Man City Puma AI Third Kit Lands: Fan Elliott Wins Global Design Vote

Manchester City wrapped its 2026-27 kit collection on Thursday, August 27, 2026, unveiling a third jersey built from more than 180,000 fan submissions and shaped by generative AI.

The release marks the first football kit designed by both supporters and artificial intelligence to be worn in competitive football, with Erling Haaland set to pull on the shirt this season.

Available worldwide through Puma and select retail partners from launch day, the jersey lands as Manchester City‘s most ambitious commercial experiment yet.

The project kicked off on December 9, 2024, when City and Puma opened submissions through the Puma AI Creator, a custom generative tool that turns written prompts into visual kit concepts.

Supporters from more than 200 countries entered over 180,000 unique jersey designs for the contest, a scale that turned a routine kit launch into a global referendum.

After a shortlist was picked by City and Puma experts, public voting began in January 2025 and pulled in around 1.7 million votes, according to the club. The winning entry came from Elliott, a lifelong Manchester City supporter whose design beat a field of hundreds of thousands.

The result is a white base shirt carrying a central two-tone sash, half sky blue and half navy, that runs the full length of the jersey with a subtle gradient bleed where the two colors meet.

The Puma AI Creator handled the heavy lifting between concept and production. Fans wrote text descriptions, and the tool generated renders that designers at Puma and City could refine into wearable templates.

The result, the clubs and brand say, is the first football kit designed by both fans and AI to be worn on the pitch. That phrasing matters: AI did not replace a Puma studio, it accelerated a fan-first pipeline that would have been logistically impossible at 180,000 entries.

Speed like that also shapes tactics for the rest of the match. The AI handled visual interpretation, while Puma’s apparel team still owns fit, fabric, and manufacturing specs, the parts that decide whether a clever concept survives a 90-minute Haaland shift.

When can fans actually buy the Manchester City Puma third kit?

The shirt went on sale on August 27, 2026, through Puma and select retail partners worldwide, putting it on shelves the same day Haaland and his teammates were presented with the final product.

Manchester City framed the timing as a deliberate tie-in with the 2026-27 season, ensuring the fan-designed jersey is on backs from matchday one rather than arriving mid-campaign as a mid-season novelty.

For supporters, that means the design they voted for is now a working match kit, not a museum piece.

What does this mean for the future of football kit design?

City and Puma have effectively turned kit launches into participatory events, and the metrics suggest the model works.

A 1.7 million-vote public phase dwarfs the engagement of a typical launch campaign, and the 200-plus country footprint gives Puma distribution heat across markets it would otherwise pay through traditional advertising.

Competitors will read this closely, because a replicable AI-assisted fan pipeline lowers design costs while lifting cultural buy-in. The next test comes on the pitch, where Haaland and the squad will determine whether the shirt looks as sharp in motion as it did in 180,000 renders.

FAQ
Who designed Manchester City’s 2026-27 third kit? A lifelong City fan named Elliott, whose entry beat more than 180,000 submissions from over 200 countries.
When was the Man City Puma third kit released? The jersey went on sale globally on August 27, 2026, through Puma and select retail partners.
What is the Puma AI Creator? It is a custom generative AI tool that converts written fan prompts into visual kit designs for refinement by Puma and City designers.
How many votes did the winning design receive? Around 1.7 million votes were cast during the public voting phase that began in January 2025.
Will Haaland wear the AI-designed kit? Yes, Erling Haaland and the Manchester City squad are set to wear the fan-designed, AI-created third jersey throughout the 2026-27 season. man city puma
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On August 27, 2026, Manchester City and Puma unveiled the 2026-27 third jersey after a fan vote powered by the Puma AI Creator. The winning entry came from Elliott, a lifelong supporter, and the shirt is set to be worn by Erling Haaland next season.

The third kit project began on December 9, 2024, when Manchester City and Puma opened submissions through the Puma AI Creator, a custom generative AI tool that converts written prompts into visual kit designs. For more detail, see BBC Sport.

Supporters from more than 200 countries submitted over 180,000 unique jersey concepts, turning the process into a truly global creative contest. After City and Puma experts chose a shortlist, public voting started in January 2025 and attracted about 1.7 million votes.

The winning design came from Elliott, described as a lifelong Manchester City fan. Here’s what that means in practice: the shirt is built around a white base and a central two-tone sash split half sky blue and half navy.

The Puma AI Creator is the bridge between imagination and visual identity. Fans shaped prompts, the AI generated design outputs, and Puma then used those concepts to develop a kit that could be manufactured and worn in real competition.

Puma’s own positioning is the big headline here: the 2026-27 third kit is the first football kit designed by both fans and AI to be worn on the pitch.

That is a stronger claim than “AI-inspired” branding because it frames AI as part of the design authorship, not just a marketing tool. That pipeline also helps explain why the final look is specific rather than generic.

The central sash runs the length of the shirt with a subtle gradient effect where the two colors meet, keeping the fan-driven element visually coherent. With the concept clarified, the next question becomes: what exactly did the winning design deliver?

What does the third kit look like, and when can fans buy it?

The kit’s visual language is straightforward but distinctive. It features a white base with a central two-tone sash that is split half sky blue and half navy, running from top to bottom. Puma also says the sash includes a subtle gradient effect at the transition, so the design doesn’t read like two hard blocks of color.

From a commercial perspective, the timing matters because the winning concept was made available from August 27, 2026, through Puma and select retail partners worldwide. And from a sporting perspective, the headline user is also set. Erling Haaland and Manchester City are expected to wear the fan-designed, AI-created third jersey during the 2026-27 season. That ties the “designed by fans and AI” story directly to matchday visibility. So the design is locked in, but the wider impact is the real storyline. What does this change next?

What’s next for fans, City, and Puma after this AI-first kit experiment?

This move is likely to reshape expectations for how clubs think about fan participation in product design.

If the “fan + AI” model can produce a wearable kit that launches globally on schedule, it becomes an attractive blueprint for future releases: scale submissions, run votes, then translate the winning identity into a manufacturable template.

City’s earlier step, launching the fan vote with Puma AI Creator on December 9, 2024, also shows they treated this as more than a one-off novelty.

The human payoff is immediate for supporters who feel closer to the club’s visuals, because Elliott’s design is not stuck in an online gallery. It’s on the pitch route.

The commercial payoff, for Puma, is narrative control: the brand can point to a kit explicitly “designed by both fans and AI” that now enters the competitive spotlight through Haaland.

Bottom line: man city puma have turned third-kit design into a global co-authorship story, and Elliott’s winning concept is now set to be seen with Erling Haaland in the 2026-27 season.

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FAQs

What is the key claim Puma made about the third kit?

Puma said the 2026-27 third kit is the first football kit designed by both fans and AI to be worn on the pitch.

How many jersey designs did fans submit for the contest?

Supporters submitted over 180,000 unique jersey designs for the contest.

Who won the fan voting for the third kit design?

The winning design was selected as coming from Elliott, described as a lifelong Manchester City fan.

When was the winning kit design available to buy?

The kit design was described as available from August 27, 2026, through Puma and select retail partners worldwide.