Annnnnd a bunch of WorldTour jerseys look the same again

It’s 2023 WorldTour jersey reveal time and man, a bunch kinda look the same. When I worked at a large corporate office years back, two colleagues and I noticed that oftentimes, there’d be dozens of employees who dressed the same. You’d walk around and notice several women wearing fuchsia or pastel colours, and a bunch of men in greys or blacks. The next day, you might notice that everyone is wearing blue, or orange. I thought to myself, is everyone on some sort of similar wavelength, or are they all talking to each other the night before and making a secret plan to match?

Anyway long story short, the two colleagues and Uncle Matt wore matching outfits for three months. Not even kidding. The night before, we’d coordinate and then the next day we’d parade around the office every day to show our co-workers the OOTD.

Of course, if you’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada, you know that the fashion industry does certainly create trends. Similarly, in the film biz, you’ll notice that one summer there are six movies about tornados.

Earlier this year, Andy Schleck received bad news about the jersey design for his Andy Schleck-CP NVST-Immo Losch women’s team. After several teams launched their new jerseys the UCI noticed they all shared orange and purple designs. SD Worx, Human Powered Health, and the new UAE women’s team had similar-looking jerseys. Although Schleck’s squad was the only one to maintain its team colours and design from 2021, they were the one ordered to create a new look.

Soudal Quick Step, Israel Premier Tech and Groupama-FDJ have shown off their new kit, and well, they are pretty similar. All three teams are a dark blue–quite striking, I might add.

Either way, if blue is the new black, then will we be seeing more in this style? Or will the UCI step in again?

Here’s the 2023 Soudal Quick-Step jersey.

Here’s the 2023 Israel-Premier Tech kit.

And here’s some more shots of the Groupama-FDJ jersey, taking a nod from the French national soccer jersey.

Nouvelle vague, nouveau maillot ? pic.twitter.com/QAQicjfMsY

— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) December 9, 2022