It is almost that time of year again when thoughts turn from how last season ended to what we will be wearing attending Albion games in the upcoming season. Yes, Nike will soon be showing us the kit designs they have dreamt up for Brighton.
Some fans will have extremely little interest at all. Fair enough. Replica football shirts are not for everyone. And apparently there is a World Series of Soccer happening in the US of A to follow rather than worry about how the Albion’s blue and white stripes will look in 2026-27.
For others though, there is more to it than a like or dislike of whatever variation on a theme. Although with the release of Newcastle United’s “barcode” inspired home kit and floor tiles themed away kit, the standard seems to have been set in terms of designs which give everyone plenty to chew on.
As with so much else in the modern game, money comes into play. A team that features in the middle to upper Premier League table on a regular basis, as the Albion now do, is estimated to make somewhere in the region of £10 million to £40 million from sales of replica shirts each year. Enough to buy a player or even two if we take the fee for Zadok Yohanna as a guide.
For the elite, “global brand” clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, it could be £150 million or more. Put another way, the Albion probably get the equivalent of all of Chelsea’s shirt revenue in transfer fees each season.
As The Football Week note, however, the clubs do not pocket all of the revenue. Manufacturers like Nike and Adidas keep a decent share. Then there is VAT and sales through third party retailers rather than club megastore or websites. Not enough goes to the people who actually stitch it together.
Forking out £80 to be a walking billboard
Clubs want their replica shirts to sell so that they can secure bigger sponsorship deals. Basically, we all fork out £80 a shirt in order to be walking billboards for various global brands.
From the start of next season, those brands will not include betting companies and sites. Although these will still be allowed on sleeves, just not the front of shirts. This is welcome and it will be interesting to see which brands fill that gap, literally.
Of course, you do not have to spend £80 on a new shirt each season. You can wear an old one. Wear something else entirely.
Or you can avail yourself of a “replica replica” from various online emporia or holiday destination market stalls. Quality may vary, as they say. Fabrics used may cause skin irritation say others.
I bought a copy of last season’s yellow third kit online. The reason? I was anticipating going to more away games than usual, but thought it might only be worn on one or two occasions by the team. So I did not want to pay full whack for something with such a limited shelf life.
At around £15. the quality was better than expected. It came with all the detail right down to the Nike tags. And as it turned out, it got a lot more use than my purple away kit.
Purple away – when Nike try something different with a Brighton shirt
I bought my purple away kit second-hand at the start of the season from an Albion fan who had “bought the wrong size”. Why they did not exchange it, I do not know. Possibly a non-returnable “replica replica” which came from China. If so, I could not tell the difference.
My purple shirt has been worn maybe twice. I can certainly understand the unhappiness of fans who laid out £70 for an away strip that both fell foul of too many clashes and divided fan opinion in a largely negative way.
As I wrote in my column on kits last summer, I quite liked the design with its centrally placed logo and badge and its echo of the celebrated Ajax middle stripe.
The colour though was a bit of a misfire amongst most supporters. However, kids and supporters of Brighton Women seemed to like it. There was at least some market for it.
Divisive as the purple kit might have been, it was an attempt from Nike to find something different for a Brighton shirt. Just like the tomato red from 2022-23 and hyper turq of 2021-22 were a means of getting away from the yellow or black colours which seem to dominate Premier League away shirts.
The challenge Nike face in making Brighton blue and white interesting
Clubs and manufacturers face a difficult task each year. They have to produce a shirt that is new enough to drive sales of replica kit, yet faithful enough to a clubs traditional shirt colours and design.
Go too traditional, as Hull have done with their retro shirt for their Premier League comeback, and you can annoy a whole other section of your fanbase.
The new Spurs away kit looks like a mix of train seat moquette and what happens when your printer ink cartridge breaks.
Jan Paul van Hecke and his new colleagues will either be well camouflaged or cause migraines when they visit the Amex in February.
We moan about boring template copies but if a club and shirt manufacturer try something new, they get a pile on. Just like at the fan reaction to Newcastle’s ghastly aberration on the black and white stripes.
Less talked about in the response to that new Magpies shirt is similar designs have actually been used by Derby County and West Bromwich Albion previously, as well as clubs in Europe.
It is still horrible. Luckily, we will not have to see it at the Amex as Newcastle will wear their away kit when they visit.
Adidas are the current manufacturers of Newcastle kits, so the design may offer a cautionary note to those Albion fans would like to see Brighton ditch Nike and switch to the famous three-stripe German manufacturers.
It is unclear how long Brighton have to run on their Nike contract. But it is fair to assume Nike will be making Albion kits quite a few seasons into the future.
The 125th anniversary Brighton shirt
The latest Nike effort at a Brighton kit was the 125th anniversary shirt, part of an eye-wateringly expensive souvenir package costing fans £150.
Only 1,901 of these limited edition shirts were made. The fact there is still good availability in all sizes over than XXXL suggests the concept has not been as popular as the club and Nike were probably expecting.
Said all-blue polo short was met with a similarly negative reaction to the purple away kit. Its embossed logos blend into the background in an attempt to replicate the first ever shirt worn by Brighton back in 1901, when Nike swooshes and American Express logos did not adorn football kits.
The design of the 125th anniversary shirt is actually not a million miles off the 2020-21 Brighton home kit. That all blue with white pinstripes number from the lockdown season.
That Albion shirt drew plaudits from fans and writers alike, with many websites including talkSPORT rating it as the best in the league in the Premier League that year. Sales though were hit by the fact that it was worn largely in front of empty seats because of the pandemic.
Our limited edition Europa League shirt was equally controversial at the time. Some liked the design but many criticised the fit.
A good quality one will still earn you upwards of £100 on second hand sites though, underlying its popularity. Let us see if our second European tour prompts another kit.
Logic would say not, seeing as the club are already offering us one expensive special edition shirt to buy in 2026-27. Another might look like a bit of a money grab. But we will see.
Brighton kits 2026-27 – lucrative yet a potential pitfall
Bringing out a brand new kit every season is both lucrative and a potential pitfall for football clubs. A costly exercise for parents and completist fans alike.
Throw in the away kit and you are spending upwards of £150 on top of the price of your season ticket before a ball has even been kicked.
I do not envy the club staffer who has to choose what slightly different version of blue and white stripes goes in front of the jury of fans for adoration or derision this year.
Whatever design Nike and Brighton come up with, I am just pleased that it will be worn for a 10th season in a row in the Premier League.
And that kids in a faraway country will be wearing our club badge with pride no matter what they think of the stripes. Even if it is a knockoff copy.
Warren Morgan @warrenmorgan
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About The Author
A third generation Brighton fan, Warren went to his first game during the brief managerial tenure of Brian Clough at the same time as trialists like Chester City legend Grenville Millington lodged at his parents’ house near the Goldstone Ground.
After growing up on the East Terrace, Warren travelled to Newcastle in 1979 and Wembley in 1983 before graduating to the North Stand for the latter half of the 80s.
Following a shamefully long absence for university, work and a little bit of politics, Warren has been an East Stand season ticket holder since the start of the Amex era – carrying on the tradition started by his grandad, who stood on the terraces of the Goldstone over a century ago.