Football fan looking shocked
Shutterstock AI / Shutterstock.com

The Most Unsuccessful (and Controversial) Kit Launches of All Time

General / July 30, 2025

In odd-numbered years, European football experiences a complete summer shutdown. Or at least it did, anyway, until the revamped Club World Cup came along. Previously, the players got to enjoy a full summer of recharging the batteries away from the rigours of international tournaments, while football fans were left scouting around for ways to watch the beautiful game – the Chilean Liga de Primera, anyone?

But as July gets underway, fans can start to dream of what might be in the new campaign. The players return to training and the first pre-season friendlies are played, new signings are revealed, fixture lists are released and new kits are launched. That last item on the agenda is vital for clubs of all sizes, which merchandise sales key to helping balance the books.

So they need two things: a kit that will sell well, and a launch campaign that won’t attract any unnecessarily negative press. Strangely, achieving those two feats seems remarkably difficult for some. In 2025, the rollcall of horror was expanded to include Forest Green Rovers, Crawley Town and Newcastle United.

Hot (Under the Collar) Summer

Vegans, tridents and Japanese Imperialism… three things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to be connected to modern football.

Forest Green Rovers


But each has formed part of some of the most controversial kit launches of the summer of 2025 in English football, with Forest Green under the microscope first. In fairness, the idea of a vegan kit that is sustainable, made from environmentally-friendly material and which can be recycled at the end of use, is both innovative and applaudable. It’s just that the design is, erm, unorthodox.

The National League side will turn out for games in 2025/26 in a leopard print design – the away kit in a particularly garish hue of pink. “I’m really pleased to unveil our bold, bright new kit that’s inspired by nature and helping nature,” said Forest Green chairman, Dale Vince. Unfortunately, the club’s fans were less enamoured. “Genuinely didn’t think it could get any worse than our previous home kits but that tops it, absolutely horrendous,” wrote one supporter in one of the more politely worded reviews.

Crawley Town


Meanwhile, Crawley Town have attempted to rewrite history with their third kit for 2025/26. The Red Devils have lived up to their nickname by completely doing away with the club’s badge – iterations of which have been used for more than 100 years – and replacing it with an image of a devil’s trident instead.

Although only depicted on the third kit, fans are worried that the trident could replace the traditional badge on home and away kits in years to come – perhaps fearing that the club’s American owners may be plotting a franchise-style name change to the Crawley Red Devils, or similar. Local newspaper The Sussex Express euphemistically described the response of supporters as ‘mixed’.

Newcastle United

As for Newcastle United, the actual new kit itself is perfectly serviceable. But the video used to help launch it… not so much. The idea was to introduce the Magpies as a club with a global fanbase, including in Japan, where one supporter holds a flag bearing the phrase ‘NUFC Japan’.

Unfortunately, said flag bears a close resemblance to the Rising Sun, the iconography of the Japanese armed forces in the Second World War – a nod to the country’s imperialist past. Newcastle pulled the video and released a statement: “The launch video contained a scene that could inadvertently cause offence. We apologise for that.”

Dead On Arrival


When Nike issued a ‘playful update’ of the St George’s Cross on England’s new kit in 2024, they ignited a culture war. The American firm, not always known for embracing cultural sensitivities – just ask the Chinese Football Association, unilaterally decided that the English national flag needed an update, so changed its colour palette to purple and blue instead.

It was a kit launch that even saw the Prime Minister chime in on the debate over national identity, and that – allied to a retail price of £84.99 for an adult size replica – left Nike treading PR water. Although controversial in its intent and execution, England’s Nike kit has remained on sale and been worn by the players for more than a year since. But some of the most controversial kit launches last a few weeks at best.

Club Deportivo Palestino

Club Deportivo Palestino play in the aforementioned Chilean Liga de Primera, and as you may have gathered from their name they were formed by Palestinian immigrants back in 1920. Unsurprisingly, they have taken an anti-Israeli stance over the years, although their 2014 kit was deemed to have gone a step too far.

The player numbers on the back of the shirt were shaped into an ancient map of Palestine… from a time before Israel was created and the landscape was altered. Complaints came in and Palestino were forced to scrap the kit after just three games of the season.

Cameroon

Cameroon made it all the way though the Africa Cup of Nations in 2002 wearing their vest shirt, a sleeveless number that was against many of FIFA’s rules on playing kit design. So when the Indomitable Lions qualified for the World Cup in 2002, they were put on a direct collision course with the governing body. As mitigation, they stitched black sleeves onto their green vest… just about circumnavigating FIFA rules.

Fiorentina

It took half-a-season for Fiorentina’s questionable design in 1992/93 to be outlawed. Although later confirmed to be entirely incidental, geometric shapes on the shirt’s chest, shoulders and sleeves bore an uncanny resemblance to the Nazi swastika. The kit was pulled halfway through the campaign, but La Viola’s form tailed off – almost simultaneously to the controversy – and they were relegated to Serie B.