The Ranking of Football Kit Brands
Which are the leading brands for football kits in 2024? Competition in the kit supplier market is strong - Footy Headlines tries to rank all important football kit brands in Europe's top leagues.
Top Football Brands
We have chosen 15 brands that supply kits in the top European leagues for our 2024 Football Kit Brand Ranking. Of course, it is not a definitive ranking, and you certainly rank brands at least slightly different than us.
To rank each brand against each other, we considered the number of teams sponsored by each brand, the designs, the quality, and the pricing of the kits.
You can check out the football kits and their ratings on the Football Kit Archive, which features virtually every kit of every brand. We have taken into account the votes of Football Kit Archive users for this ranking.
Top Three Brands: Macron > Adidas > Kappa
Macron has risen to the top thanks to its high quality and unique kits for virtually every club the Italian brand sponsors. No other brand takes as much care about football kits as Macron.
Adidas comes second. The 3 Stripes brand is currently the favorite brand of many people in the football sphere, thanks to the number of top teams and designs. However, we rank Adidas below Macron as Adidas provides generic kits for many teams, which shows Adidas' lack of interest in the wider kit market.
Macron makes bespoke kits for every club
Kappa takes the third place. Why? Regarding designs, Kappa surely has made some of the best kits of the year. Meanwhile, Kappa failed to deliver great kits for its bigger clubs this season, such as the current season Monaco and awful Kaizer Chiefs kits. Kappa is great, but Adidas and Macron are better overall.
Mid-Tier Brands: Nike > Hummel > Mizuno > Umbro > New Balance > Puma > Le Coq Sportif > Jako > Kelme
Nike's disinvestment in Men's football has been heavy in recent years, causing the brand to lose several of its top clubs. Still, Nike makes it to the fourth place in our ranking. Why? Tech- and innovation-wise, Nike's kits are the best in the market. However, some ideas, like the upside-down Swoosh, were just horrific. We are sure that for many, Nike's 4th place is way too high. However, Nike is still a great choice for big clubs, who get bespoke kits with great quality.
Hummel comes fifth, thanks to their fantastic designs and top quality for teams like Bremen, Malaga, and Betis. We did not rank Hummel higher because many kits of smaller teams fail to meet Hummel's high standard, both in terms of design and, more importantly, quality. Mizuno is known for its quality craftsmanship. The Japanese brand is gaining traction in Europe, but does not supply enough teams to rank them higher.
Getting Castore as a kit supplier is a nightmare for many fans
Place seven, eight, and nine are taken by bigger brands - Umbro, New Balance, and Puma. These brands fail to create big interest in their products - Umbro has no real identity that matches the glorious past, while New Balance lacks a top team after the brand lost Liverpool. Puma currently seems to have no real plan of what they are doing. The brand has very inconsistent designs and has released a few awful kits in 2024 - e.g., the Man City fourth kit and two horrific yellow BVB home kits.
Smaller brands like Jako, Kelme, Le Coq Sportif are only active in niche markets currently. They are not bad but rarely have any presence.
Brands That Need to Improve: Lotto > Joma > Castore
Can you name a team that is sponsored by Lotto? Chances are high that you can't. Lotto's only important team is Monza, and the Monza kits are awful. Joma has a solid number of European Top 5 league teams but consistently manages to release some horror kits. Castore takes the last place. Why? Castore is faced with quality problems again and again. Therefore, the brand lost several teams. It is a brand that many fans fear to become their favorite team's new kit maker.
Which kit brand is your favorite, and why? Let us know!
