Track Tickets
Until the 1960s, the only thing distinctive about a team’s kit was the colour, the badge and whether it was plain, striped or quartered. ‘Replicas’ were for children only and consisted of generic coloured kits branded with a particular footballer rather than his club.
Only from the 1970s did football kit design become a fashion issue. Insurance firm Admiral paid Leeds United to put Admiral’s logo on a newly redesigned shirt and for the right to sell full replica kits to kids.
Leeds had switched to playing in all white — inspired by Real Madrid — a few years earlier, and that was non-negotiable. But Admiral had a snazzy new yellow away kit designed in time for Christmas. Authentic adult replicas followed later, beginning with the England team’s controversially stylish 1982 kit, but by then sophisticated kit design was the norm.
Today, a small detail from a 40-year-old kit can get a fan waxing Proustian about the golden days of the club or their own youth. But which kits are most loved universally? Live Football Tickets analysed the user ratings from the Football Kit Archive’s database of over 490,000 kits to determine the highest- and lowest-rated kits in history and in the Premier and Champions Leagues.
Key Findings
- The most loved football kit ever is Serie A and Champions League team Como’s 2026-27 home strip, with an average fan rating of 4.38 on Football Kit Archive.
- Arsenal’s 2005-06 home kit is the most loved Premier League shirt ever, with an average rating of 4.28.
- Manchester City’s rain-themed 2025-26 third kit has an average fan rating of just 1.78, making it the least loved Premier League kit ever.
- Fans rate Bournemouth’s 2026/7 home kit just 1.91 out of 5, making it the season’s least loved Premier League strip.
Netherlands’ Orange Shirt from Golden Era Amongst Most Loved Kits Ever
First, we looked at fan ratings for first, second and third kits around the world.
We found that Como’s petrol-blue 2026-27 home kit is the most loved ever, with an average rating of 4.38. The second favourite is Barcelona’s 2010-11 home kit, when they won La Liga, the Supercopa de España and the Champions League. This strip — with the yellow trim and UNICEF logo — has an average rating of 4.30.
The Netherlands team shirt from 1988 is the oldest kit to make any of our top tens. A Netherlands squad featuring goalscorers Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten wore the iconic orange shirt with geometric shading as they won the UEFA European Championship that year.
Recent kits worn by TSV Hartberg make up the four least loved strips ever. The Austrian Bundesliga side has become notorious for plastering their kits with up to 23 sponsor logos, leaving little room to appreciate the underlying design.
Arsenal’s Berry-Coloured Shirt Is Fans’ All-Time Premier League Favourite
Next, we identified the most popular Premier League kits since the league’s creation in 1992.
Arsenal’s 2005-06 home kit is the top-rated Premier League strip of all time, with an average fan rating of 4.28. This was the first time since the 1950s that Arsenal had a home kit that was not strictly red. In this case, it was maroon with gold detail, in tribute to the shirts the team wore during the club’s first season at Highbury in 1913 (this was to be their last).
Manchester City’s 2025-26 third kit featured a “detailed all-over raindrop graphic,” contrasting with “vibrant neon green accents across the neck, shoulders and side panels, symbolising [the club’s] stand-out quality.”
Fans gave it an average score of just 1.78, making it the least loved Premier League strip ever. The Guardian considered it a bad joke, noting that “[f]ortunately City have binned this particular bad idea after a single season, choosing instead a different bad idea for their 2026-27 third kit: an AI-generated design which was chosen in a fan vote.”
Manchester United’s 2026/7 Home Kit Among Season’s Most Popular
And how about the 2026/7 season in the Premier League?
We found three kits with an average rating of 4.02 each, making them the season’s most popular shirts: Manchester United away, Sunderland home and Nottingham Forest away. United’s blue away kit is a throwback to their 1988 kit, its wavy detail a tribute to the River Irwell.
Sunderland’s is also a retro number, nodding at the club’s return to European football after a 53-year break. Besides a distinctive collar, the club’s new crest “sits within a sewn-on shield mirroring the design of the crest used in 1937,” when Sunderland first won the FA Cup.
Bournemouth are also looking back to the 1930s, with their home kit featuring the club’s 1936 crest in the pattern. However, it is the least liked shirt of the season, with an average rating of just 1.91. The club’s fans object to the sponsorship logo on the shirt, as the pink colour clashes with Bournemouth’s red stripes and the circle design looks like a bullseye target.
Italian Clubs Have the Most Popular Champions League Strips
Finally, we looked at the kits of clubs playing in the Champions League in 2026/7.
Como’s home kit (4.38) is the highest rated ever (see above), so it is also the best loved in the Champions League. An Italian side also offers the next most loved Champions League strip: Napoli’s home kit has an average rating of 4.27.
“The exclusive Centenary Blue colourway pays tribute to Napoli’s 100th anniversary,” says the club, while the polo collar and ribbed sleeve cuffs complete the simple but distinctive retro design.
German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund’s third kit is the least popular among Champions League strips in 2026/7. The “Purple Glimmer” and “Yellow Alert” colour scheme has drawn fans’ ire, with some complaining it’s not traditional, some objecting to the clashing red colour in the sponsor logo and others simply finding the purple and neon yellow combination hideous.
Ticket in Hand, a Jersey on Your Back
The sight of a memorable football kit can transport you instantly through time, but whether the memories are good or bad may depend on both your club’s form and the detail in the design. Thankfully, with first, second and third kits being renewed most seasons, you’ll always have a choice of what to wear to the big game.
Methodology
We analysed the user ratings from the Football Kit Archive’s database of over 490,000 kits to determine the highest- and lowest-rated kits in history and by category.
The minimum threshold for a kit to be included in our study was 500 votes for the Overall and Premier League History categories and 250 votes for the Premier League and Champions League 2026/27 and individual team categories.
We only considered home, away and third kits and excluded anniversary celebration kits and any other one-off promotional kits.
Data is correct as of September 2026.
