Every August produces two rankings of the new Premier League kits. The first is the critics’ ranking, published by every sports desk in the country within days of the launches, which rates the designs. The second is the ranking that matters to the clubs and the manufacturers, which is what supporters actually buy, and which takes a season to become clear. The two rarely agree. This is an attempt to rank premier league jerseys by popularity for 2026/27, using the factors that reliably drive sales rather than personal taste, and to explain why the best-designed shirt is almost never the best-selling one.
What actually sells a shirt
Kit sales are driven by five things, in roughly this order: the size of the club’s global support, the success of the previous season, the presence of a star player whose name people want on the back, a change of manufacturer, and, some way behind, the design itself. Price matters at the margin. A club with a huge fanbase that has just won something, signed a superstar and switched brands will sell more shirts than any design could, and a club with a beautiful kit and no story will not.
The critics’ view of 2026/27
Before ranking by popularity it is worth recording what the design critics think. The National’s ranking of all twenty kits put Arsenal’s set at the top, praised Leeds United’s designs despite the size of the Red Bull logo, approved of Manchester City’s lighter gradient blue and found Everton’s kits solid rather than exciting. Other rankings placed Newcastle’s disrupted-stripe home shirt last and the promoted clubs, Coventry, Ipswich and Hull, surprisingly high. Heritage was the theme of the summer: Arsenal, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester United all reached into their archives.
The popularity table
With those factors in mind, here is the ranking that the retailers are likely to see by May.
1. Arsenal. Champions for the first time in 22 years, a Champions League final, a set of kits rated the best in the league, Bukayo Saka’s World Cup hat-trick and the gold champions’ patch on the sleeve. Every driver points the same way. Expect the home shirt to be the best-seller in England this season.
2. Liverpool. The largest global fanbase of any English club after Manchester United, a home shirt that revives the beloved 1989 to 1991 pattern in the second season of the adidas deal, and Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah on the back. The 2025/26 season was a disappointment, which costs them first place.
3. Manchester United. The historical sales leader, a clean 1977-inspired design that has been well received, and Champions League football. A fanbase this size buys shirts in any season; a good design and a return to Europe’s top table will push the numbers up.
4. Manchester City. Erling Haaland remains the most-printed name in the division, the gradient home shirt is the most talked-about design of the year, and two domestic cups keep the story going. The away kit, black and yellow with bees, will outsell most clubs’ home shirts.
5. Chelsea. A new manager in Xabi Alonso, the Club World Cup badge, Cole Palmer’s 10 and a crest-led design. Priced at £89.99, the most expensive replica in the league but one, which will cost some sales at the margin.
6. Tottenham. The £90 shirt will sell less than it might have, but Spurs have a fanbase to match the top four and a new manager’s first season always lifts demand.
7. Newcastle United. Controversy sells. The shirt most critics ranked last is also the shirt most people have an opinion about, and the club’s supporters are among the most loyal buyers in the division. The late arrival of the Knox Hydrate sponsor, with free printing offered to early buyers, will not have hurt.
8. Leeds United. The best design outside the top four by most accounts, a fanbase that has waited years for a top-flight kit worth wearing, and the Red Bull logo, which supporters have made peace with. A likely mid-table club with a top-six shirt.
9. Aston Villa. A top-half club with a heritage-led adidas design and a fanbase that has grown with the club’s recent seasons.
10. Everton. Second season at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, a stadium-inspired design language, and a fanbase that buys the home shirt every year regardless.
The promoted clubs
Coventry, Ipswich and Hull will all sell more shirts this season than in any Championship year, because promotion doubles a club’s visible audience overnight. Hull’s £64 shirt, the cheapest in the league, and Ipswich’s Portman Road floodlight pattern have been singled out by reviewers. None will trouble the top ten, but the percentage increase on last season will be larger than anyone else’s.
Where price fits in
Ten clubs now charge £80 or more for an adult shirt and the average adult supporter buys one home shirt every two seasons rather than one every year. Price does not decide the ranking, but it shapes the market underneath it: away kits, last season’s designs and cheaper fan-version replicas from independent sellers now account for a growing share of what is actually worn in the stands. The clubs know this, which is why a two-year kit cycle, currently only Brentford’s policy, is being discussed elsewhere.
How the manufacturers split the league
The 2026/27 season is dominated by three brands. adidas dress Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Leeds and Aston Villa, the largest share the German company has held in the Premier League for two decades. Nike have Chelsea, Tottenham and Brighton. Puma have Manchester City. Beneath them sit Castore at Everton, Joma at Brentford, Hummel at Bournemouth and Umbro at Ipswich, among others. For a supporter this matters because the brands price and cut their shirts differently, and because the adidas revival of 1990s designs across six clubs is the reason the season’s kits look so alike.
Printing: the second purchase
The name on the back is where the popularity ranking sharpens. Saka, Salah, Wirtz, Haaland and Palmer are the names most printed at their club shops this season, and a shirt with a name adds around £20 to the price and several points to the club’s merchandise revenue. It is also the reason the transfer window matters to kit sales: a star who leaves in August takes a season of printing with him.
The gap between design and demand
Rank the twenty kits by design and Arsenal, Leeds and Ipswich sit near the top. Rank them by sales and Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United do. The overlap is one club. The lesson for manufacturers is old and unwelcome: the shirt sells the story, not the other way round, and a beautiful kit worn by a mid-table team will always lose to an ordinary one worn by champions. For the latest Premier League analysis and cheap football shirts, visit our homepage.
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