Arsenal’s new kit reviewed: Celebrating 20 years at the Emirates Stadium, but can you tell?
2026 looks like the 12 months of full-circle moments for Arsenal. Aside from difficult for the Premier League, they’ve additionally reached the Champions League last for the first time since 2006.
This 12 months additionally marks 20 since the membership moved from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, which was at the forefront of Adidas’ collective thoughts with Arsenal’s new residence kit design.
While it has change into conventional for golf equipment to debut their new kits at the finish of seasons, Arsenal will full this time period of their 2025-26 residence kit. As was the case at the finish of the 2023-24 season, when Arsenal wore that season’s kit in a final-day title-decider in opposition to Everton, it feels proper to see out a marketing campaign that can finish with silverware in the shirts that obtained you there.
At first look, you may very well be forgiven for asking the place ’20 years of Emirates Stadium’ inspiration shines via in the new providing. The physique of the shirt is pretty much like that of this season’s, albeit with out the Gothic A design synonymous with Arsenal in the 90s throughout it.
The Arsenal crest additionally stays all-white, which marks 4 seasons since the pink, blue and gold crest has been used on a house shirt. Some supporters might take concern with that, but I like the clear look that comes with the all-white model — my solely query is how sturdy the genuine model (which isn’t stitched in) can be after a number of washes.
The first nod to the Emirates comes round the neck. Adidas themselves reference a “bespoke crewneck collar inspired by the sweeping rooflines”, which do really feel current, but a distinct facet of the shirt stands out extra as somebody whose first Arsenal match was at the Emirates in 2007.
The early Emirates period got here when golf equipment nonetheless produced shirts that may usually be used for 2 seasons, and the Adidas stripes of the new kit remind me of one among my favorites from this era: the residence shirt used from 2008 till 2010. That was not a typical Arsenal shirt, with completely different shades of pink working down the sleeves and sides to intensify a white center, but that made it stand out.
The chunky three stripes (two darker shades of pink both facet of the lightest stripe) looks like a nod to that shirt even when it has not been explicitly talked about.
As someone with an interest in long-sleeved shirtsthe events when Arsenal gamers donned them gave a extra full feeling to the look these shirts might present. Apologies if that comes throughout like a hipster take, but these aesthetics of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri passing and shifting round defenders in that kit will not be leaving my thoughts any time quickly.
Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas rejoice a aim in November 2009 (Adrian Dennis/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Unlike with Manchester Unitedmost of the images launched of Arsenal’s new kit have gamers sporting quick sleeves. Gabriel is proven sporting lengthy sleeves from a distance, and people are cuffed with pink lightning patterns that can be seen throughout the neckline. Those cuffs are extra of a trim than the ones that appeared on final season’s long-sleeved shirts, although.
That trim has additionally been utilized alongside the backside of subsequent season’s shorts, whereas Arsenal will go into the 2026-27 marketing campaign with predominantly pink socks once more. The residence goalkeeper kit that David Raya will put on is grey with black Arsenal and Adidas crests and stripes.
In phrases of costs, there is no such thing as a let up. Adult shirts are £85 for replicas, £12o for genuine cuts (nearer to what gamers put on in video games), and £130 for the genuine lengthy sleeve model. Children’s shirts are £60 for replicas, £65 for lengthy sleeves and £80 for an genuine shirt. Adult goalkeeper kits are £85 and the junior model is £65.
Of course, there may be additionally the matter of a change in sleeve sponsor. Arsenal’s controversial accomplice Visit Rwanda, their first-ever sleeve sponsors — a relationship that began in 2018 — are not on the kit.
Arsenal, alongside different golf equipment sponsored by Visit Rwanda, confronted strain from fan teams to switch them as their sleeve sponsors final season. Ahead of the Champions League semi-final first leg between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, who’re additionally sponsored by Visit Rwanda, a protest to drop the sponsorship was held outside the stadium whereas white armbands had been being provided to cowl stated sponsorships on Arsenal shirts.
Deel, an all-in-one payroll and HR platform, had been introduced as Arsenal’s HR accomplice in December 2025. Shortly afterwards TheAthletic reported that Deel would change into the membership’s new sleeve sponsor. Arsenal confirmed that earlier this week.
When it involves shirt additions, the girls’s staff will nonetheless have their golden FIFA Women’s Champions Cup badge in the heart of their shirt. The badge was debuted halfway via this season, and as with Chelsea’s males’s staff, it is going to be on their kits for the subsequent 4 years till the subsequent FIFA Women’s Champions Cup takes place.
Arsenal’s males can’t earn that badge on this kit, as the subsequent males’s Club World Cup doesn’t happen till 2029. They do have their greatest shot at incomes a golden Premier League badge for subsequent season and/or including one to their Champions League badge, although, which might take this kit to a different stage.
As Arsenal shirts go, this isn’t a blockbuster, but neither is it a bust. Some might have time to regulate to the thicker Adidas stripes and the lining of the neck, but for others, it could invoke reminiscences of a time after they had been first moving into the membership. If there may be the possibility so as to add some gold or an additional quantity to the sleeve, nevertheless, I’m certain we’ll be seeing loads of these out and about in the summer time solar.