London is an amazing sports town. Check that, London is one of if not the most amazing sports towns in all of Europe.
Passionate fans, mostly football (soccer) supporters of any number of nearby clubs fill the streets on match days and depending on which neighborhood of the city you’re in, you might have to be careful choosing which jersey (kit) you’re going to wear for the day.
This summer, I was in and out of London for the better part of a month.
I saw beautiful jerseys in shops and on the bodies of locals and tourists, and I kept track of my favorite designs.
Before I get into that, here’s a little background information on the sports scene in London.
What are the most popular football clubs in London?
1. Arsenal F.C.
The Gunners dominate central and north London, with a considerable following from outside the United Kingdom, as well. Arsenal plays in Emirates Stadium, and routinely fills up the 60,000+ capacity arena.
2. West Ham United F.C.
Highly popular in northeast London, West Ham United has a tremendous following, despite having never won the Premier League.
3. Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
The Spurs have a larger international reach than West Ham, but probably fall just behind the Hammers in terms of popularity among Londoners. Most of Tottenham’s pull comes from far north London.
4. Chelsea F.C.
A massive international brand (and my favorite Premier League club), Chelsea aren’t quite as popular with the average Londoner because of the area’s small dimensions and exclusive, affluent nature. Still, the club is wildly popular in west London, and has no difficulty selling tickets.
5. Crystal Palace F.C.
Crystal Palace plays in a much smaller stadium than the top-four clubs on this list, but they have a very strong following in south London.
6. Fulham F.C.
London’s oldest professional football club, Fulham attracts fans from the southwest part of the city.
7. Queens Park Rangers F.C.
QPR hasn’t experienced much success in the EPL, but still has a loyal set of fans in west London.
8. Millwall F.C.
Another club currently in the EFL Championship, Millwall has an edge over Charlton for the southeast London market.
While these are the most popular London-based clubs, I saw jerseys from all over the world in my time in the city.
What are the coolest jerseys I saw in London?
Naturally, a lot of the kits I saw sported around London came from the aforementioned local clubs. But as you’ll see on this list, there were some really unique jerseys from clubs outside of the city and beyond the borders of the U.K.
13. Fulham F.C.
I didn’t see a whole lot of people wearing these around London, or at least the parts I was visiting, but I thought Fulham’s kits were quite fresh. The solid black with the white adidas and World Mobile logos complimented each other really well.
12. England National Team (Home kit)
I saw a few of these and was mostly underwhelmed. I like the clean look, but there just wasn’t enough pop to cater to my personal preferences.
11. Belgium National Team (Home kit)
I had no idea how close Belgium was to London until I saw a fair number of people wearing Belgian national team clothing like this. I love the Belgian color scheme, and these kits have an imposing feel to them. I wouldn’t want to be on any national team lining up against a squad donning these jerseys.
10. Millwall F.C.
I actually saw quite a few people wearing these and I had no idea they were soccer jerseys. The Huski Chocolate just really stood out to me, I mean, who doesn’t love chocolate? I liked the dark blue look, too, so even though I typically stray away from collared kits, Millwall’s unis make the cut.
9. Bordeaux (140th anniversary kit)
There’s A LOT going on here, but the color scheme was enough to earn this French club a spot on this list. If there wasn’t that V-shaped line beneath the neck, this would easily make the top-5.
8. Leeds United FC (Home kit)
Leeds United has a great history with three English first division championships, and a great looking kit. A modern, agile design, it wouldn’t take me much convincing to buy one of these for myself.
7. AFC Bournemouth (Home kit)
I saw someone wearing this at a pub and thought it was an AC Milan jersey, but upon closer examination realized it belonged to Bournemouth, a Premier League club on the southern coast of England. I’m a big fan of the red and black look, and Bournemouth has one of the coolest logos in the league.
6. Real Madrid (Away kit)
I’d rank this higher if it weren’t for the weird collar thing, but this is a fun design with a rich, dark blue base complimented well by the dark gold trim. Real fans are everywhere and London was not the exception.
5. Olympique de Marseille (Away kit)
I only saw this kit in a store, but it immediately stood out to me. The print is exciting, the blue shading is simultaneously calm and exciting, and the Doit Au But logo is timeless.
4. Chelsea F.C. (Home kit)
I actually visited Stamford Bridge during my trip to London and saw quite a few people walking around in these classic blue kits. I walked to the team store in hopes of purchasing one of these kits, but they had removed them all from the shelves to make room for the 2022-2023 kits, which hadn’t been released yet. I walked out of the store empty-handed and frustrated. Either way, I love the pattern design, the blue colors and probably the best soccer kit sponsorship logo I’ve ever seen.
Side note: it took me a while to figure out what that 3 was, until I walked by one of their stores and took a peak inside. It’s a mobile company, with a ridiculously cool logo. If they had service in America, I’d wave farewell to AT&T.
3. A.S. Roma (Away kit)
OK, I’m revealing my bias here but Roma is my favorite Serie A Club, and while I only saw this uniform hanging in a sporting goods store, it was too clean not to make an appearance on this list. I love the all white with the subtle carmine and gold trim, and I’m into the sponsor logo as well.
2. Liverpool F.C. (Home kit)
I hate this club, but when I saw this jersey in person, I instantly fell in love with the deep red hue, the quality craftmanship, and the simplistic design. I loved it enough to look at the price, at which point I turned around and muttered “I hate Liverpool anyway, what was I thinking?” to myself.
1. Austin F.C. (Home kit)
Walking out of a pub in west London, I looked to my right and left to recalibrate my location. Out of the corner of my eye on the left turn, I see a specific shade of verde unique only to my hometown. I looked closer and couldn’t believe my eyes. There she was:
I’ve never been a huge fan of striped kits in general, but to see someone repping my hometown roughly 5,000 miles away, it was the definition of cool. Naturally, I walked up and asked if he was from Austin, and to my surprise, he said no – he was actually visiting from Spain, but had family in Texas who sent him the jersey! It was an awesome encounter, and in my fully biased opinion, was hands-down the coolest jersey I saw in London.
If you’re like me at all, you probably want to know where to find some of these kits to order for yourself.
Here’s what I use:
Some of the smaller market jerseys are hard to get ahold of in America, so you’ll either have to check out Amazon or eBay to have a chance of buying one.
But my best advice is to visit London yourself, take in all the sights, check out the amazing stadiums, and always rep the city you came from – you may just end up on someone else’s blog!
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