For many fans, one of the most anticipated days of the football calendar is when the team you support release their new shirt for the upcoming season.
Supporters eagerly await to see the shirts their players will be donning for the next nine months. And in many cases, a piece of clothing fans will spend £70 or more on without any hesitation.
Almost as exciting as the new shirt reveal is reading the reaction to it. Cheers or jeers? Subjects of debate include colour, design, symmetry, fit.
And if you a Brighton fan discussing any Albion kit, whether a technical partner other than Nike might do a better job.
Here is what Seagulls supporters think about the Brighton 2025-26 home shirt – along with my own personal rating.
Brighton 2025-26 home shirt – simple and traditional
The Albion tend to keep it simple when it comes to designing a new home shirt. Many clubs do. The likes of Real Madrid, Ajax, AC Milan and Liverpool all stick to their traditional, famous colours and a familiar design. For Brighton, that is blue and stripes.
Some may call it boring or too similar to previous kits. My opinion is that 2025-26 Brighton home kit looks sleek, smart and easy on the eye.
There are some changes. The Nike swoosh is hyper-turq, really jumping out at you. There is also an underarm stripe in the same colour.
I think this looks really nice. It breaks up the blue and white, adding something a little different. The collar is designed to blend into the shirt rather than stand out and that works well too.
Nike have also tried something a bit different with the stripes. They are larger and thicker compared to last season. Along with blue sleeves, it makes the shirt much bluer than the 2024-25 home shirt.
The stripes are no longer symmetrical either with those below the American Express sponsors panel not lining up with what is above it.
This has proven the major talking point over the Brighton 2025-26 home kit. It will certainly trigger some fans’ OCD. Personally, I think it looks fine.
My only criticism comes with the sponsor logo. It looks too small and does not suitably fill the gap between the stripes. There is just a little too much empty space either side for my liking.
The announcement video
It was not just the shirt which was well designed. The announcement video shared on social media also caught the eye and was superbly put together.
This was a break from the norm. Brighton have tended to accompany a kit release with a dull and boring launch video, lacking creativity and missing uniqueness.
There has rarely been anything there to convince fans to part with £70 of their hard earned cash to own the new shirt. Instead seeming to rely on blind loyalty to the club.
2025-26 though has proven completely different. I may even go as far as saying the club knocked it out of the park.
The release video was oozing with Brightonness (yes, I made that adjective up) and featured so much of what the club and city are all about.
We saw the Palace Pier in all its glory. The wonderful Amex Stadium which many of us call our second home. There were residents and business owners talking about Brighton; from the Flour Pot Bakery to Bardley’s Fish & Chips to Donatello.
Fabian Hurzeler, Georginio Rutter and Yankubu Minteh all made an appearance. Club captain Lewis Dunk finished things off, saying to the camera “We Are Brighton”.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Brighton fan reaction to the 2025-26 home kit
You can probably tell that I am a fan of both the 2025-26 Brighton home kit and the announcement video which accompanied it.
But as I mentioned earlier, differing opinions are part and parcel of new shirt launch. And there are no right or wrong answers with football shirts being subjective.
I think of them as being like graffiti. Some think it is vandalism. Others think it is art. Some might think the unsymmetrical stripes on the 2025-26 Brighton home kit vandalism. Others might think them art.
To get a broad range of opinions on the new shirt, I asked Seagulls supporters on Twitter what they thought about the design. Here are some of the answers:
“It does seem a bit bolder than last seasons. It reminds me of some of the shirts from several seasons ago, and even further back than that. So it’s a bit nostalgic too for me.” – Daniel
“7/10. I wish the back was different. Either all blue instead of white or more stripes. Otherwise pretty good.” – Wally
“Very nice. Gives off a very strong look.” – Smithy
“I like it. Good enough… but Nike are unlikely to ever make a stunner.” – Kevin Barry
“It is a nice shirt to be honest. Probably needs a collar to tie it off though.” – H
“I quite like it. It is a Nike kit though, so I think for them it’s as good as we’re gonna get.” – Simballs
“I like it!” – Travis
“I like it. I would prefer a little bit of a change though having had very similar kits for a few seasons now.” – Tony Wade
“It’s fine.” – Albion Navigator
“It’s sort of Marmite. Kinda? But like only sort of. Like you either hate it or you’re chill with it. They did commit a sin by making the top and bottom stripes not line up.” – Kai-Ana
“The mad thing with shirts… if we have our best season ever in it will live in the history of legend. If we struggle it will be quickly forgotten now matter how good or bad it is.” – Ash Bradley
“Very boring. I imagine this one won’t sell as much as they hope.” – HurzelerHater
“Bland, unoriginal, typically Nike. Can’t wait to be rid of them to be honest.” – Tom
“Good idea but poorly executed overall.” – YourAverageBHAFan
“It’s meh. I think with some very small changes it could easily be a 8.5/10, but for now it’s a 5.5/10.” – aeg1s
“Boring and zero imagination. Could have rolled that standard kit out in May.” – Cyber Seagull
My rating for the 2025-26 Brighton home kit
Fan consensus seems split over the Brighton 2025-26 home kit. My rating? A solid 7.5 out of 10. After all, there is only so much you can do with blue and white stripes.
Nobody can say that what Nike have produced is outstanding or ground breaking. But it does the job and the club will probably feel Nike have hit their objective with it.
I think it will be one of those shirts which begins to grow on people once it starts to be seen in-person at the Amex as the 2025-26 season gets underway.
The price is obviously controversial. £70 for a standard plain shirt. Add a name and number and the Premier League patches and it is more like £90 without any delivery charge.
That though seems to be the norm these days.