The Premier League season kicks off on Friday and league debutants such as Christos Tzolis and Victor Muñoz, along with masses of fans, will be pulling on their teams’ shiny new strips. There were some lovely efforts at the World Cup (not least by the co-hosts the USA), and others more tedious than a 0-0 draw. It’s a mixed bag once again.

Manchester City have gone with an ombre design, which feels – apposite for a gradient fading of colour – exhausted as a look in 2026. In the most surprising but successful collaboration since Olivia Rodrigo and Robert Smith,Sunderland have teamed up with Elvis Presley, or his estate, anyway, for a pink away shirt that nods to the supporters’ longstanding unofficial anthem Can’t Help Falling in Love.

Here’s a selection of the best, worst and most interesting (for reasons good and bad) that sportswear giants – and Oxen Sports – have in store for us this year.

Chelsea

Chelsea’s new home kit may look like the sort of thing a team called London Blue would wear in one of the early editions of Pro Evo, but it is pretty neat. I cannot stress this enough: the lack of a corporate logo will always make a shirt look better (Sunderland fans also got to enjoy this for pre-season, but alas the Black Cats have a sponsor incoming).

The Blues have rolled out a number of stars to preview their 2026-27 look, first among them Madonna, a longtime supporter often spotted at Stamford Bridge, which is why Cole Palmer and João Pedro made a surprise appearance in her recent video. The 90s polo‑shirt collar is a popular aesthetic this season. The home and away kits – in a sleek black – heavily feature Ted Drake’s famous lion emblem.

As a side note, Madonna’s twin daughters play for Tottenham, which I mention only because Spurs have, once again, produced the world’s most insufferably dull kit, presumably designed by Kazimir Malevich.

Liverpool

Surely the kit of the season. An entirely unsubtle homage to the 1989-91 home jersey (and as far as sponsors’ logos go, Candy’s was one of the least hideous), the home shirt is a blast of fun at a time when football – Infantino, VAR, you name it – is increasingly dispiriting. Then again, I am not sure even a top this jazzy can offset the hideousness of Jeff Bezos acquiring a stake in the club.

The white away kit is also a handsome affair, proving that white strips do not have to be boring; again, commiserations to Spurs fans. While the home fit is giving disco, the away is a more demure meet-the-parents type, with a preppy v-shaped neck. I do still miss the old YNWA crest, though.

Hull

The Hull accent is one of Timothée Chalamet’s favourites and the actor and keen football fan would no doubt be charmed by the promoted side’s new-but-old look. This kit feels like it belongs on a glorious swamp of a pitch in the mid-to-late 20th century, complete with dribbled juice stains from half-time oranges.

The official reference point is the Tigers’ late 70s aesthetic: wide black and amber stripes and a white collar and trim, the shirt features the HCAFC logo for the first time in 47 years, invoking the spirit of Billy Bremner. It is definitely understated, given how many riotous bangers the club has had in the past (see the amazing tiger-striped 1992 shirt, among others).

Away from the MKM Stadium, Hull will turn out in a much more meh monotone kit with amber accents, but still, sterling work in the main from the city’s homegrown sportswear brand, Oxen Sports.

Newcastle

It is extremely low-hanging fruit to compare this shirt to a barcode, but, seriously, look at it. It’s a barcode. It’s also dizzying to the eye. I’m generally a fan of risk-taking kits – bring on the chaos – but this is, well … the PR blurb describes the pattern as “disrupted”.

Given this design belongs only in the vicinity of a self-service checkout, it is truly an unexpected item in the playing area. Then Adidas chucked some pale blue stripes on to the shoulders just in case fans weren’t distressed enough.

The away strip is an improvement; a refined navy, it has a nice alternative badge of the city’s titular castle and a magpie. Newcastle aren’t the only club that have done too much with their home strip: Macron has produced a striking sash design for Crystal Palace, but, in the words of Hannah Gadsby describing the Pride flag: bit busy.

Ipswich

Among what is always extremely strong competition, Ipswich secure the trophy for the most eye-rolling kit “inspiration”. The motif on the round-necked, blue home shirt is, according to Umbro’s press release, a tribute to Portman Road’s floodlights. This is not the only floodlight-inspired design; Nike paid homage to VfL Bochum’s floodlights in 2020-21 – but at least their stadium’s massive pylons are a genuine symbol of the city. As it happens, the weaved pattern is lovely, but the diamonds recall those mood-indicating crystals above the heads of characters in The Sims (officially plumbobs) more than the stadium floodlights.

The change kit is cream with thin red and black horizontal stripes and black side panels. Floodlights 100% snubbed.

Manchester United

I am haunted by the Adidas stripes on the red home shirt being white, while the ones on the white shorts are black. This would be fine, except the designers have made the stripes so thick – they seem to spread larger each season, like a kid who can no longer be arsed to stay colouring inside the lines – that this looks like one half each of two separate kits; it’s 24 hours before laundry day at the Theatre of Dreams.

The shirt itself is beautiful; the perfect shade of red, a retro collar not too dissimilar to Chelsea’s, but the black touches are not strong enough to cohere with the massive oil streaks on the shorts. The away kit, meanwhile, nods to the 80s, in suave cobalt blue with red touches and trefoil logo. A final positive: it looks like just the one kit.