12 Worst Kits in Premier League History Ranked by Football Fans

Gone are the days when football kits were simply one colour, serving the sole purpose of helping fans and referees tell the two teams apart. In today’s Premier League, modern-day kit suppliers pull out all the stops – and all the patterns and colourways – to boost sales and make the clubs they represent as marketable as possible.

Sometimes, the designs become iconic; other times, they end up looking more like a wardrobe malfunction. And now, the worst English top-flight kits in history have been ranked, with Football Kit Archive’s fan-voted five-star rating system separating the fashion classics from the fabric faux pas.

It’s much harder for manufacturers to get it wrong when designing a home shirt, which is why only one of the 12 lowest-ranked kits is from a team’s primary strip. But regardless of purpose or design, some of these efforts are absolute howlers – the kind that should have seen the person who signed them off given the boot before the ink was dry.

12-9

Kicking things off in 12th place is Arsenal’s 2023/24 away shirt. It looks like Adidas simply upcycled a neon yellow PE bib, added some random squiggly black lines, and swapped the trim for sky blue – so it’s hardly shocking that it ended up on this list. Meanwhile, Fulham’s mundane yellow 2020/21 away kit fared slightly worse, earning just 2.16 from 314 voters.

Any shirt that looks like it belongs on the training pitch deserves its fair share of criticism – and Manchester City’s third shirt from their 2021/22 Premier League-winning campaign is a prime example. Instead of the easily recognisable City badge front and centre, the shirt simply reads “Man City,” making it, to put it lightly, feel like the club had completely lost its identity under Puma. With a £100 million annual deal, though, they’re unlikely to change partners – but it’s not the only time Pep Guardiola’s side feature on this list.

Huddersfield Town only lasted two seasons in the Premier League before being relegated to League One recently – proof that top-flight status doesn’t guarantee long-term stability. Perhaps it was karma for Puma’s blunders, as their third kit went completely against what the club had known up until the 2017/18 season.

Instead of blue and white, they opted for black and red; instead of vertical stripes, they went horizontal. And to really push the boat out, they added a bizarre “soundwave” effect to the stripes, giving it the eerie vibe of a Joy Division album cover.

8-5

If a member of Sam Allardyce’s 2020/21 West Brom squad approached you in McDonald’s wearing their third shirt, you wouldn’t even bat an eyelid – perhaps you’d even ask for some extra ketchup. That’s how bad their orange-and-red colourway was that year, making them look like fast-food employees. Puma were at a low once again, and their rating of 2.09 is nothing more than they deserve.

Blackburn Rovers’ 2006/07 away shirt doesn’t look bad enough to feature on this list at first glance, but the abnormally large front-of-shirt sponsor and the naff-looking Lonsdale logo give more than enough reason. The same could be said for Wolves’ 2009/10 away shirt: while it looks fairly smart, the red trimmings just don’t seem necessary. Le Coq Sportif would have had far more success keeping things simple with an all-white approach.

There can be no let-offs for Hummel’s eyesore with Southampton’s 2019/20 black-and-yellow lollipop-lady-looking away shirt. The only consolation is that much of that season fell under the COVID-19 pandemic, so supporters didn’t have to see it in person too often (phew!).

4-1

With a rating of just 2.04 from 3,264 votes, Tottenham’s 2022/23 away strip is a little too all over the place for most people’s fashion sense. Black, neon yellow, light purple, and white simply don’t go together – and Hull City’s all-pink 2016/17 third shirt isn’t much better. That being said, we fully believe it would be a lot more respected in today’s more outlandish world.

Nike come in as runners-up with their 2008/09 Aston Villa home shirt design, making it the only home shirt to feature on this list. To be fair, there doesn’t seem to be much wrong with it, but perhaps its sheer blandness explains the lowly rating of 1.81 from an astonishing 10,311 voters. It’s forgettable, and that could be its downfall.

The worst-rated kit of all, however, is a current release. Puma, as expected, are the designers behind Manchester City’s 2025/26 third kit, inspired by Mancunian weather, which clocks in at an early rating of just 1.57. It needs no explanation – just look at it.