Away colours

Away colours 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 team that must change – second-choice kits are commonly known as away kits or change kits in British English, and road uniforms in American English.

Some sports leagues mandate that away teams must always wear an alternative kit, while others simply state that the two teams' colours should not match. In some sports, conventionally the home team has changed its kit (such as in rugby union and early association football).

In most cases, a team wears its away kit only when its primary kit would clash with the colours of the home team. However, sometimes teams wear away colours by choice, occasionally even in a home game. 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 clubs also produce third-choice kits or old-fashioned throwback uniforms.

In American sports, road teams usually wear a change uniform regardless of a potential colour clash. Further, almost all road uniforms are white in American football (in the NFL and in NCAA football) and the National Hockey League, while in Major League Baseball, visitors typically wear grey. In the National Basketball Association, home uniforms are white or yellow, and visiting teams wear a darker colour. In the United States, "color vs. color" games (e.g., blue jerseys vs. red jerseys) are a rarity, having been discouraged in the era of black-and-white television.

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