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The 10 best Chelsea kits of the Premier League era

Chelsea have already released their home and away kits for the 2025-26 Premier League season.

The Blues have had an array of kits across their history with mixed reception. For example, their 1994-96 away kit might go down as one of their worst, with its grey and orange mix. But their new away kit with a nod to their 1974-75 strip has received a lot of love.

So what are the top 10 Chelsea kits of the Premier League era?


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10. 2008-09 home kit

Chelsea fans won’t have fond memories of this kit, as they wore it when they lost the 2008 Champions League Final — ahead of it becoming their new strip for the 2008-09 campaign. But it’s a lovely kit.

The strip is inspired by a Chelsea kit of the late 1990s, though it has slightly less detail. Still, the white collar and the faint yellow trim looks really classy. Having the Adidas logo in the middle didn’t hurt the kit either, as it has in other strips across the years.

9. 2014-15 away kit

Another kit paying homage to the late 90s, this one is also a bit more plain that the strip it was based on. But that doesn’t make it bad. The yellow shirt with the blue collar and sleeve edge looked good, as did the colour-changed badge.

The only thing keeping this from being higher up the list is the shade of yellow. It’s a tad garish which doesn’t take away from the kit, but a less harsh shade of yellow would see this a lot higher.

8. 1998-2000 away/third kit

Harking back to the turn of the century, Chelsea had this as their away kit for 1998-98 and then made it their third strip for 1999-2000. On the face of it, the kit looks quite plain, mostly white with blue trim. But when tied all together, it looks really smart.

We’re a sucker for a kit with a collar, and this one works well – especially with the v-neck that isn’t actually a v-neck. It looks like someone wearing a polo shirt under a jumper, but not in a bad way. The cuffs on the long-sleeved shirt are lovely too – as donned by a very young John Terry below. The centralised Umbro logo and Chelsea badge work too.

7. 2003-05 away/third kit

This is an iconic kit for Chelsea fans of a certain age. It was still in the era of Chelsea reusing kits, so the away strip in 2003-04 before being used as a third option in 2004-05.

Chelsea have had some bold away kits in the past, and also some boring ones. Here they went pretty safe in terms of design, but it worked so well. The two blue stripes down the middle, separated by a thin white line made for an excellent kit. We’re hoping they remake this one soon.

6. 2025-26 home kit

Chelsea have been through a period of underwhelming home kits since Nike started making them. But this is the best of the bunch.

Nike dialled things back a bit from the 2024-25 home kit, but there is still a bit of design on the main body of blue. And it’s what makes the kit so good, with some of the previous designs almost ruining strips. The white collar and red-white sides are a nice nod to previous kits, now that everyone has grown up and stopped getting annoyed by Chelsea kits in the 21st century having a bit of red on them.

5. 2017-18 third kit

While Nike’s home kits haven’t been great for Chelsea, they’ve constantly hit home runs with their third strips. The picture below doesn’t really do this one justice because of the colour. But trust us, it’s lovely.

The kit is mostly dark grey with the blue strip on the shoulders, which works nicely with the blue Nike badge. But when you get a closer look at it, there’s a darker grey geometric design that just adds something… *chef’s kiss*

4. 2024-25 third kit

We’re back with another Nike third kit, this one more recent. This one was inspired by punk rock, which really kicked off in London on the King’s Road — just a stone’s throw away from Stamford Bridge. It’s not the first time Chelsea have looked to draw the link with the local history, especially when it comes to the King’s Road and fashion.

Pink can be a bold choice for a kit, but Nike used it excellently with the sleeve trim, logo and an old-school Chelsea badge. The same goes for the dashes of yellow. The kit also featured the vertical double Nike badge as a “nod to the acceleration of the women’s game”.

3. 1997-99 home kit

We’ve already spoken about this kit, which inspired the 2008-09 home strip. But there’s no replacing the original, made by Umbro. This kit is iconic and always will be. And it’s not just because of the players who wore it.

On top of the white collar, there’s a lot of white on the sleeves, so it isn’t just a blue kit. Separating the white on the sleeves from the blue is a small yellow line, the right size to add to the kit without ruining the aesthetic. What an era, what a kit.

2. 1991-93 home kit

Now this was Chelsea’s kit for their final First Division season, but they also used it for their first campaign as a Premier League club. Again, the white collar adds something extra to the kit and it’s made better by the red and blue trim.

Red and white is also thrown in on one of the sleeves, bringing some of the bizarreness that some of the kits of the era had — but not too much. And the blue isn’t just plain, there’s a pattern across the kit which is what sets it above all other home strips.

1. 1996-98 away kit

The other kit to have inspired another in our top 10, this may be Chelsea’s best strip ever — never mind just in the Premier League era. It has everything. A collar, two-toned sleeves, central badge and stripes. But even that’s not doing it justice.

The kit looks wonderful with the yellow and slightly lighter yellow stripes — all the right shade. The sleeves are yellow, blue and lighter blue, which also features on the collar. And then at the top there’s a few half stripes of the two shades of blue. The best thing about this kit is that it worked with both the Coors sponsor and Autoglass, when covering multiple seasons.

Chelsea might never have a better kit.

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