On Wednesday morning, the adidas Archive Collection was unveiled. The stunning Dallas Burn jersey with its black base immediately invokes the 2002 black third kit. Right? Well, actually it doesn’t, according to the man deeply involved in the design process.
Tim Henning is the Vice President of Merchandising at FC Dallas. In addition to being the face of the FC Dallas team store in the Tim’s Merch Corner segments shown on the screens at Toyota Stadium, he’s also spent the past 15 years working with adidas to kit out the players and fans.
So what was the thought behind the design?
“This was inspired by our 1998 kit,” said Henning. “We simply just did kind of an inverse. Where it was the red base with black and the green, we just took this one and brought the black forward, and added the accents with the red and the iconic green you find in Burn products.”
There is a strong emphasis on creating something that looks good on the field and in the stands, but also has the appeal of an everyday item of clothing. That can sometimes be the fine line between a garish color and something neutral that pairs well with blue denim and wouldn’t look out of place among the crowds at NorthPark on a weekend afternoon.
There’s also the consideration of how the replica and authentic versions will differ. The replica version being based around a comfortable loose fit and traditional embroidered elements, while the authentic is geared towards performance. A tight fit and reinforced collar and cuffs to prevent opposition players from pulling at the jersey, and heat-pressed or sublimated logos to make the jersey lightweight with reduced friction.
Dallas typically has one of the closest jerseys in terms of design from authentic to replica. In direct contrast, in 2013, a dark teal Seattle Sounders away jersey contained a blue and green stripe down the front of the jersey, while the replica only displayed green, and the body was a flat black.
When the goal is to wear the same look as the players, sometimes the decision comes down to what applies well to adidas’ AEROREADY fabric on authentic jerseys, and will look the same on the replica version. Henning highlighted 2018’s Stars at Night jersey, where the design not only changed due to league competition guidelines, but also because of how the stars would appear on the differing fabrics.
It’s a similar attention to detail that allows for a modern execution of a ’90s classic. The wasabi (Which Peter will correct you as officially being called asparagus green) and red pin hoops closely match the 1998/99 away jersey, flipped to be red surrounded by green. The authentic jersey features a more woven-looking fabric than we typically see in adidas jerseys, which up close allows for a zig-zagging, almost like a micro version of the stripes on a pair of adidas Gazelles.
Without doubt, my favorite feature is the Dallas Burn wordmark. If you’ve ever owned a jersey from the dawn of shirt sponsorship in the 1980s to the early 2000s, you’ll know that flocked 3D appliqué is just a lint magnet. With a modern rubberized application, the wordmark has been built up to give a similar 3D effect.
So let’s talk about the process.
Typically, the process to produce a new jersey is around two years from design to manufacturing. The design for the 2026 primary jersey would have been just getting over the finish line as the first people got their hands on this year’s Inferno kit. With the Archive Collection, that time frame was almost cut in half as discussions began in May 2024 after adidas and MLS offered FC Dallas the chance to participate.
“On these thirds, it requires quite an investment,” said Henning. “We were given the choice, ‘Do you want to be a part of this program or not?’ and certainly, we embraced it. But I think it goes back to the Hunts and their conviction for soccer. They were really excited about this because they wanted to deliver something unique to the fans that they have not had a chance to do before, which is getting a third jersey out there. I think that meant a lot to them as well.”
Teams often have to abide by parameters set by Major League Soccer – the dark vs light kit assignments, for example – and the Archive Collection was no different.
“The league has largely allowed the teams to work somewhat uninhibited with adidas. They’re involved from just a competitive standpoint. Naturally, whenever you create any kind of a kit like this, it has to be vetted through competition. We would ideally like to have these kits play against each other, so we had to make sure who’s going to be dark, who’s going to be light. We insisted on a dark kit.”
The design process for what is, at its heart, a simplistic look may not be the most strenuous of the ten clubs to receive the Archive Collection in 2025, but that doesn’t mean Henning and FC Dallas came without a firm design brief of their own. The popular powder blue secondary jersey and the more recent Burn Baby Burn jersey both harkened back to the Dallas Tornado and Burn, but they weren’t like-for-like reproductions as much as inspired by the history of Dallas soccer.
Sometimes there is pushback. The Inferno Kit allegedly started as a white jersey with some kind of red print before Dallas insisted on multiple revisions to find an agreeable look. While the notion is to let the designers in Germany work their magic, this jersey – the Legacy Kit – was no different in pushing a vision.
“If you had to close people’s eyes and say, ‘Hey, we’re doing a throwback tribute to the Burn,’ I don’t think this would be first to come [to mind] as a black base. I think it would be either the white or something. That’s what I think is going to make this unique: it is new. And that was one of the design things; we encouraged them. We said, ‘Hey, we want to pay tribute, and we want to call this the Legacy.’ It’s part of the Archive Collection, but we didn’t want it to necessarily be a direct throwback. Mitchell and Ness, they can do that. It has a freshness, a newness, without losing the connections, and I think they hit on that.”
Despite a weekday morning launch, Soccer90 sold out of its initial stock of authentic jerseys in under an hour. The FC Dallas team store – open on match days – has a larger inventory that will be available on 90s Night this coming Saturday. It’s not only the jersey that’s a hot ticket item, though. A collaboration with DummyFresh produced two Burn hats that went on sale last week. The crown jewel – jersey aside – may be the custom adidas Gazelles.
“The shoe, I would have never imagined that. One of the most iconic international sports brands is going to introduce a Dallas Burn edition in one of their most iconic shoes. If that doesn’t say collector’s item written all over it, then I’m a fool.”
Retro jerseys have become a lucrative business with the rise of retailers like Classic Football Shirts. A 1996 Dallas Burn jersey can fetch over $500, while some special editions of adidas Gazelles approach $2,000 on the secondary market. The first game-worn Dallas Burn jersey in 20 years, and a limited run of the popular Gazelles, have the potential to be the collectibles that Tim Henning envisions, even if it’s purely for sentimental reasons.
On the subject of collectible items, FC Dallas announced that the Legacy jerseys from Saturday’s game with St. Louis will be auctioned to benefit the relief efforts in the aftermath of the Central Texas floods.
Going back to design, FC Dallas aims to deliver a story in its jersey themes. Dan Hunt told me at the launch of the Reunion Kit in 2019 that the theme, having moved away from hoops, was the iconography of Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. More recently, the primary kits have continually added more blue while the secondary jerseys have provided a nod to the past. The Legacy kit is a strong addition to the latter theme, but we’re always looking for what’s next. Somewhere at Toyota Stadium, there’s a prototype of the 2026 primary jersey locked away, and Tim Henning is quietly confident that it will not only tell a story of the more recent jerseys but also enjoy an even more enthusiastic reception than this week.
Those are big shoes jerseys to fill.
Will they later release the shorts as well? Please release the shorts too!