Chelsea
The design lacks authenticity, resembling the unofficial merchandise often found at tourist stalls. By reducing the club’s identity to its most basic elements—blue for the color and a generic nod to its London location—the shirt fails to capture the official look and feel expected of a top-tier club.
Brentford
Despite Brentford’s established Premier League status, their new Joma kit has an amateurish quality reminiscent of designs from their time in the lower leagues. While kit designs are planned years in advance, this shirt feels out of step with the club’s current standing, projecting an aesthetic that seems more suited to a Championship side.
West Ham United
West Ham has labelled its new home kit a “modern classic in the making,” but the minimalist design arguably sacrifices identity for simplicity. The club’s iconic blue is relegated to minor trim on the collar, cuffs, and underarms, leaving a predominantly claret shirt that feels disconnected from the team’s traditional “claret and blues” identity.
Aston Villa
Adidas’s mid-2000s retro theme, featuring curved piping from the armpit to the hip, feels like one element too many on this Aston Villa kit. The combination of the piping, shoulder stripes, cuff details referencing the Villa Park facade, and a background pattern on the main body creates a visually cluttered and incoherent look.
Crystal Palace
This season’s home shirt is a straightforward design, with white pinstripes adding a subtle break to the main red and blue stripes. However, the thick, solid white bands on each sleeve are a distracting and unnecessary addition, drawing attention away from the otherwise solid design.
Brighton & Hove Albion
Nike has delivered a simple, no-frills kit for Brighton, featuring classic blue and white stripes with minimal trim. While simplicity can be effective, the primary design flaw is the increasingly prominent white band for the sponsor’s logo, which now dominates the shirt to a degree that feels ostentatious and compromises the overall aesthetic.
Bournemouth
In an effort to add a unique touch to their classic red and black stripes, Umbro has incorporated a “rippled sand” pattern into the red sections as a nod to Bournemouth’s seaside location. While the intent to innovate is commendable, the pattern itself is not entirely successful, appearing more like stubborn streaks on a car windscreen than a coastal motif.
Burnley
This kit earns points for its imaginative inspiration—the squiggly lines on the shirt are a reference to the topography of the hilly terrain around Turf Moor. However, without this context, the design risks looking like a random crayon scribble. It is a thoughtful detail, but one that requires an explanation to be fully appreciated.
Fulham
Reflecting the club’s dependable and predictable nature, Fulham’s kit is fundamentally basic. From a distance, it appears as a simple white shirt with black accents. A closer look reveals a subtle pattern referencing the wrought iron of the Craven Cottage gates, but the most notable change is the switch to white shorts, a departure that will take time to get used to.
Newcastle United
The fuzzy effect on the edges of the stripes is an intentional design choice, described by Adidas as a “time-honoured shepherd’s check pattern” meant to “create blurred transitions that really catch the eye.” The inspiration is unusual, but the visual result is a minor, if slightly puzzling, alteration to a familiar format.
Manchester City
City’s sash design works well, even if it appears somewhat hastily applied. The shade of blue is perfect for the club, which is a crucial detail. While some might argue that sashes should be reserved for teams with a long history of featuring them, this one-season experiment is a stylish and effective departure for the champions.
Manchester United
This year’s design favors black trim over the traditional white, though hints of white on the collar and cuffs offer a compromise. The shirt also features “abstract Old Trafford-inspired graphics on the sleeves,” a description so vague that the pattern is largely indecipherable, failing to evoke the intended tribute to the club’s iconic stadium.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
This Wolves shirt successfully blends retro and modern elements. From a distance, it evokes a classic 1970s design, but a closer look reveals a detailed background pattern that incorporates historical club elements, including a former badge. The in-house manufacturer Sudu has created a sophisticated and well-executed kit.
Nottingham Forest
This Adidas design is a strong offering, featuring clean pinstripes and simple, effective trim. The shirt pays homage to the 1992-93 kit, and while minor gripes could be made—the secondary pinstripes feel superfluous and the shield around the crest is slightly dated—the overall look is sharp and classic.
Arsenal
After several seasons of experimenting with the iconic three stripes, Adidas has returned to a classic combination: a red body, white sleeves, and red stripes. The design feels instantly recognizable as an Arsenal kit. A subtle, repeated pattern of the stylized Arsenal ‘A’ adds a modern touch without detracting from the timeless appeal.
Tottenham Hotspur
This is a very strong design, with dark blue bands on the shoulders and sides elegantly framing the plain white front. The only significant drawbacks are the oversized sponsor’s logo, which squeezes the club badge and Nike swoosh, and a background texture reminiscent of dated bathroom ceiling tiles. Overlooking these flaws, it is a smart kit for a new era at the club.
Liverpool
The reunion of Liverpool and Adidas has produced an outstanding result. This kit is a welcome return to a partnership that defined a classic era for the club, with a design that pays a clear and successful homage to the kits worn in the mid-2000s. It feels both nostalgic and perfectly suited for the modern team.
Leeds United
This is a delightfully simple Leeds shirt, elevated by superb detailing on the collar and cuffs that reportedly references the tunnel at Elland Road. While the presence of a prominent sponsor is often a point of contention, the Red Bull logo is well-integrated and, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, complements the clean design of the kit.
Sunderland
Hummel’s return to the Premier League with Sunderland is a welcome one, and this kit is a special creation. The design has a retro 1980s feel, featuring a subtle pattern on the white stripes inspired by the Wear Footbridge. While perhaps a touch heavy on the black trim, the overall aesthetic is sensational.
Everton
Castore has delivered an exceptional kit for Everton. The subtle, wavy lines referencing the River Mersey are a tasteful and unique design feature that elevates the shirt. While not an explicit tribute, the kit is reminiscent of the club’s glory days in the mid-1980s, proving that a new manufacturer can produce a design that is both modern and instantly classic.
