“This kit is for the City that plays in the rain. The shirt is designed for those who carry City in their hearts, rain or shine.” That might read like the sort of advertising slogan a primary school child would write. But no, Manchester City’s own press team have gone with what must very much have been a first draft when launching their third kit for the 2025/26 season.
And it gets even more bizarre when you see the design of the shirt: a slate grey number with raindrop patterning… City by now are literally trolling the people of Manchester with their weather-inspired strip.
Representing our new 25/26 third kit 👊
Shop now ⤵️
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 14, 2025
City fans with a desire to dress like a grey cloud – or willing to line the club’s coffers come what may – will pay around £85 for an adult sized shirt. The response has been, shall we say, mixed. Comments on social media have not been kind to the design, with The Sun quoting one City fan as stating: “This might just end up being the most terrible kit in the history of the Prem.”
To make matters all the more cringeworthy, this third kit – as well as the home and away shorts – are the first produced by Puma for Manchester City since they signed a £1 billion manufacturing agreement. Money well spent… or not.
Of course, it’s unlikely that City will ever wear the third kit in a competitive game. Their home colours are sky blue while their away shirt is now black, so the chance of a colour clash down the line is remote, at best. All of which begs the question: why have they, or any other football club, even bothered to make a third kit in the first place?
Why Do Football Clubs Have a Third Kit?
Believe it or not, third kits in football aren’t a spoke on the wheel of modern capitalism. In fact, the first third strip was worn way back in 1948. Manchester United were contesting the FA Cup final that year against Blackpool, with their traditional red shirts considered a colour clash with the Tangerines’ particular shade of orange.
Football Association rules back then dictated that when there was a colour clash, both teams had to change their kits. But in this case, both Manchester United and Blackpool had white away kits, which left the FA with something of a head-scratcher. So they allowed Blackpool to wear white, but ordered United to fashion a third kit in a shade of blue – the first documented use of an alternative shirt in English football.
Colour Clashes Back in the Day
There was a farcical situation at no less a tournament than the World Cup in 1978. France and Hungary found themselves with only their white away kits available for their group game, so they had to scramble for a solution – in the end, Les Bleus wore the green strip of local Argentine side, Club Atletico Kimberley.
So third kits were often a necessity, rather than a commercial concept. But that all changed in the 2000s, when some bright spark realised that loyal fans will buy pretty much any kit that their club will put out… regardless of whether they will even play in it.
At first, clubs would use the same design as their home and away kits just in a different colour. But, over time, they have begun to flex their creative muscle in designing a completely unique third shirt… often with eyebrow-raising results, as Manchester City fans can attest.
Modern Day Commercialism
These days, colour clashes are effectively a thing of the past. No longer do both teams have to change in the event of a clash, with the home team given precedence to wear their first kit and the visitors having to switch to their away. And so, yep, third kits are merely a commercial vehicle in modern football designed to part loyal fans from their money once again.
Mind you, not all third kits have been designed with revenue in mind. The likes of Bolton Wanderers, Cheltenham Town and Stevenage have all developed a third kit with a charity partner, with a percentage of all sales donated to the good cause in question.
The Worst Third Kits in Football History
As mentioned, third kit designers don’t always follow the rules… with often disastrous consequences. We’ll take Manchester City’s raindrops and raise you Athletic Bilbao’s tomato ketchup stain… sorry, blood splatter.
Athletic Bilbao 2004
The Spanish outfit celebrated their centenary in 2004, releasing a one-off third kit inspired by works in Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum. Unfortunately, the blood splatter concept was ended when somebody noted that it looked like a blob of tomato ketchup instead… the kit was quietly put out to pasture by Athletic Club after being worn just once.
Sporting Braga 2019
😰 SC Braga’s new kit is interesting to say the least… pic.twitter.com/LHKA6JNByV
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) July 3, 2019
There’s also Sporting Braga’s third kit from 2019/20. The Portuguese side released a shirt with depiction of a Roman soldier going into battle, complete with silver body armour motif.
Man City 2021
Pushing boundaries 👊
Tap to shop our 21/22 Third Kit! ⬇️
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klUGiM
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 18, 2021
Whether by accident or design, Manchester City produced a third kit in 2021/22 that resembled a cheap knock-off that you might acquire from overseas. The plain dark blue shirt had ‘Man City’ written in large letters across the chest, with the club badge nowhere to be seen.
So abominable was it that the Manchester Evening News, a publication that is very much pro-City, published an article titled ‘Four Manchester City Kits Even Worse Than the 2021/22 Third Shirt.’
Liverpool 2011
As well as mind-boggling designs, there’s also the lurking catastrophe waiting-to-happen of a foolish choice of colour. Take Liverpool’s third kit of 2011/12, for example. It was mostly white, admittedly, but look at the trim, the accentuations and the sponsor logo. Blue. Why would anyone designing a Liverpool kit decide to incorporate blue, the colour of their detested rivals Everton?
