The ten best new kits in world football - including Blackburn Rovers

While the more dreary corners of football fandom spend most of the off-season worrying about such tedious frivolities as ‘transfers’ and ‘new managers’, the true connoisseurs among us know that the best bit about slow summer month or so between international tournaments and the start of the domestic season is in fact salivating over new kits.

And while most of the bigger clubs have come out with kits that play it pretty safe, there are some absolutely stunning bits of clobber now available for the discerning football hipster – and we’re here to celebrate ten of the best we’ve seen so far. These come from all over the globe, although Italy, as is usually the case, is definitely producing a lot of the best shirts out there.

Latina – Home & Away

Let’s start with the kit reveal that blew our immaculately-designed socks off and made us want to write this piece in the first place. Ezeta are a new kit manufacturer who are working with lower league clubs in Italy to produce a string of what might well be the greatest jerseys ever worn by people kicking a football about – and Serie C side Latina Calcio are the recipients of this astonishing effort, which apparently pays homage to Homer’s Odyssey. Even better is the photoshoot that comes with it, which features flying lions and men with pigs’ heads. Eleven out of ten, and perhaps can’t be topped, but we’ll give Ezeta a chance to prove us wrong while we throw all of our money at them.

Ostiamare - Third

Ezeta’s kits are so ridiculously good that we could just do a long list of them, but for the sake of variety we’ll restrict ourselves to two of their offerings – and the second comes from semi-professional Serie D side Ostiamare, who probably can’t believe their luck at getting not one but four kits in this style. Roman mythology is the theme this time, and the white and purple third kit is our favourite. Just look at that collar!

Verona – Home

One more from Italy before we move on, and it’s another home run for the collar-fanciers amongst us. A tribute to the kit worn when Hellas Verona last won the Scudetto 40 years ago, this Joma shirt is classy, simple and utterly gorgeous. The combination of pinstripes and thick yellow trim is pretty breathtaking – and going sponsorless makes it even better. At this rate, my personal finances for the coming months will resemble that classic “someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this, my family is dying” tweet but with Italian football merchandise instead of candles.

Jamaica – Away

The Reggae Boyz and Girlz have had quite a few cracking kits over the years, and Adidas have given them three more hits this summer – but it’s the supremely funky away kit, in the middle of the picture attached, which we’re most likely to splash the cash on. A truly unique design which manages to have an awful lot going on while still being packed with style and beauty.

Basel – Away

Macron get some points from bravery here. They’ve given both Basel’s home and away kits a lick of flame, a pattern last seen on an American hot rod in the early 1990s. Somehow, though, it works, especially on the deceptively simple away kit. Sadly, a difficult 2023/24 season means that we won’t see them looking snazzy while losing 2-1 away to Manchester United in the Champions League group stage this year.

Farense – All of them

We’re not entirely confident which of the Portuguese Primera Liga side’s kits are which, if we’re being entirely honest, but a team not normally noted as being one of European football’s great fashion houses has come up with some superb efforts, all tied together by the lion motif which dominates the bottom halves. Is the Film Noir Blackburn Rovers-style black and white halves home shirt the best? The mint green number with its understated sleeve trim? We haven’t yet decided, but we like them all.

Blackburn Rovers – Third

Speaking of Blackburn, Macron have come up with a cracking set of shirts, with the pink third kit surely the sharpest. It’s easy to go horribly wrong with pink and go too neon (we’re looking at you, Everton) but this is the perfect shade, the collars and trim are superb, the centred logo a treat and the detailing features a map of the town, not that you’d notice unless you pressed your nose right into the sponsor’s logo. Speaking of which, they’ve managed to get rid of the hideous vape manufacturer which blighted last season’s kits.

St. Pauli – Away

Puma enter the fray with a very nifty ‘tyre tracks’ design as hipster favourites St. Pauli and their piratical fans celebrate their return to the Bundesliga in style. White and brown isn’t necessarily the fashionista’s choice of colour palette, but it’s pulled off here with a kit that looks better and better the longer you look at it.

Sporting Kansas City – Third

Apparently, the MLS is old enough to be doing throwback kits now – bless ‘em, they’re all grown up. Sporting Kansas City have absolutely chucked it back towards the Kansas City Wizards days, bringing back the old logo and firing a bolt of multicoloured lightning across the middle of the kit. If we saw someone wearing this in the street, we’d turn our heads and shout “did you see that?” like Alan Partridge commenting on goals from USA ’94.

Inter Miami – Third

Let’s wrap up with one more effort from America. If this proves to be Lionel Messi’s final season in football, he’ll go out looking gorgeous courtesy of this Adidas number, which borrows the colour scheme from local NFL team Miami Dolphins. The orange and white sleeves are simply sublime. Dan Marino never looked this good.

Will anyone top this lot? There are quite a few kits left to be revealed at the time of writing, so there’s still a chance for plenty of clubs to earn the hipster dollar, but they’ll have to go some way to top this lot. Now - can Ezeta be put in charge of every kit in global football, please?