Away colours

Away colours or road colours (also commonly known as away kits in British English, or away uniforms or road uniforms in American English) are a choice of coloured clothing used in team sports. They are required to be worn by one team during a game between teams that would otherwise wear the same colours as each other, or similar colours. This change prevents confusion for officials, players, and spectators. In most sports, it is the visiting or road team that must change.

James Rodríguez wearing Colombia's yellow home (left) and red away (right) colours in 2014

In many sports leagues and competitions, a team wears its away kit only when its primary kit would clash with the colours of the home team, while other sports leagues and competitions may mandate that away teams must always wear an alternative kit regardless of a potential colour clash. The latter is common in North American sports, where "colour vs. colour" games (e.g., blue jerseys vs. red jerseys) are a rarity,[1] having been discouraged in the era of black-and-white television.[2] Almost all road uniforms are white in gridiron football (including in the Canadian Football League, the National Football League and NCAA football) and the National Hockey League, while in baseball, visitors typically wear grey. In the National Basketball Association and NCAA basketball, home uniforms are white or yellow, and visiting teams wear the darker colour.

Home teams in some leagues and competitions may also have the option to wear away colours at certain home games, and the away team then has to wear the opposite (if applicable). At some clubs, the away kit has become more popular than the home version. Replica home and away kits are usually available for fans to buy. Some teams also have produced third-choice kits, or even old-fashioned throwback uniforms.

In many sports, the colour contrast is only required for the upper body garment, and thus a team's home and away kit may both have the same coloured pants or shorts. It has traditionally been the opposite in Australian rules football where the home team wears dark shorts and the away team wears white shorts.