Lookalikes, no. 9 – Portugal 2016 and Brighton & Hove Albion, 2021

• This article was originally published in 2021 but the re-purposing of the Brighton strip has resulted in it being updated

An unusual entry today in that the two kits – one club and one country – featured had the same maker, albeit five years apart, and in each case the greatest similarity comes from a mashup.

First of all, forgive us if the shades are wrong as two pictures of the same kit can show very different hues depending on various factors. According to the Premier League handbook, Brighton & Hove Albion’s change kit for 2021-22 is described as ‘Hyper Turq’, which is why we’ve rendered it a bit bluer than the Portugal alternative from 2016 – Nike’s own press release only offered ‘luminous green’ as a descriptor.

Brighton have worn their second kit three times in the Premier League so far, but each time with shorts matching the shirt and socks, whereas the default configuration is intended to have black shorts. We read recently that the colour was intended as a nod towards the city’s civic colours – it appears on environmetally-friendly buses – but the launch statement didn’t include that information, oddly.

The darker effect on the sleeves comes from the ‘fingerprint’ pattern that featured tonally on Nike’s outfield strips and more conspicuously on their goalkeeper kits last season. Red Bull Salzburg and Preston North End are two other sides to utilise the design in the current campaign – and going on recent years, the kit will be Brighton’s third for 2022-23.

Rewind five years and Nike were shaking things up in a big way with the Vapor kits, with contrasting socks being the big visual stand-out – in 2019, we did a Fantasy Kit Friday with teams in more traditional editions.

On the Portugal home kit, they were green with red shirts and shorts, while the change strip had socks in a darker shade to accompany the brighter green (incidentally – as noted by Jay from Design Football – Nike’s 2016 ad featured Cristiano Ronaldo wearing a dark-blue set, presumably for green-screen purposes, that didn’t correspond with any other team in the company’s stable).

Having drawn with Hungary in their Euro 2016 group while wearing the green strip, Portugal then donned it for the last-16 tie against Croatia, which they won. Another victory, against Poland, brought them to the semi-finals, with Wales the opponents. While Portugal were the ‘home’ side for the last-four game, Uefa considered Wales’ black and grey change kit not to be distinctive enough against the dark red Portuguese home strip and so both sides changed. Portugal were in alternative socks which matched the shirt and shorts.

In the Premier League so far this season, Brighton have been in Hyper Turq away to Brentford, Crystal Palace and, most recently, Southampton – the two red-and-white-striped sides have black shorts, so wearing the back-up shorts was an understandable choice but they would have got away with the black set against Palace.

Perhaps the black shorts will eventually be used, but it’s unlikely that Brighton will have to undertake an alteration mirroring that of Portugal’s against Switzerland in the World Cup qualifiers in the autumn of 2016. In a similar fashion to how France had to modify their white Vapor kit against the Swiss at Euro 2016, Portugal played in a kit that didn’t have contrasting sleeves. However, the proper shirt later returned.

Update, 2023: Having been used as a third kit in 2022-23 – Brighton one of the few clubs to uphold this satisfying approach – that looked to have been that for the Seagulls’ outfit.

However, their Europa League campaign of 2023-24 resulted in more outings. At home to AEK Athens and Olympique Marseille, the combination of the opposition’s strip and available options for the officials meant that none of Brighton’s black, orange or yellow goalkeeper kits sufficed.

The solution was to call on the aqua strip, with a small modification – the addition of black cuffs in the same style that appear on their 2023-24 home kit.