We’ve ranked the home kits of all 24 Championship teams. So who comes out on top?
24th - Bolton Wanderers
I don’t know what it is about Bolton kits but they never seem to hit the mark.
Here’s what I wrote about Bolton’s effort last season: ‘Since relegation from the Premier League and their parting with Reebok, both in terms of stadium sponsorship and kit design, there has been a drop in standards. This version isn’t offensive but it’s cluttered and has too many different colours distracting from their classic white shirts.’
The same applies this time but while the quality of the league has risen, the Trotters have stood still.
23rd - Preston
North End are another side in the bottom half of the rankings for a second year in a row.
And they’re even further down there 12 months later as repeat offenders.
There’s nothing wrong with this kit but there’s absolutely nothing to be excited about either.
It’s just boring.
22nd -Stoke City
I LOVE the potters’ purple away shirt but I just can’t get excited about the home one. It’s the shade of blue on the sponsor that puts me off.
21st - Reading
I’ve tried my best, but I just can’t see past the sponsor’s logo on this shirt.
It makes me think of botched cup draws, bizarre marketing campaigns and the fact a crate of it was once delivered to an old work place of mine.
I like the shirt design (they’ve got rid of the awful ‘pixelated’ hoops from last season) more than I did the contents of the can, even though it helped me with my commute home in the early hours of the morning. But that’s not enough to shoot it up the rankings
20th - Sheffield United
Very similar to Brentford’s kit (more on them later) but the sponsor being slapped on as an afterthought undoes a lot of good work.
19th - Sheffield Wednesday
A vast improvement on last season’s effort from the Owls, which finished in 21st place.
The stripes are back and that’s how it should be, but there’s something that isn’t quite right about it. I can’t put my finger on it.
18th - Hull City
This one caused a headache.
Mostly because the shorts are a different shade of orange to the shirt, but also because I quite like the kit aside from this.
Not entirely convinced by the need to have a second orange stripe, inside the black ones, but colleague Stuart Watson likes it so that’s good enough for me.
17th - Bristol City
You just wait until the away kit rankings. City will, once again, be near the top of that with their purple and green effort.
This one’s marketed as ‘the classic’ but their home kit is just a little plain for my tastes.
The badge is too big, the white stripe is too high and would look better with the sponsor logo and there’s not an awful lot going on.
16th - Rotherham United
Puma kits are generally pretty good and this is another to fall into that category.
Two shades of red, solid white sleeves and a simple collar. Lovely.
Sponsors Hodge Clemco are a sandblasting company. That’s proper.
15th - Millwall
It’s a good shade of blue and has a nice collar. It’s Millwall.
And, like Rotherham, TW Drainage is a proper sponsor. No online gambling here.
14th - Blackburn Rovers
This isn’t the Blackburn Rovers I know.
The Blackburn that won the Premier League in 1995 wore a darker blue than this and the halves were the other way round. They don’t wear sky blue and the sponsor looks like it’s been applied with electrical tape.
I like the halves and I like the design, but it just doesn’t scream ‘Blackburn’ to me.
Still, it’s a good kit.
13th - Nottingham Forest
It’s the Millwall kit in red.
12th - Leeds United
We’re over Kappa now, aren’t we?
Roll back to the early 2000s and these were all the rage, but it feels as if the skin-tight moment has gone.
Not in Leeds, though.
You have to feel for certain sections of the fanbase – I know I do.
11th - Queens Park Rangers
This is how to do hoops. Clean, classy and with red numbers on the back so you can actually read them.
However, this is a carbon copy of last season’s shirt, with a bit of red added into the colours and cuffs.
Oh, and Royal Panda is a casino, not a Chinese restaurant.
10th - West Bromwich Albion
Another retro effort, channelling the energy of Baggies shirts past.
Nice wide stripes and a solid colour with a good sponsor.
9th - Brentford
Three colours in a kit can be hit and miss but Brentford’s is usually a hit. Red, white and black go well together and they’ve used just the right of black to make the shirts look classy.
Narrower stripes than last year’s effort, which finished fourth in the standings, and streets ahead of Sheffield United’s similar attempt.
8th - Birmingham City
A solid enough effort from the St Andrew’s side. Two bold colours, prominent adidas stripes and a neat design.
Not a lot else to say but it does the job.
7th - Swansea City
It’s white with black trim. A classic combination. Not sure about the sponsor logo, though.
6th - Norwich City
Sorry, but I actually quite like it.
Obviously the combination of yellow and green automatically makes me feel sick but I still like it.
It’s been said that the shoulder and sleeve designs look like a pigeon has unloaded from a church roof, but I still quite like it.
5th - Ipswich Town
This incarnation of the Ipswich kit has been a grower.
My first reaction when it was released at the end of May was that I didn’t like it but, colour scheme of the sponsor aside, what’s not to like?
It’s the right shade of blue, the white sleeves are traditional and the red helps pull everything together with the badge.
Ipswich’s return to adidas has been a hit in the main (let’s not talk about 2016/17) and this is another.
Anyone who has seen the junior shirts bearing the EACH hospices logo or the new University of Suffolk Under 23 shirts will know that this Ipswich kit could be improved if the sponsor’s logo was used a little more sympathetically to the overall design.
4th - Wigan Athletic
First, I feel I need to make it clear I’m not the biggest fan of this design or the colour scheme. However, the fact it’s a nod to the 1990s means it really gets me going.
The 1990s brought the full spectrum to the table in regard to football kits. There was the elegance and class of Italia 90, the acid trip evolution of the USA World Cup in in 1994 and then the ‘square’ designs of Euro 96.
This design from Wigan is a nod to 1995 and recreates one of the most iconic of their history. That’s good enough for me.
3rd - Derby County
The perfect combination of class and nostalgia.
There was a time when Umbro was king of the kits and, against the odds, they’ve managed that again in these rankings.
White with black trim is a winning combination but the fact they’ve teamed that with the 90s-style Umbro tape around the sleeves takes this to new heights.
Those who looked at last season’s rankings will remember that Fulham got my vote there. What can I say, I like white and black kits.
2nd - Middlesbrough
The hipster’s choice.
Now, I’m no hipster. I can’t grow a beard, whispy or otherwise, drink Old Fashioneds or spend my evenings at table tennis bars in Shoreditch. But I do like Hummel football kits.
This one is a thing of beauty. It screams both ‘Denmark Euro 92’ and Juninho’s Middlesbrough at the same time and the chevrons down the arm get me going.
Well done, Middlesbrough.
1st - Aston Villa
Aston Villa just seem to do it right. They have the advantage of having an excellent colour palette at their disposal, but they certainly make the most of it.
This season’s effort features a return to the classic claret colour and is again designed by local designer Luke Roper.
There are some great nods to the past with former chairman William McGregor, a man regarded as a founder of the Football League in the 1880s, featured on the back while 12 stripes on the cuffs represent the teams who were part of that formation.
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