extremely official officially official 2026 nwsl kit ra(n)tings

We hath been #blessed with a new batch of NWSL kits—well, sort of. Every team got a new kit, but some will be third kits, which means teams will carry over the same primary and secondary kits from last season, while others used the opportunity to replace a kit in their range. One day I will understand why Nike and the NWSL are like this, but today is not that day. Rather than worrying about that, I will instead get to my civic duty of assessing them all.

To do so I will be using a modified variation of the internet’s ‘Tier List’. My ra(n)ting scale will be as follows:

Kits will be reviewed on the basis of vibes, my background as a retired graphic designer, and lengthy history as a chronically online opinion haver. Argue if you must, I was born for this. Let the judgment begin!

Angel City blessed us with the best kits an expansion team has ever had, but has struggled to give us anything interesting since. This ain’t ‘fall outta my chair hootin & hollerin’ good, but it is a step in the right direction.

I'm not super into the central crest idea that seems to be all the rage these days, but it works here because the design gives it a reason to be there. The pattern is reminiscent of the art deco style design of their first shirt, and the intricate, repeated design works well with the eye to give it the desired effect.

I don't have an urge to shove my debit card into my phone until I get a tracking number, and I would like to feel that way again about an Angel City shirt. But if the contrast is sharp enough these should look fun on tv, and what more can Face Card FC ask for.

Rating: Black Guy Head Nod of Approval

Bay FC are annoying tbh. They actually have a very distinct kit range, with each one of their colors forming the base of each shirt. This poppy colored shirt rounds out their collection. There’s just one, tiny, eensy weensy wittle problem: the kits are basic.

This is the problem with not really having a design direction or input and just letting Nike figure it all out. If this was the Nike of the 90s then you absolutely stay out of their way. But that Nike is gone, and if you’re going to produce a kit that's interesting beyond the color, you really must have some ideas of your own.

The bridge print is meh, not bad but I would like it if it were more prominent, like if some of the lines were a thin black to tie the shirt together. Instead it’s just a nondescript background that you lose interest in as soon as you see any bit of bridge. I like the script ‘BFC’ and black shorts, but there were ways to spice this up, or make it an inverted version of their other two kits. Basically…

Rating: Do Less, Or Do More, I Don’t Care

As an expansion team Boston (and Denver, don’t worry I’ll get to them) had two kits to drop. They had me scared in the first half when they released their first, which was an annoyingly standard green shirt. But their secondary kit is a swing, and that's what an expansion team should be trying to do in every aspect—make a little noise.

This is certainly noisy.

The press release calls is the Common Ground Kit and states that ‘the kit showcases a layered collage inspired by the distinct neighborhoods that make up the City of Boston.’ That's a pretty cool idea and obvious box to tic as a new team introducing itself to the local community it wants to show up to their games.

The execution of the kit is a bit off to me though. I like the bold color blocks in abstract shapes, and the printing inside makes each unique, but it’s lacking depth and/or a unifying element to take it from ‘toddler art project’ to A-rated kit. Still, it’s distinct, meaningful to the locale, and will be interesting on television. It’s fine.

Rating: At Least You Tried

I'm going to admit, I’m automatically skeptical of anything design-related done by Chicago’s new ownership, because they have shown that we cannot trust them (‘…the ball, representing soccer…’). But also because I know what the combination of those colors, the flag, and the city of Chicago has the potential to be. New ownership hasn’t come close, and instead seem to be de-swaggifying the one thing the club had a history of consistently getting right.

Objectively though, this is not a bad shirt. I'm not a fan of wide vertical stripes, but the tri-color treatment and variety of weights is well done and creates an overall clean looking shirt. It’s just rather boring, and also signals a bit of an identity crisis. It's extremely m8-coded, innit-core, bruv-maxxing. If this is part of a new consistent identity in which they carry over stripes a la Barcelona and Newcastle, fine I guess, but I get the feeling that this is just a(nother) wasted opportunity to do something interesting.

Also the large cutout for the sponsor + wide stripes makes the white space create an ‘H’, so they are now the Hicago Tsars. You did this to yourself.

Rating: Do Less, Or Do More, I Don’t Care

I'm including both shirts here because, unlike Boston who at least tried with one kit, Denver decided to try with neither. Their fans were all over Bluesky listing reasons why their team's kits aren’t all that bad and that even if you think they are bad it’s not the team’s fault, but I'm not having any of that.

Two shirts introducing a brand new team and there’s nary a single design element between them, so both gotta catch this deserved slander. They’re droning math professor levels of boring, and the secondary shirt is straight up ugly (ol’ Carlton ass sweater vest lookin ass shirt)—and there’s no reason for it. Angel City set the bar with their inaugural kits, but they weren’t the only ones to bring it. Literally the only thing Rahsing Louisville got right to begin their NWSL existence was two banger kits, and they even had to deal with a rebrand after Proof Louisville FC was correctly mocked.

You only get one chance at a first impression in real life, and when it comes to being an expansion team, you only get one chance to make an entrance before you’re just another team on the schedule. Sure there will be plenty of time and opportunities to make statements on the pitch, but there’s no law against doing both. I checked.

Rating: You Have Disgraced Yourself, And You Must Be Punished

What in tarnation.

Ok so it's a third kit and third kits are meant to be a little wacky, a little zany, and have a little razzle dazzle to them, but that doesn’t mean that’s always good. Case in point: this thing.

There’s way too much going on and there’s no cohesion or reasoning behind it. I don't despise the use of Lady Liberty, even if everything she represents is under attack right now. But it also feels like a surface level thing that would have made more sense during the rebrand. Surely there are more deep cuts to spotlight around *checks notes* New York Thee City than the one monument everyone already knows about.

Also, erm, I’m not sure why this is a third kit. If you look at Gotham's kit range there are two duds, and now this thing. Focusing on upgrading one of the other two shirts would have been a much better move. Also the orange is a nod to Sky Blue, which, for ‘don’t forget where you came from purposes’, is cute. But some past deserves to stay in the past, there's a reason we don’t talk about David Bowie’s ‘Thin White Duke’ phase. Anywhoodles, back to the kit…

Rating: Eileen Gu’s Dismissive Laugh

This shirt is a surprise banger. I didn’t know how I felt about it at first, but the longer I looked at it, especially with the shorts and socks, the more excited I got about it. The collage is a bunch of Houston-specific scenery, including the Houston Chronicle building, which houses one of the largest and oldest daily newspapers in the country. Given that Jeff Bezos is killing The Washington Post and journalistic outlets everywhere are shriveling and dying, this speaks to my soul.

In addition, they dropped not one but TWO accent colors on us, and both are visually interesting and contrast well with the soft blue. The accents connect the shirt to the shorts and down to the socks, and I love it.

Rating: Raise Hell, Praise Dale

I have sympathy for the designer here. It’s not a bad design at all; there’s contrast, there’s interesting colors, there’s depth. It's nice. But it is very hard to portray currents, because they are invisible forces that determine the speed and direction of bodies of water. I get it, back in my design days I would smile, feign enthusiasm, then sit for a couple hours with my head pressed against the keyboard.

I do, I promise I get it. I really do. And—not but, and—it looks like silly string. It looks like twelve Easter-themed strands of angel hair pasta that fell on the floor. It also might be the ooze that created the Ninja Turtles.

Ok, now that all that is out of my system, I actually think the kit goes hard. It’s unique, it hits the theme (as best it could), has an exceptional color combination, and a motion blur shot of Temwa Chawinga in this kit is gonna immediately become a candidate for photo of the year. Please forgive my clowning—jokes first and all that—but this is a banger.

Rating: Raise Hell, Praise Dale

If you’re going to give a shirt an accent color, then, somewhere within the shirt, like, the actual design of the shirt, we need to see that accent color. Instead we have this nice contrasting neon fuchsia that’s reserved to the very base of the sleeves, and outlines around the Courage crest and Nike logo.

A shame. Weaving some of that color in would have been fun. It’s a shirt covered in blue venus fly traps (which are native to North Carolina, who knew), so a little fuchsia fly on the kit would have been funny and kinda adorable. Give me color, give me fun, give me whimsy, especially from a third kit. Which…

My main gripe is that it’s not very third kit-y, especially when you look at the full range. The (bad) primary shirt looks like it’s covered in giant shards of glass and has a similar deep blue base, so there’s no reason for them to exist in the same collection. They get an F for not understanding the assignment, but the shirt is at least an improvement over what they’ve been wearing.

Rating: At Least You Tried

One day I looked up and suddenly had a closet full of Orlando pride shirts. I’m not sure how that happened, I didn’t ask for this or see it coming, but life is full of surprises. And I will absolutely be adding this shirt to the family.

First, the approach and meaning behind the shirt is perfect. According to their press release, ‘…the Unity Kit honors the strength, togetherness and unbreakable spirit that defined the Orlando community in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy ten years ago.’ The Pride are also donating $20,000 from jersey sales to The Center Orlando, who runs the Orlando United Resiliency Services (OURS) program, which that supports the LGBTQ+ community. Given their state's constant attacks on queer folks, this is a fine way for a club to connect with and support an often targeted community. Yup, take my money.

Second, it’s also just really cool. It's a soft prism that, at least in photos, seems to highlight different colors in this shirt depending on light. I’ll be back here hootin & hollerin if the replica shirt pulls this off, but even if not it’s still a very pretty shirt that I will enjoy wearing—for multiple reasons.

Rating: “That’s What I’m F*ckin Talkin About”

This kit is difficult for me to judge. In the promo shots above it's two soft but contrasting shades of pink and green. In other content posted online the pink turns red and the green appears yellow. If it’s red and yellow in real life then I’m much more down on the kit overall.

Though I guess it goes in line with their shirt sponsor to promote yourself as one thing—home safety, community, even finding your lost dog!—while actually being something else.

Rating (if pink & green): Black Guy Head Nod of Approval
Rating (if red & yellow): Eileen Gu’s Dismissive Laugh

This is how you third kit, and the history behind it is an incredible deep cut.

According to the release, ‘Louisville-based Omega Mirror Products is the leading manufacturer of disco balls worldwide.' Honestly had no idea, and that is a fact that is both fun and somewhat hilarious. Apparently when disco was at its peak they claim that their facility manufactured around 90% of disco balls in the whole entire world. Louisville, Kentucky. Tremendous.

The shirt itself is a banger even without the backstory. They chose an emerald green and royal purple, which is an elite color combination that really pops on a black base. I also love that the design elements aren’t just blobs of color, there’s texture and repetition to keep it interesting. Thoughtfulness, local spotlight, design, colors, execution, ‘LOOAVUL’—how can I say anything other than…

Rating: “That’s What I’m F*ckin Talkin About”

Those colors and that crest, yet you give us a plain shirt with colorful trim. Get out of my face.

Rating: Do Less, Or Do More, I Don’t Care

Disappointing tbh. I Like the contrast of the trim and integrating the sponsor and logos into the design by making them the accents, but that's it? The design element is abstract and not really interesting, and gives way more ‘fun training top’ than hell yeah nice new shirt.

It being a third shirt, they could have leaned more heavily into their history with another highlighter kit (I get that’s the wink wink of the accent color, but that’s your lore and fun history, don’t wink it). The team's other kits feature a combination of deep navy, white and gold. Therey already have deep navy and white covered as bases, it would have been cool to see gold, and would fit with our forever queen who we are delighted has returned.

The accent color will help it stand out, and I get the intended direction, but given everything to pull from I expected a better end product.

Rating: At Least You Tried

Designed for the Fascism Enthusiast in your life.

Utah has been rockin with that sponsor ever since they came back and despite ***waves hands at everything*** they want to gaslight people with ‘Oh you silly billy, it’s just a bank!', as if words lose meaning just because they’re trademarked. In another kit review I went over the history of that bank, and how their name change curiously coincided with the rise of the America First party in the 80s.

It's all there, they and the league just don't care. And now the sponsor is in bright yellow on a black kit, making it even more prominent.

Terrific. Disgusting. GTFOH.

Rating: You Have Disgraced Yourself, And You Must Be Punished

Years, in fact, over one whole decade of begging, pleading, and screaming for a cherry blossom shirt and we, at long fucking last, have one. I can't say it was well worth the wait, because that would diminish the length of the wait and depth of the yearning. But one is finally here, and it is lovely.

There are some things I would change, so in recognition of the #YearOfTheHater let’s start there first. The white outline around the CVS logo is too thick and clashes with the overall concept of the shirt. Because this is America, I’m going to guess there was some capitalist #corporate #synergy and #prominent #brand #placement reasons for this, and sure, but it's still annoying. Also, Spirit, please for the love of God, Beyoncé and Wunmi Mosaku, finish your dang rebrand. I respect that the designer tried to tuck the blacked out crest in a blob of black dots but it’s only necessary because the Spirit have been engaged in the world’s longest rebrand (going on three years now).

Having said all that, I have nothing but beaming heart eyes emojis for the rest. The dot motif allows for depth and movement around the shirt, and there’s plenty of contrast within similar (multiple greens) and contrasting (vivid pinks) colors. I also really like the framing on the back of the shirt. Normally I like for a design to envelope the shirt front and back but this design is a lot, and breaking it up works. It makes the name and numbers more readable, and looks like it’s supposed to be part of the shirt (which unfortunately means buying one without a name and number on the back will seem incomplete, tell your bank account I am sorry).

Rating: “That’s What I’m F*ckin Talkin About”

The end. ■