Best Eredivisie Kits of All Time

Ask anyone who collects shirts which league has quietly produced the most interesting designs, and the answer is rarely the one you expect. The best Eredivisie kits of all time come from a league that has never had the biggest budgets, but has never stopped taking risks with colour, collars and sponsor logos.

Dutch football has always treated the shirt as part of the idea. Below are the designs that matter most, including the ones supporters voted for when the league asked them directly.

Why the Eredivisie keeps producing great shirts

Two things separate the Dutch top flight from its neighbours. The clubs have strong, simple identities — Ajax's stripe, Feyenoord's split red and white, PSV's bars — so designers start from a clear brief. And the smaller clubs cycled through unusual suppliers such as Fila, Reebok, Canterbury and Diadora, producing shirts you never saw in the Premier League or Serie A.

That mix is why the best Eredivisie kits hold their value, turning up on want lists beside the obvious classics from the Bundesliga and La Liga.

Willem II 1958–67: the shirt Dutch fans crowned

In 2020 the Eredivisie ran a public vote on its own shirt history, putting 1,754 home and away designs from 54 clubs to supporters and collecting 162,164 nominations, with journalist Sjoerd Mossou chairing the jury. The winner was not Ajax or PSV. It was the Willem II home shirt worn from 1958/59 through to 1967 — from a Tilburg club that has spent much of its life outside the title race.

It is a useful reminder that the best Eredivisie kits are not decided by trophy cabinets.

Feyenoord 1983–84: Gouden Gids and a Cruyff title

Second in that same vote was Feyenoord's 1983–84 home shirt, carrying the Gouden Gids sponsor across the chest from the season Johan Cruyff won the championship in Rotterdam. Feyenoord have worn red and white shirts with black shorts and black socks since the club took the name SC Feijenoord in 1912, and the halved design gives sponsor logos an unusually bold canvas.

Shirts from this era are firmly in reissue territory now, so our guide to retro versus reissue football shirts is worth a read before you spend.

Ajax 1969–72: the stripe at its most famous

Third in the fan vote, and separately named the most beautiful shirt by France Football, was the Ajax home shirt of 1969–72. The broad red central stripe on white has a brilliantly mundane origin: when Ajax were promoted in 1911, Sparta Rotterdam, as the older club, held the rights to the red-and-white striped design, so Ajax went to a white shirt with a single wide red band instead. It has been the home shirt ever since the 1911/12 season, with the width of the stripe drifting over the decades.

Two details collectors use to date Ajax shirts: the manufacturer's logo first appeared in 1972, at the European Cup final against Internazionale, and the crest moved to the centre of the chest for 1972/73. Championship stars have sat above it since 2007/08, each representing ten Dutch titles, the third added after 2011. Shop the current range in our club teams collection, or read the AFC Ajax jersey buying guide.

Ajax through the suppliers: Bukta to adidas

Ajax's supplier list is a decent map of European kit manufacturing. Bukta appeared around 1970–71, Le Coq Sportif handled the great mid-seventies sides from 1973 to 1976 and returned from 1979 to 1985, with Puma in between for 1977–79. Kappa followed from 1985 to 1989, Umbro ran the nineties, and adidas has held the contract since 2000.

Sponsors tell the same story. TDK arrived for 1982/83 as the first principal sponsor and stayed until summer 1991, when ABN AMRO took over, printing its name vertically in 1991/92. Ziggo has held the slot since January 2015.

PSV 1986–89: red, and a treble to go with it

PSV were founded on 31 August 1913 as Philips Sport Vereniging, and wore red-and-white vertical stripes until the 1970s, switching to all-red and only returning to stripes in 1989. So the adidas home shirt of 1986–89 — solid red, thick white collar, Trefoil on the chest — covers the best season in the club's history.

In 1987–88, under Guus Hiddink and with Ronald Koeman newly arrived, PSV won the Eredivisie scoring 117 goals, beat Roda JC 3–2 after extra time in the KNVB Cup final, and won the European Cup in Stuttgart against Benfica, where a goalless final went to penalties and Hans van Breukelen saved Veloso's sixth. A treble, in a plain red shirt.

PSV 1994–96: Ronaldo, Nike and that purple away

PSV's supplier line runs Le Coq Sportif from 1970 to 1974, adidas from 1974 to 1995, Nike from 1995 to 2015 and Umbro from 2015. The handover year is the one collectors chase. The 1994–95 adidas home shirt was the last under that deal, worn by a 17-year-old Ronaldo scoring 30 goals in his debut season; the 1995–96 Nike set, with its chequered collar and striking purple away shirt, covers his injury-hit final year before Barcelona.

Romário had worn the same red and white earlier, signing after the 1988 European Cup win, scoring 19 league goals in his first season and a hat-trick against Steaua București in November 1989 before leaving for Barcelona in 1993. Philips was PSV's shirt sponsor from 1982 — the year the Eredivisie allowed sponsorship — all the way to 2016, a Dutch record. Their 2009–10 away shirt was separately voted the league's best ever away kit.

Feyenoord 2001–02: a UEFA Cup in Rotterdam

Kappa's Feyenoord away shirt of 2001–02 is a collector's favourite for one reason: it belongs to the season Bert van Marwijk's side won the UEFA Cup at De Kuip. Pierre van Hooijdonk had already dragged them past PSV on penalties in the quarter-finals with a 90th-minute equaliser, then scored a free kick and a penalty in the final against Borussia Dortmund, with Jon Dahl Tomasson adding a third after Jan Koller replied.

Three decades earlier they became the first Dutch club to win a major European trophy, beating Celtic at the San Siro in 1970 when Ove Kindvall scored three minutes from the end of extra time. Their 2016–17 home shirt won the 2010s category in the fan vote.

Beyond the big three: AZ, Twente and the decade winners

The best Eredivisie kits list gets more interesting outside Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Eindhoven. AZ Alkmaar's 2008–09 Canterbury home shirt came from the season they won the title ahead of Twente and Ajax, and FC Twente's 2008–09 Diadora home kit has aged beautifully. The league's decade winners say the same: MVV for the fifties, Heracles Almelo the sixties, De Graafschap 1976–77 the seventies, NAC Breda 1982–83 the eighties, FC Groningen 1991–92 the nineties and sc Heerenveen 2001–02 the 2000s.

If Dutch football is your entry point, the national side is the obvious companion buy — browse our Netherlands jerseys hub, the wider national teams collection or the Europe range, and read the best Netherlands jerseys of all time.

Buying Dutch classics without getting burned

Older Eredivisie shirts are a fake-heavy corner of the market, partly because few buyers know what a real Kappa or Fila label should look like. Check the collar construction, sponsor print and wash label against known examples, and read how to spot counterfeit football jerseys before bidding on anything unverified.

For modern shirts, decide whether you want a tight match-grade fit or a roomier terrace fit — our authentic versus replica comparison covers it, and the size guide will stop you ordering too small. Caring for it properly is what keeps a sponsor print intact for twenty years. Buying with resale in mind? Read which jerseys gain value and our pick of the best retro football jerseys to collect. Fixtures and club history sit on the official Eredivisie site.

Start your Dutch shirt collection

The best Eredivisie kits reward people who look past the trophy winners, which makes Dutch football one of the most rewarding things to collect right now. Browse our retro jerseys and classic jerseys ranges for the vintage end, or the Premier League collection if a Dutch export's current club suits you better. Our FAQ covers sizing and shipping, about us explains how we source stock, and the blog has more kit history — including Ligue 1 and the Euros.