The Best Premier League Kits of All Time: 11 Classic Shirts

Ask three supporters to name the best Premier League kits of all time and you will get four answers, two arguments and someone insisting their club's 1994 third shirt was criminally underrated. Three decades of English top-flight football have given us bruised bananas, brewery sponsors, a cream away shirt that had no business working, and one grey disaster that was abandoned at half-time.

What turns a Premier League shirt into a classic

It is rarely just the design. The shirts that survive in the collective memory usually tie a bold bit of kit design to a season that mattered, and they almost always come from an era when manufacturers were willing to take a risk. The mid-nineties sit at the heart of almost every ranking because baggy cuts, shadow patterns and loud lager sponsors happened to coincide with some of the most dramatic title races the league has produced.

There is a practical element too. A classic shirt is one people still want to wear twenty years on, which is why so many of these designs have been reissued. If you are weighing up an original against a modern remake, our guide to retro versus reissue football shirts explains what you gain and lose with each.

Newcastle United 1995–97 home

Few shirts are as tied to a moment as this one. Made by adidas and carrying the Newcastle Brown Ale oval on the chest, it was worn by Kevin Keegan's side through the two seasons in which they finished Premier League runners-up, and it was on the backs of David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Philippe Albert and later Alan Shearer. The three stripes down the sleeve, the deep black-and-white bars and that unmistakable brewery badge make it the shirt most people picture when they think of nineties Newcastle. adidas has since brought it back as an official remake, which tells you plenty about the demand.

Manchester United 1992–94 home

The shirt that won the first Premier League title, and then the first domestic double of the new era. Umbro's design was deceptively simple — a red body, a white collar and the Sharp wordmark across the chest — but it has aged beautifully precisely because it did not chase a gimmick. Eric Cantona wore it with his collar turned up, which did more for its legacy than any marketing campaign ever could. If you are hunting for later United classics, our rundown of the top five Manchester United jerseys of the last decade picks up the story, and the full range sits in our Manchester United jerseys collection.

Arsenal 1991–93 away: the bruised banana

Officially it was a yellow adidas away shirt with a navy and black zigzag. To everyone else it was the bruised banana, and it is probably the single most recognisable away shirt in English football. It carried over into the inaugural Premier League season of 1992–93, which is enough to qualify it here, and it has been reissued so often that it now functions as a piece of nineties design shorthand. You will find current and heritage Gunners shirts in our Arsenal jerseys and Arsenal classic jerseys sections.

Blackburn Rovers 1994–95 home

Asics made the shirt in which Blackburn won the Premier League, and the McEwan's Lager sponsorship gives it a time stamp you could not fake. Alan Shearer scored 34 league goals in it that season, and the clean blue-and-white halves with those narrow Asics stripes still look sharper than most of what surrounded them. It is the best argument available that a title-winning shirt does not need a famous badge to become collectable — a point we expand on in our piece on which football shirts gain value.

Liverpool 1996–97 away: the ecru shirt

On paper, a cream-coloured Liverpool away shirt should have been a disaster. In practice Reebok's 1996–97 away kit, with Carlsberg across the front and green and black trim, became one of the most sought-after shirts of the decade. It is the kind of design that no committee would approve today, and it is loved for exactly that reason. More Reds shirts, modern and vintage, are in our Liverpool jerseys range.

Arsenal 2005–06: the Highbury farewell

Nike's redcurrant home shirt marked Arsenal's final season at Highbury, with the colour chosen to echo the shirts the club wore in their first campaign at the ground in 1913. It was a genuinely clever bit of design — commemorative without being fussy — and it got the send-off it deserved when Arsenal beat Wigan Athletic 4–2 on 7 May 2006, Thierry Henry signing off with a hat-trick. It is one of the few modern shirts that consistently makes the same lists as the nineties greats.

Leicester City 2015–16: the 5,000–1 shirt

Puma's Leicester home shirt from 2015–16 is plain by the standards of this list: blue body, white trim, King Power across the chest. What makes it unforgettable is the season attached to it, when a side priced at 5,000–1 won the title. It is proof that the best Premier League kits of all time are not always the most adventurous ones — sometimes the story does the work. For more recent designs across the division, browse our Premier League jerseys and our overview of Premier League jerseys and what to look for.

The grey one: Manchester United 1995–96 away

No list of Premier League kits is complete without the shirt that lasted barely half a season. United's grey Umbro away kit was ditched at half-time at The Dell on 13 April 1996, with the side 3–0 down to Southampton; they changed into blue and white and lost 3–1. Sir Alex Ferguson's explanation was that his players could not pick each other out against the crowd. Matt Le Tissier was less than convinced. The shirt was never worn again, which has only made originals more desirable among collectors — the best football kits of the 1990s were not all good, but they were rarely boring.

Honourable mentions

Several more deserve a word. Umbro’s Everton home shirt of 1993–95 paired a rich royal blue with the NEC sponsorship and a subtle shadow pattern, and is routinely voted among the club's finest — the rest of our Everton jerseys are here. Also worth your time: Tottenham's adidas Holsten shirts from 1999–2001, Leeds United's Puma designs of 1996–98, Coventry City's Le Coq Sportif effort from 1996–97, and Manchester City's 2009–10 Umbro home shirt, which arrived just as the club's modern era began. You can see where each club's current range sits in our Tottenham Hotspur jerseys, Manchester City jerseys and Chelsea jerseys collections, or across the wider club team jerseys catalogue. The league's own official site is the place to check season-by-season records if you want to match a shirt to a finish.

Where to find the best Premier League kits of all time

Original nineties shirts command a premium and condition varies wildly, so know what you are paying for. Our guide to authentic versus replica football jerseys covers the difference in fit and fabric, and how to spot counterfeit football jerseys is worth five minutes before you commit to a vintage listing. Older shirts also ran larger than modern cuts, so check our football jersey size guide rather than assuming your usual size, and follow our jersey care advice to keep prints and badges intact.

Whether you are chasing a reissue of a nineties icon or a current shirt that might end up on this list in twenty years, our retro jerseys and classic jerseys collections are the best place to start, alongside our pick of the best retro football jerseys to collect. New arrivals and more kit history land regularly on the SideJersey blog, and if you have a question about sizing, shipping or authenticity, our FAQ has the answers. The best Premier League kits of all time are the ones you actually enjoy wearing — so pick the shirt that means something to you and wear it properly.