news-engine

The six worst new kits of the 2026/27 Premier League season - including Spurs & Newcastle horror shows Counting down the worst kits of the new Premier League season - with Newcastle, Spurs and Sunderland among this year’s fashion crimes. A new Premier League season is upon us and while we can’t yet judge which teams might be good or bad, we can certainly judge them for their dress sense – nearly every kit for the 2026/27 campaign has been revealed by now, and it’s time to pick out the best and worst of the new looks. We’ve already picked out the six finest new shirts, so now it’s time to dig out some of the less appealing new kits that some unfortunate players are going to be asked to wear over the course of the coming 10 months. Let’s hold our noses and dive in… 6. Tottenham Hotspur – away We’re not normally averse to shirts which take a few risks, and we’re fonder of bold and jazzy designs that most – but Spurs’ new away kit isn’t so much bold as it is baffling. It’s like a Magic Eye picture designed by someone who didn’t quite understand how they work. The curious strobing effect that Nike have gone for might have just about worked had the pattern from the top half of the kit carried on all the way down the shirt, but instead we get this weird break followed by an even busier bottom half. A jersey which feels less like a fashion statement and more like an attempt to trigger seizures in opposing players with epilepsy. 5. Fulham – away Presumably, this is meant to be a throwback to the checkerboard kit that Fulham wore during the 1996/97 season, a shirt generally considered to be something of a classic, at least by the standards of a team who don’t usually have the snazziest strips. Had they kept it simple, this might have been rather good. Instead, Adidas tried to be original. The blotchy effect makes it look like the colours ran in the wash, or perhaps like military camouflage for some extremely specific and as yet undiscovered terrain. The clean white trim arguably saves it from being a complete disaster, but this is too busy, too messy, and doesn’t look right with the accompanying red shorts. They should have been black, and this kit should have been better. 4. Ipswich Town – away There is a very good reason that few kit manufacturers ever reach for the beige part of the colour palette when they’re putting new designs together – and this kit is a very good reason for Ipswich to see if they can find someone other than Umbro to make their shirts in the future. The murky shade is made even less appealing by the pinstripes, and the fact that they stop dead before the sleeves makes the whole shirt look a bit cheap. The overall effect is almost as icky as letting Nigel Farage do a photoshoot at Portman Road. Perhaps they can get Count Binface in to do next year’s jerseys. 3. Sunderland – away We’re not opposed to pink shirts on principle, and we’re not inherently averse to the admittedly bizarre idea of making the away kit a collaboration with the Elvis Presley estate. But we are less keen on shirts that make the average fan wearing them look like a darts player. Apparently the pink and black is an homage to one of Elvis’ most famous stage outfits, although as non-devotees we’re struggling to fathom why Hummel wouldn’t reach for the leather jacket or the Vegas jumpsuit instead of something Michael van Gerwen might wear at Alexandra Palace. The concept is fun. The execution is deeply dubious. 2. Bournemouth – home We spent a little while agonising over how to rank our top (or rather bottom) two, but ultimately decided to give Bournemouth the slightest benefit of the doubt because this would be a perfectly nice kit if it weren’t for the sponsor’s logo. But that sponsor doesn’t half do a lot of damage. The decision to build the entire design around it was a colossal clanger. It makes the players look like a button they aren’t meant to press – the ‘submit’ button that Hummel’s designer pressed after coming up with this, for instance. The change strips don’t benefit from the sponsor, either, but they aren’t as bad as this. We’re going to start calling the stadium Dean Court again out of sheer spite. 1. Newcastle United – home What a terrible summer it’s been up at St. James’ Park. They’ve lost their manager, several of their best players, and now they’ve got to wear this monstrosity for the better part of a year too. You’d think, by now, that designers like Adidas would have learned that you just can’t get clever with striped kits. This would be all over the place even if it didn’t look like you’d accidentally ring up a tube of Pringles if you walked past a self-service checkout at the supermarket. The bright blue stripes over the shoulders are awful. The sponsor’s logo is ugly. Somehow, Newcastle have come up with a kit which makes us yearn for Saudi green. Godawful.