The Athletic Ranks 48 Away Shirts in England Kit Preview
The Athletic has turned its attention to all 48 away shirts for the 2026 World Cup in its england kit preview of kit culture. The new ranking follows its home-shirt list and puts the focus on the place where designers usually take the biggest swings.
That matters because the World Cup is treated here as a tournament shaped by how it looks as much as by what happens in the games, with kits helping set the aesthetic from one edition to the next. Away shirts are the part of that picture where experiment tends to show up first.
Style of Play and 48 shirts
The ranking sits inside the Style of Play series, which is built around World Cup kit culture. The Athletic had already ranked all 48 home kits, so the away-shirt list becomes the next pass through the same field of 2026 designs.
The scale is the point. With 48 away shirts in view, the list is not just a gallery of uniform choices; it is a snapshot of how national teams are trying to present themselves before the tournament starts. That range includes strips that push hard into unusual territory rather than staying safely in the middle.
One shirt in the ranking is described as the kind that makes you check the colour balance on your screen. Another looks like a Rorschach blot. Those descriptions point to how far some of these away designs drift from tradition, even in a category that is supposed to reward risk.
Unexpected away-kit territory
The 2026 away kits do not all behave the way that label suggests. The article says they are in some cases different from the usual pattern, where away strips are the obvious place to try something more out there.
That leaves a mix of shirts that are already out in public and others that may never get a proper stage. One kit from a tiny nation is already sold out, while another is described as beautiful but possibly never seen. For readers following the tournament through its visuals as much as its results, that split is the real story of the ranking.
The Style of Play series is sponsored by the Active Cash Visa Credit Card from Wells Fargo, and The Athletic says it keeps full editorial independence, with partners having no control over reporting or editing and no review before publication. For now, the message from the ranking is simple: the 2026 World Cup is being judged not only by who wins, but by which away shirts leave the strongest mark before the first ball is kicked.
