Arsenal to bring back classic kit design for next season: report
Arsenal fans are already looking ahead to what next year's kits might look like - and one looks like a stunner
Since partnering with Adidas in 2018, Arsenal have released some of the best kits in the Premier League.
This season's third shirt was ranked at No.19 in FourFourTwo's roundup from worst to best in the league this season, with previous seasons' efforts becoming modern classics. The Gunners regularly top the charts when it comes to shirt sales – and it looks like next season could be no different.
The German manufacturer has already produced a two-tone blue top referencing classic Nike shirts of the 90s. It looks like there could be another new jersey for the Gunners, however, that takes direct inspiration from one of the club's greatest-ever.
Arsenal are set to bring back a classic away shirt design from the 90s
According to renowned kit site, Footy Headlines, Arsenal's away shirt next season will be light blue with dark blue patterning, taking its cues from the iconic 1995/96 change strip. The source can't confirm lightning bolts – but it seems likely, given that the original top was essentially a half-and-half shirt with the lightning pattern.
The lightning bolt pattern has become synonymous with the club, appearing in the crest of the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse from where the club was originally formed in Woolwich and making it into multiple shirt designs from both Nike and Adidas over the years. The pattern has even become popular in concept Arsenal kits, too.
So far, very little is known about the shirt itself. The logos will likely be white, with the two tones of blue forming the pattern itself.
This away shirt will follow a home shirt that Footy Headlines claims will just be red and white, eschewing a third colour after this year's top added navy blue and last year's incorporated gold. The website claims the third kit for next season will be white, dark red and gold.
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Arsenal's current kits have gone down extremely well with fans, with the current away shirt drawing on patterns inspired by Africa. The third shirt, meanwhile, has drawn comparisons online with Sully from Disney/Pixar hit, Monsters Inc.
The club could well return to the full badge for next season following stripping back their crest to just the canon this season. Adidas may well bring back the Trefoil logo as used in selected kits this season, too.
Adidas have manufactured Arsenal's kits before, of course. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the German brand brought out classics such as the bruised banana – but never actually released a blue Arsenal shirt.
It was a rival who led the way with blue for Arsenal when they took over in the mid-1990s. The Gunners had a navy away shirt decades before, but it was deemed to be too close to the black top of the referee, so they switched to yellow and blue… only for Nike to release the iconic blue 'lightning' shirts during their run as kit manufacturer.
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Adi have since released shirts inspired by the old blue Nike designs. Last season's home kit, meanwhile, took elements of Nike's 2002-2004 shirt, which the club wore when they won their last Premier League title in 2003/04.
The Arsenal away shirt for 2024/25 looks like being released next June or July – but could come out sooner if Arsenal choose to wear it before the season ends.
Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.