Controversial Design Leads Adidas to Withdraw German Number 44 Football Jersey Over Nazi Symbolism

Adidas has halted the sale of the new German national team's football jerseys after noticing that the number 44 resembled the logo of the Nazi Party’s infamous SS paramilitary units. The company stopped offering the personalisation of jerseys with names and numbers on Monday, and the German Football Federation followed suit by withdrawing the delivery of jerseys with the number 44 from their online shop.

The federation, in collaboration with their partner 11teamsports, is currently searching for an alternative design for the number 4. In their defence, the federation iterated on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that during the development process of the jersey design, none of the parties involved saw any similarity to Nazi symbolism.

The number 44 on the jerseys was pointed out for bearing a striking resemblance to the stylised SS used by the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel group. This group, commonly known as the SS, was responsible for running the concentration camps that oversaw the mass killing of civilians during World War II. The stylised SS symbol is currently banned in Germany.

According to Adidas spokesman Oliver Brüggen, the design of the names and numbers on the shirts was the responsibility of the federation and 11teamsports. Adidas, which has been manufacturing German jerseys since the 1950s, is reeling from the unintended controversial symbolism.