The new West Ham 25/26 has been subject to a lot of bad reviews online, but are they overreacting?

Like almost every other football kit, it’s so hard to master the design and find one that will please the majority of fans and sell well. You have to keep it traditional, but also find a way to make it different and new so there is a reason for fans to buy it.

It seems like West Ham have failed to do that with the home kit according to the immediate reactions. Some of the replies to the kit reveal video on X have been damning to say the least.

“Sponsor is way too big and there’s hardly any blue.”

“That ain’t a hammers shirt where’s the blue”

“Abysmal looking shirt. £75 is an absolute joke.”

“Not liking the new kit this season. Bit on the bland side for me”

“Strong argument for being one of the worst PL kits of all time.”

I personally don’t believe it’s as bad as a lot of Hammers fans are making out. Yes, the sponsor sticks out like a sore thumb but I have definitely seen a lot worse. We have been lucky with Betway over the past decade, the size and font of the sponsor meant it almost perfectly fit on every kit. Also there isn’t much blue, but minimising the secondary colour do make it focus on one is about all you can do without causing too much controversy.

I also don’t believe this is our worst home kit we’ve had with Umbro, the 20/21 shirt was in my opinion. But the boringness of that shirt was covered by the excellent end to the season we had after COVID with Tomas Soucek and Jesse Lingard shining that fans took a liking to the shirt.

If we have a good season next time out the kit won’t even be a topic of discussion. The negative response has mainly been because of the negative atmosphere around the club at the moment, and you can’t blame the fans, there hasn’t been much to smile about in the last year or so.

However, things finally look like they’re on the up for the Hammers as we look set to make our first signing, long may it continue so Graham Potter gets the players he wants going into the 25/26 season with the very claret-based home kit.