Now, this article was written just before Arsenal dropped their Bruised Banana shirt on Friday, which has since warranted an article all of its own, but here we are, back again with the five best football shirts released this week.
After two scorching weeks of new shirt drops full of instant classics, this week’s releases aren’t quite at the same eye-popping level, but there are some gems here that do bear the hallmarks of standing the test of time and, potentially, being great investments for football shirt collectors. More importantly, we can confidently say that even in a year’s time, these will all still look the nuts. So, let’s get into this week’s best football shirt releases.
5. Hansa Rostock - Away - Reebok
To some, this might look like someone has run a 90s Bolton Wanderers shirt through AI, but for us, we’re having this one. The collar, the manufacturer, the simple sponsor, the single gold star, even the retro club crest. It speaks to us and what we sometimes want from a football shirt: the basics done extremely well.
Reebok and Rostock haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel in the first year of their new partnership, and they’re all the better for it. We’re already looking forward to year two.
4. Real Madrid - Away - Adidas
Readers of this column will know by now that we tend to shy away from including the mega clubs. In truth, we want this page to be about discovery and, most of the time, every man and his dog already knows what the super clubs have released because their PR machines go into overdrive.
But sometimes, you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say, ‘Job well done.’ In this case, Real Madrid and adidas deserve some credit. They’ve looked back to the 2012/13 season and brought green back into Madrid’s colour palette. The Trefoil, absolutely everywhere this summer, is the icing on this beautiful green cake. We suspect this one will fly off the shelves.
3. Eskişehirspor - Away - Adidas
This is what we like to see: football shirts that make no sense but work anyway. To be honest, we’re planning a standalone column on the Turkish football shirts released this summer because the standard coming out of the country at the moment is sky-high.
Eskişehirspor’s away shirt looks like a T-shirt that could have been made for a stag’s five-a-side tournament. It’s also an adidas shirt that doesn’t fall back on the Trefoil to save it. There have been more than a few of those this summer. It’s cool, it’s different, there’s definitely a German influence and the sponsor is all sorts of weird. We’ll be buying this one.
2. Atalanta - Away - New Balance
Much like the Eskişehirspor shirt before it on this list, Atalanta’s away shirt appeals partly because it looks more like a training shirt than a match shirt. The T-shirt vibes make it infinitely more wearable away from a football pitch than most shirts, and that’s something we’re quite big fans of here at Showboat.
New Balance are laying down something of a marker with their output this summer (more on that next week), but this release, as they enter their second season with Atalanta, is possibly their best in a long time. Atalanta are not an easy team to design for, especially when factoring in what can often be an overbearing Lete sponsorship logo. All things considered, New Balance have knocked this one out of the park.
1. Boldklubben af 1893 - Away - Puma
We’re moving into unusual territory now. Puma have released a good shirt. A very good shirt. This new release, especially the long-sleeved version, looks more like a fashion piece than a football shirt. Looking at the sponsor and how prominently Rains’ jackets feature in the campaign around the launch, it’s easy to assume that Rains have played at least a small role in the design of these shirts, or at least had some influence on Puma.
The stitching on this is glorious. And while the model in the image above stands in a stance that makes it impossible to see some of the performance details running down the sides of the shirt, this deserves top marks and is well worthy of the number one spot on our list this week.
If you're into more vintage than modern then you can browse thousands of classic football shirts in our app or on our website here.
