At a practical level, athletes wear jerseys so they know which players to pass to and which to tackle. Early uniforms were extremely basic; European football players wore scarfs on top of their work clothes, for instance, while their American counterparts donned turbans or smoks. Over time, as gear became more detailed and distinctive, teams began using their attire to project an image of their club to the world. Some aim for elegance and class, others brashness or aggressiveness. Nike’s new, expensive, and awesome design for the French national men’s soccer team suggests the western European nation is confident in its own (much maligned) skin:

No team in history used their jerseys as a psychological tool more effectively than the 1938 Italian World Cup squad. Beginning in the quarterfinals, in front of an anti-fascist French home crowd, the Azzurri abandoned its famous blue shirts in favor of black, an intimidating symbol of the nation’s feared paramilitaries. During the national anthem, the starters even performed a fascist salute, reminding Les Bleus of Mussolini’s growing strength on the continent, and probably of their own liabilities on the pitch. The Italians won that match 3-1 before upending Hungary 4-2 in the title game for its second consecutive championship.

Legend has it that Mussolini ordered the team to wear the ebony kits, as part of a motivational strategy that included sending a telegram to the players before the finals that read, quite cryptically, “vincere o morire” (“win or die”). The story is appealing but probably false; the footballers were by all accounts loyal to the dictator, and the phrase was used colloquially at the time to mean “victory or bust.” Hungarian keeper Antal Szabo, however, preferred to believe the literal interpretation. "I may have let in four goals,” he told reporters after the match, in a clever bit of revisionism, “but at least I saved their lives.”