier this week, we got a sneak peek at Portland’s “Rose City” kits for 2016, and today Jack Jewsbury and Nat Borchers gave the world a look at the new uniforms on Twitter by claiming that they “stumbled” onto them after training.

Since it’s a “Rose City” kit for the Timbers, that means that you should expect a lot of red and a lot of black, and this kit delivers in that regard. I will say that I am a fan of front of the jersey (which includes Alaska Airlines’ new logo). The back? Not so much. The plain red back is a bit too garish for me, and they probably would’ve been better off going with a darker shade of red or even black. With that being said, this is a decent kit — not the worst look in the world for Portland.

Meanwhile, fellow Western Conference team San Jose Earthquakes continued to pay further tribute to their NASL days with their latest clash kit.

The red off-center stripe includes a new fracture pattern, and the jock tag pays homage to the birth of the original Earthquakes team in 1974.

There’s also a bit of an Easter Egg on the inside of the collar: The old San Jose Clash logo! For some reason, the team decided to put the logo there in order to celebrate having participated in MLS’s first ever match 20 years ago against DC United.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed that the Earthquakes have a sponsor on their uniform. After going four years without a sponsor on their shirt, San Jose finally linked up with a sponsor: Sutter Health. As such, the only change to their home uniform is the addition of their new sponsor to the front of their shirt.