Manchester City and PUMA have today revealed the Club’s 26/27 Third Kit, representing the first kit in professional football history to be designed by a fan, using AI. Revealed in full this morning, as part of a three-day digital out-of-home takeover in Manchester, the winning design featured on billboards at two bustling city centre locations.
Created by lifelong Cityzen and stills photographer Elliott, the final design was selected from more than 180,000 entries that were submitted through Puma’s AI Creator, a generative AI tool that turns written prompts into kit designs within seconds.
Inspired by Manchester City’s iconic 13/14 season away shirt, Elliott’s creative interpretation was crowned in January 2025 after a global fan vote.
Situated at the Printworks and Market Street locations in Manchester, the three digital billboard executions revealed a different stage of the AI design generation process from prompt through to the completed design, whilst reinforcing the wider message – “designed by one of us, chosen by all of us.”
Reacting to live images of the billboards, Elliott said: “Seeing my complete design revealed on billboards in the city centre this morning was unbelievable. City has been part of our family’s life for as long as I can remember, so this is as good as it gets for me.
“Creativity is naturally part of my everyday life as a photographer, but it was good to turn my hand to something else and see what could be created with the use of AI. The 13/14 away shirt was always my favourite, so it felt like the natural starting point for my prompt. From there, it was amazing to see the technology take that spark of an idea and turn it into something I could actually shape and refine.
“To know that a shirt I designed on my lunch break will now be worn by the players is something I still can’t quite get my head around!”
The 26/27 Manchester City Third Kit will be available on the online Manchester City store and Manchester City Official Stores, with 10% off for Members and Seasoncard holders.
