Let’s get something clear from the start: ranking the best and worst World Cup kits of all time is an impossible task. The 2026 World Cup marks the 23rd edition of the tournament over a span of 96 years of ever-changing fashion trends. There have been so many well-executed and just plain lovely kits representing a variety of countries over that span, as well as a considerable number of nightmarishly eye-melting ones, too. There are also a whole bunch that we remember as better or worse than the designs themselves because they were wrapped around indelible players, moments and memories.
With that said, below are the 15 best and 10 worst World Cup kits of all time, expanding on our list from 2022. You may disagree with these rankings. You may think many worthy inclusions are missing from both lists. If so, please share in the comments below. But two things should be noted before diving in: 1) World Cup kits pre-1970s were pretty plain, and thus tough to fit into either category, with one notable exception, and 2) 1994 was pure chaos.
The Best
Spain before their 1982 World Cup match against West Germany. (Peter Robinson – PA Images via Getty Images)
As host nation for the 1982 World Cup, Spain had to look good, and they did that with a classic Adidas kit. The colors popped and the collared, V-neck shirt added a degree of early ’80s sophistication. This kit was probably the most memorable part of the tournament for the team, as they went on to finish 12th (of 24 teams).
Spain’s 1994 kits had shirts with more of a design element to them and 2010 brought one of their best away kits, but the ’82 home strip is just a quintessential Spain look at its best, from the socks up.
Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos (center) celebrates with teammates after scoring against Switzerland. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images)
Portugal’s away kit was also exceptional in 2022, but the diagonally split, color-block design of the home look was a simple but inspired choice by Nike. This design really should have stuck as a staple for the team. It’s so recognizable and different elements could be added to it to differentiate year to year.
13. 1998 Croatia (home and away)
Left: Croatia’s 1998 home kit, right: Croatia’s 1998 away kit. (Getty Images)
Everyone has a different favorite version of Croatia’s famous checkered kits. Some want the checkered design all over while others find it too overpowering in large doses, but the 1998 World Cup might have been the moment where Croatia struck the best balance with it. The home kit featured the bold pattern with enough blank space to counterbalance it and make it pop even more, and the away kit found a way to include the checks again, but differentiated from the home look.
12. 1994 U.S. (away)
Eric Wynalda on the ball in the 1994 World Cup, wearing the U.S.’s famous “denim kit.” (Getty Images)
For years the denim look of the shirt was one of the most polarizing things in American soccer (more on that in a bit). Some loved it for being uniquely American, others despised it for, well, looking like denim. The players tasked with wearing it nearly revolted when it was first unveiled to them. But with time, the love seems to have outweighed the hate. And with the World Cup back in the U.S. for the first time since 1994, Adidas has released an entire collection of shirts and jackets inspired by it, resulting in more fans rocking the denim look than ever before.
That said, will the 2026 U.S. home kit replace the ’94 denim kit as the team’s most memorable? In time it might.
Japan’s Yuya Osako (No. 15) celebrates during his side’s win over Colombia in 2018. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
Japan has had some excellent kits over the years, and sadly not all of them have made it to the World Cup stage. But in 2018 they paired an elegant shirt design with a great new badge and the result was a really nice kit. (For the record, Japan’s 1994 kit would have absolutely been in this space had the team made the tournament that year.)
10. 1974 Netherlands (home)
Johann Cruyff dribbles past Argentinian goalkeeper Daniel Carnevali at the 1974 World Cup. (STF/AFP via Getty Images)
The Netherlands’ iconic orange shirt has taken many forms over the years, but like the Spain ’82 kit, sometimes the best form of something is the simplest. No fancy designs or unnecessary complications. This is the Netherlands at their best. Plain orange shirt. Menacing black badge. Stripes down the arms (only two for Johann Cruyff because he was with Puma rather than Adidas). It’s really all you need.
Colombia team in World Cup ITALIA 90,
Cameroon 2-1 Colombia at Stadio San Paolo, Napoli in Italy on 23 June 1990
Photo by Masahide Tomikoshi / TOMIKOSHI PHOTOGRAPHY pic.twitter.com/yWdWpJyJ0b— tphoto (@tphoto2005) July 3, 2024
The bright yellow of Colombia’s 1990 home shirt paired with the winged red and blue shoulder design is the perfect encapsulation of a sunny World Cup day in kit form. This kit and Carlos Valderrama’s hair were an unbeatable pair. Unless you were Cameroon in the Round of 16 that year. Then, yes, a beatable pair. But only in extra time!
Trevor Francis against Spain in the 1982 World Cup (Duncan Raban/Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
England kits tend to land on the plainer end of the spectrum. That isn’t an inherently bad thing — England’s 1990 home kit and 2006 home kit are both very nice — but to reach a list like this, you have to have something more than just a white shirt. In 1982, Admiral came up with a design that was identifiably England while adding in a statement element to the top of the shirt. The result was a memorable look that was very much of its time, yet is still popular more than 40 years later.
Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring against Iraq. (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Call it recency bias, but this Norway kit is an instant classic. It’s a bit of a simplified version of a kit they used in 1997, but the flag inspired shirt design paired with the Norse rune inspired letter and number font is so good. Bold and unique yet very wearable, this one should age well.
The 2018 Nigeria home kit. (Photo courtesy of Nike)
Nigeria’s 2018 kit was a game changer. It was a global sensation upon release and its success has helped push the boundaries of kit design in the years since. It remains one of the most talked about kits in recent memory. It’s just a shame it didn’t get more time to shine, as Nigeria went out in the group stage behind Croatia and Argentina in 2018.
Mexico goalkeeper Jorge Campos jumps over Norway’s Jan Age Fjoertoft at the 1994 World Cup. (J. DAVID AKE/AFP via Getty Images)
Goalkeeper kits are a different beast entirely and normally left out of the discussion, but you simply cannot have a look back at standout World Cup kits without including the designs worn by Mexico goalkeeper Jorge Campos in 1994. Made by a small Mexican company called Aca Sports, which also outfitted Colombia goalkeeper Rene Higuita and others at the time, Campos helped design what he wore. These kits are a beloved and unforgettable part of World Cup lore, tapping into the mid-90s’ obsession with neon colors and the word “EXTREME.”
Why don’t international shirts have sponsors?
Tifo Football
Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup. (Allsport/Getty Images/Hulton Archive)
Light blue and white vertical stripes, the Argentina badge and an absurdly large Le Coq Sportif logo. That’s all there is to this one and that’s all there should be. Yes, we’re trying to separate the kits from the players who wore them, but you can’t do it here. This kit is peak Maradona.
Brazil’s Careca during the 1986 quarterfinal against France. (Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/TempSport/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
Argentina won the ’86 World Cup, but Brazil had the better kit that year. The canary yellow shirt with the green collar and cuffs, paired with the blue shorts is a top iteration of Brazil’s famous kit. What really sets this one apart is the Brazilian federation’s badge, which prominently featured the Jules Rimet Trophy, the original World Cup trophy that Brazil got to permanently keep after becoming the first nation to win it for a third time in 1970. That’s a flex.
Mexico’s Luis Hernandez during the 1998 World Cup. (Stu Forster / Allsport)
Mexico’s Aztec kit is arguably the most distinctive and memorable in World Cup history. Its influence is clear in Mexico’s 2026 home kit, but the original can’t be topped. The full-shirt, sublimated Sun Stone image is unmistakable and the pops of red up and down the kit were an inspired touch. The baggy fit is very ’90s, but it works.
Should this one be No. 1? It certainly makes a strong case and would be a deserving choice. But there’s one very different kit from earlier in the same decade that is tough to beat…
West Germany before the 1990 World Cup final. (Bongarts/Getty Images)
West Germany’s 1990 home shirt is undeniably one of the most iconic designs in the history of the sport. It’s something that could fit in almost any era and sticks in the mind of anyone who sees it. Again, it’s tough to divorce this kit from the success of the team that wore it, but even if they hadn’t won Italia ’90, it’s difficult to see this kit being forgotten. It’s an absolute 10 out of 10.
The Worst
10. 2002 Brazil (home)
Ronaldo celebrates after scoring in the 2002 World Cup. (ANTONIO SCORZA / AFP via Getty Images)
If the 1986 look was a Brazil kit at its best, 2002’s edition was a Brazil kit at its worst. The weird green jagged bits across the shirt were an odd design element. An all-time great team made this kit look way better than it should have, and it still didn’t look good.
9. 2022 U.S. (home)
Weston McKennie trying to overcome the awful kit he’s been made to wear during the 2022 World Cup. (Adrian DENNIS / AFP via Getty Images)
Bad template designs will be a common theme in this section and this is another one. Supremely bland with a weird dark section around the neckline, it’s just baffling that this is what was produced for a country with so many vibrant design options. Maybe Nike was just holding back the good ideas for when the U.S. would play host four years later.
8. 1994 U.S. (away)
Denim: The ultimate athletic wear. (Christian Liewig/TempSport/Corbis via Getty Images)
Yes, we had to include it in this section too. While the love for this one has grown recently, it’s still a divisive design. The whole idea of purposefully looking like you’re wearing a denim shirt slathered with stretched-out stars while playing a sport is so colossally strange. But after seeing the next two entries from the same World Cup, you’ll know it could have been worse.
7. 1994 Nigeria (away)
Nigeria’s Finidi George presumably counting down the seconds until he can change his clothes during a 1994 World Cup match against Greece. (Shaun Botterill/Allsport)
This is Exhibit A for why shirt patterns extending to the shorts is generally a bad idea. It’s just too much.
6. 1994 Russia (away)
Russia’s starting XI not terribly thrilled to be photographed in this kit at the 1994 World Cup. (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)
What was going on in 1994? It’s like every kit designer decided to try the weirdest thing they could imagine all at the same time. Like they were having some sort of perverse competition between themselves. Did they all feel like they had to go super wild because the tournament was in the U.S. for the first time? Did it have something to do with the depletion of the ozone layer back then? We may need to do a separate analysis of every single kit at this tournament.
5. 2022 Switzerland (away)
“Hi, my name is Xherdan Shaqiri and I’m wearing a terrible kit.” (Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
Several teams fell victim to Puma’s bizarre template choice in 2022, but Switzerland may have gotten the worst iteration of it. For the Swiss, the central design element on the shirt looked like a giant name tag sticker or the number bib a marathon runner wears. You have this distinctive square right in the middle of the shirt, and then basically nothing anywhere else.
No. Just no.
4. 1982 Belgium (home)
One of the most iconic World Cup pictures ever (1982 vs Belgium) pic.twitter.com/OIg5etAP5t
— The Honest Broker (@RogerPielkeJr) November 25, 2020
And here’s Exhibit B for why shirt patterns shouldn’t extend to the shorts. It looks like Belgium is wearing yellow caution tape. Or suspenders that attach at the bottom of the shorts. Not a good look.
3. 2026 Switzerland (away)
Switzerland glowing in the daylight before their opening match against Qatar at the 2026 World Cup. (Fran Santiago/Getty Images)
Poor Switzerland. What did they do to deserve two entries on this list? And from consecutive World Cups, no less! The splotches of day-glow green on this shirt makes it look like they were the victims of a toxic spill. That or it’s a representation of what you see when you hold a blacklight up to the bed sheets in a one-star hotel room.
What kit horrors await Switzerland at the 2030 World Cup?
2. 1994 Netherlands (goalkeeper)
Forget limiting it to just football shirts/soccer jerseys — this is the ugliest design ever printed on a shirt of any kind. It’s like every bad ’90s carpet pattern jumbled up on top of each other. It is so bad that Netherlands goalkeeper Ed de Goey should have been automatically sent off at the start of every match his team played at the 1994 World Cup for the sheer offensiveness of his shirt design.
Again, we must ask: What in the world was going on with kit designers in the lead up to 1994?!
1. 1930 Bolivia
You’re probably looking at the photo above and thinking, “Oh how nice, the Uruguay team showing some national pride as host of the first ever World Cup, why would this be on the ‘worst’ list?!”
Well, it’s because that’s not the Uruguay team, that’s Bolivia. Someone there felt like a genius for figuring out that “Viva Uruguay” has the exact same number of letters as the number of players in a starting lineup and decided to pander to the hosts in the most confusing way possible. After losing their first match 4-0 to Yugoslavia, things only got worse for Bolivia, as Pablo Maurer wrote in 2022: “They arrived for their next match, against Brazil, and quickly learned that they wouldn’t even be able to wear the shirts, as Brazil were dressed in white. The Bolivians, who had packed light for the tournament, played that match in a light blue kit that was kindly loaned to them by the Brazilians. Brazil won the match 4-0, and the Bolivian national team wouldn’t qualify for another World Cup for 20 years. When they finally did, in 1950, they met Uruguay in the tournament’s opener. They got crushed, 8-0.”
And that’s why this is the worst World Cup kit of all time.
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