At long last, we are back with the official uniform rankings of S26 of WJC. Many thanks to the managers who sent pictures of their uniforms in Discord as this makes my life significantly easier, and a stern look of disappointment to the two teams for whom I had to find pictures on Twitch. Before we get into the rankings, let me lay out the usual stipulations about these rankings: - I am grading every team on one jersey. Most people only sent in one jersey anyways, but a few sent in their away or also sent an alternate. If there was a case where I wasn't sure which was a home or an alternate, I went with the better looking option. - I understand that some people are working with brand new clubs without many uniform or logo options. The struggle is real, but I'm grading off the uniform and not giving pity points for lack of options. - The entire uniform matters. If your socks or equipment are disasters, that will deduct points. Unfortunately, some of the pictures do not include socks and/or equipment so there's not much I can do there. All I'll say is that if you're hiding some mismatched socks below the screenshot, then I hope you feel shame. - I am at the mercy of the picture quality that people sent in. Some people took screenshots with their consoles, some took pictures of their tv, and some I had to screenshot on Twitch with questionable resolution. If anything is fuzzy, then it is what it is. With that, let's get into the countdown. 16. Austria We were off to a very rough start with these jerseys when these were sent in by team management with the caption "Japan". Frankly these could pass for either country, and no matter which country you are these get an F grade. White shoulders are the devil. 15. Norway Austria, but better. Clearly this is a new club with limited options, and for what they had it's not bad. The striping is roughly in line with what we see with real life Norway, but there's just nothing exciting going on. 14. Jamaica Our final entry in the default template with no logo category, Jamaica gets a leg up simply by the luck of having more fun colors to work with. You could argue that black equipment over this very green ensemble would've been better, but I would undoubtedly say a black shoulder yolk would've looked better than the yellow. 13. China We now move into teams that had enough games to have a front logo and different uniform templates. Bringing up the rear of those who put in effort is China. They tried, but I think they tried way too hard as there is simply way too much going on with this jersey. The gold shoulders into white sides with a black outline all tied together by an angry video game controller, these just don't do it for me. Some might like it better if you like a very active jersey, but I am not that person. 12. Italy We get into territory that was much more difficult to rank, as I think any of 12th through 8th could be pretty interchangeable. These rankings are about hurting feelings though, so Italy comes in 12th. I will commend management for making a real effort at an authentic Italian team with the blue jerseys and green and red accents as opposed to the many iterations of pizza over the seasons, but the kachina template just didn't land for me. I think there was potential with the Golden Knights logo to create a sort of Roman empire theme, but I would've liked to have seen a bit more of a color pop on the jerseys. 11. Sweden Sweden comes in with some pretty simple and straightforward uniforms this year and I think they're fine. The full yellow sleeves as opposed to the usual stripes was a different choice. I can't say it's my preference, but I'll give kudos for trying something a little unique for a country that wears damn near the same jerseys every single year. Solely because Sweden made me look for their uniforms, I now feel obligated out of pettiness to note that they posted a hilariously scant 4 points in 18 games. 10. Poland A country that really has very little to work with, I like what the Polish management came up with. I don't think it's going to blow anyone away, but it's simple and clean and overall is a nice uniform. 9. USA Very rude of team USA to not send their uniforms and to host their stream on a toaster, but we get what we get. What I really like here is how the jersey stripes blend with the striping on the front crest. A subtle touch that I think was done quite well. If we were ranking solely on the jersey then I think these would be higher, but the socks lose some points for me. I get it, it's tough to get the best options when you're at the mercy of the club bag gods, but there had to be an option available that clashed less with the jersey stripes. 8. Romania I was very on the fence about where to rank these. At times I'd look and think these are too bright with too much going on. Other times I'd really appreciate the colors used and the socks blending well with the jersey. Overall I think landing in the middle of the pack is fair for Romania, and I'm sure opinions would vary greatly from person to person. The main holdup I have is that the two visible logos are possibly the two most American patriotic logos available in the game. Romania does have some sort of eagle/hawk/bird crest in real life, but I think coloring out the stars may have helped make these a little less 'Murica. 7. Canada The Canadians come through with a pretty solid effort here. Personally I'm more of a fan of red Canada jerseys, but the black ones can be pulled off well. A logo reminiscent of the Winnipeg Jets if you replaced the plane with an ace, I think my main reservation is that with the stripes and the monochrome font, they had a chance to go for a pretty nifty all black/red jersey, but the white on the logo pops out a lot more as a result. I'd be curious to see these if they went all-in without any white. 6. Great Britain These British jerseys are pretty simple but I honestly really like them. Nothing too crazy stands out, but I also have no real complaints. Just a fairly basic but well-executed design. 5. Germany Germany is incredibly lucky that I had a busy week at work last week as they sent in 2 sets of uniforms that would've been ranked much lower. Their GM came in at the last minute and took over from the team owner to make a much more simplified and improved uniform. They get the striping in place for the German flag on the sleeves and socks (but not the waist because this template is weird and reverses the sleeve and waist stripes). If I have one drawback, it's the black font with a white outline that we see on the sleeves. I can't say for sure if it's also present on the back (or if this could also be an EA glitch since they've made such a flawless game), but I'd much rather see a yellow font than a black one. 4. Ukraine The Ukrainians have a lot going on on their jersey with the Hurricanes warning flag template and a whole lot of yellow. I think this works overall though. Some may not like how busy it is, but blue and yellow works together so I don't mind it. I just hope these guys and Sweden figured out a way to match up without vision issues. If I have one complaint, and this could very well be my aging eyes or picture quality, but the gloves look like a different blue than the rest of the uniform. 3. Spain While doing my best to ignore this obnoxious purple player equipment, I really like what Spain did here. The bull logo is a great option for them and the striping works out pretty well. My main drawback here is the choice of yellow as the primary color. While I think it's a nice jersey, I think Spain would be better served with a red primary jersey while kicking this to an alternate. There is a red alternate that was sent, but I would rank it much lower than this. 2. Finland Finland always has a bit of an easier task than other countries as I think a light blue and a navy blue is one of the better color combos to work with, so I have high expectations each season. I think this group did a great job though, with a logo that pops out, a slightly different shade of blue to outline the stripes, and overall just a nice look. At this point in the rankings it's very difficult to find anything to complain about. 1. Russia The gold medalists of S25 come into S26 and take the uniform crown, Russia is simply a nation on top in LG (ignore the news). The dragon logo with the shield background colored out of the picture is a great logo choice, the sleeve stripes work with the Russian flag, the blue shoulders add a little bit of a pop, there's just nothing bad to be said about these. If I had to nitpick one thing, and boy is it nitpicky, it would be coloring the font of the gloves gray. But honestly nobody is ever going to see that. Congrats, Russia. Your trophy will be in the mail in 6-12 months. With that, those are your rankings for S26 of WJC. Thank you to the teams who put in the effort to beautify the tournament and to those who sent images to make life easier for me. I pray to god I didn't accidentally grab an IHL jersey as some of those teams were getting in on the fun in Discord.
Spain's Jersey is fire. I appreciate the attempt at something different. Purple equipment in the picture is crazy tho
