NWSL jersey rankings: Who has the best new kit ahead of 2026 season as Boston, Denver join the party?

There are some wildly creative kits among this year's batch, but which one is the best?

You know the 2026 NWSL season is getting closer when teams officially unveil their jerseys. All 16 clubs have a new kit to debut, with two new expansion sides rolling out four shirts between them. Some will be primaries, others will be secondaries, but most are third option kits, and that's where the fun comes in for a few clubs. 

Today's soccer kit culture is partially about honoring a club's history, but that's not all. In this era, it's about making sure you're doing that while keeping up with current trends to combine with wearability. Nowadays, fans aren't just sporting jerseys on gamedays; they are part of everyday wardrobes and even a form of expression, depending on how one opts to style them.

So naturally, with all that in mind, I am totally going to rank the 2026 NWSL kits. What does that mean? What is the hip criteria – no, not that one — that will be used to judge them? Well, for starters, it will just be me and my eyeballs and what I think about them. 

The truth is that, unlike last year's rollout, where the majority of the kits just seemed aggressively fine, the third kit options are a chance for some fun, so I'll be looking for that too. Significance or special meaning might tip the scales a little bit, but I'm not super interested in 50 different ways to name shades of blue or green.  

While I am an advocate for club shops to offer shorts and team socks to fandoms, the teams' entire "uniform" will not matter to me here. What does the shirt look like? Does it look more like a soccer kit or a warm-up outfit? Can you wear it outside of a matchday, and will it look cool on players and on supporters? That's about it.