The Top 22 Tops of 2022 (PART ONE, 22 - 11)
Welcome to the 3rd Annual Top Tops list from Protagonist Soccer - our past winners include Providence City in 2020 with their HAMR re-issue shirt by Inaria as well as Maryland Bobcats in 2021 with their amazing Glitch shirt. In both years, the lists were compiled and ranked subjectively by our own Josh Duder (me). However, this year we’ve decided to add a little powder to the kegs and invite on five of our favorite fellow kitnerds to help put 2022’s kits in some sort of order.
Not Nominated or Unranked - AKA, The Rest of the Best: (Clockwise from Top Left) New Mexico United, Snohomish County FC, Bateaux FC, and Cleveland SC
Greggo from FTC joins the panel, along with Protagonist Soccer’s Assistant Editor and Director of Women’s Soccer Content, Lis Schendel. The tie-dying maestro Soccer Goose, himself, Ben Goshorn lends his insight, as well as the indefatigable EL Johnson, co-founder of TheTown FC, Club&Culture, and 2centsFC. Lastly, and certainly not least, the Kit Connoisseur herself, Nicole Arias, adds her expertise and cultured opinion to our panel of trikot experts.
Not Nominated or Unranked - AKA, The Rest of the Best: (Clockwise from Top Left) Palm Beach Breakers, AFC Ann Arbor, Providence City FC, DeKalb County United
They join me, Joshua Duder, content creator for Protagonist and lover of shiny shirts, in looking at the 30 shirts which were submitted when nominations were requested, and finding the Top 22 Tops of 2022. How we did it: each guest was sent a google doc with the same 30 shirts, shown in alphabetic order, and the only notes were the name of the club, nickname of the shirt, and the manufacturer. They were asked to independently rank the shirts from 1 to 30 and reply with only their ranking and a sentence or two about their number one shirt. The final rankings are a result of finding the average rankings from the six of us and excluding number 23 to 30.
Not Nominated or Unranked - AKA, The Rest of the Best: (Clockwise from Top Left) Lansing Common, Hartford City, Soul2Sole, and Sioux Falls City
As we gear up for the countdown, we wanted to highlight some of the fantastic shirts which were either not nominated, were nominated after a shirt from the same club was already submitted, or landed in the 23 to 30 ranking zone and didn’t make the final list. I would encourage fans, players, coaches or team owners to watch this space next year and be sure to nominate their favorite kits when the time comes.
Not Nominated or Unranked - AKA, The Rest of the Best: (Clockwise from Top Left) PDX FC, Akron City FC, MPLS City SC, Tulsa Athletic
Lastly, before we show you the good stuff, I wanted to note that sometimes clubs make so many good shirts that its hard to figure out which one makes it to the final list - you’ll see that, while your favorite shirt from a certain club did NOT make the list, another one might have, and that is entirely down to which one was nominated first. On with the show…
Number 22 is Hapeville City FC’s “So Fresh and So Clean” by Olive & York
Number 21 is Greenville Triumph’s Alternate Kit with topographic detail, by Hummel
Great White Buffalo’s Frank Lloyd Wright Kit comes in at Number 20 - by Olive & York
Henry’s Kit, made by Inaria Soccer for Ballard FC, is Number 19
Errea’s Castro GK Kit for San Francisco City FC comes in at Number 17
MPLS City SC is a familiar face, and their Cats & Crows kit, manufactured by Stimulus Athletic is Number 16
AC Chehalem Valley enter the countdown at Number 15 with their Home Kit by Icarus FC
Number 14 is Motorik Alexandria FC with their Koncept Kitz collaboration with Olive & York
Hartford Athletic is Number 13 with their Away Shirt by Hummel
KIT + BONE bring us Number 12, the Home Shirt for Sporting Waterloo
Number 11 is the Home Shirt for Milwaukee Wave - Manufacturer is unknown
Look for Part Two of the Top 22 Tops of 2022 HERE tomorrow…
by Joshua Duder and aforementioned guests