Today the team dives into some kit analytics from 2025 from all the leagues in the USL, gives our best and worst kits, and a solid conversation to end the season.

2025 League Review

For our 2025 review, we had guest and friend Austin Chen of Equipt Studios help us out! Here were our favorites and biggest disappointments and more from us:

Favorite Kit Set of 2025

• Austin - Sacramento Republic. Overall set is classy, timeless and traditional. Add on the Fauxback Attack kit, can’t beat this.
• Brett - San Francisco City. The Denim was clever, Koi Pond is perfect, and home kit was traditional. Can’t beat this recipe.
• Fox - El Paso Locomotive. Every kit was different, but unique and looked great.

Biggest Surprise of 2025

• Austin - Didn’t expect the Retro Throwback trend (Sacramento, Des Moines). Also didn’t expect a wider range of special kits (Mentally Health, Breast Cancer, Pride, etc).
• Brett - Portland Hearts of Pine. Zero expectations and stole Madison’s limelight in League One.
• Fox - I cried this season during interview with Cassidy Sepnieski about the Minnesota Aurora Better Together Kit. Didn’t expect that.

Biggest Disappointment of 2025

• Austin - The USL Super League and especially Sporting Jax. Way too simple with such great colors. They got the Adidas treatment hard.
• Brett - Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Riveters. Same as Loudoun. Especially that 3rd kit didn’t work out.
• Fox - Loudoun United. Why change what wasn’t broken in 2024? Especially that home pinwheel kit.

Worst Kit of 2025

• Austin - Hartford Athletic Fortress Kit. USL-C stepped up game and Hartford should have been more on par with rest of league.
• Brett - Union Omaha 311 Kit. Looked wayyyy too fake and off to me.
• Fox - Carolina Ascent. Swung so hard and missed so hard.

Best Kit of 2025

• Austin - Hearts of Pine Woods and Water Kit. There isn’t a more iconic jersey from 2025.
• Brett - SF City x Jeremy Novy Pride Kit. The artwork, the uniqueness of it and the colors are fun. This will get people’s attention.
• Fox - Minnesota Aurora Together Kit. Hits so close to home, told a story and made a beautiful kit. Can’t say anything negative about it. Honorable mention - Forward Madison’s Flock Kit.

What are you looking forward to in 2026

• Austin - If specific teams can continue their momentum - example is Portland Hearts of Pine especially after that mixed reviewed Blaze Kit at the end. Kind of ending on a cliffhanger, added in a bit of uncertainty.
• Brett - Super League start to step up kit game in 2026. Build off of our current relationships - teams, designers, content creators, etc.
• Fox - Will this trend of good looking kits continue across the league? What is next to come?

2025 Predictions and Expectations Overview

Let’s review some of the expectations and predictions setup for this 2025 kit season.

• High Expectations set for Birmingham, Monterey Bay, Oakland, Las Vegas, Forward Madison and Indy Eleven - TRUE. Virtually every team did well and hit their expectations or made steps up in design. Especially after Monterey Bay’s switch from Puma to Charly after calling out Puma for lack of color choices, the club had no choice but to look good.
• Charleston, Pittsburgh and Loudoun will look good again in 2025 - FALSE. Charleston played it wayyyy too simple. Loudoun and Pittsburgh just regressed after stellar 2024 kits.
• Westchester, Madison and Omaha to lead League One in kits - FALSE. Madison did their thing but Omaha and Westchester did not. Omaha tried too hard and missed on every kit. While Westchester played it more safe until their 3rd kit.
• Adidas will continue to not care about Chattanooga - EMPHATIC TRUE. Some things just don’t change for the sad wolves of Chattanooga.
• League Two kits to maintain their dominance - TRUE. The league was joined by the W League (and passed by our numbers) in overall creativity.
• Super league to have worst kits in 2025/26? - TRUE. Either due to lack of effort or too much effort, League falls flat on the kit game.
• No Super team will produce a third kit in 2025? FALSE. Spokane released their Lilac City third kit for 25/26.
• Will the Liberty, Ivy rebound or regress? MIXED. Liberty continued to regress while Ivy rebounded.
• 2025 will see new guests on KitSZN - TRUE. Had Scott Menk from Minneapolis City, Cassidy Sepnieski - designer for Minnesota Aurora, Madison, and Rhode Island, Ian from San Francisco City, Taylor Thomas of Sioux Falls City, Jonathan Lintner from Louisville City, and Jamey Amrine from AFC Ann Arbor! We also had Jack Grimes quest rate with us, and had Austin from Equipt Studios on several times to help us.
• We will see more Cup Kits in 2025 - MIXED. While Birmingham released USL Cup specific kits, Charleston with a cup kit and a LOT of third kit, but none or not many others were designated Cup Kits.
• More teams in 2025 will reuse kits from 2024 - TRUE. Rhode Island, Colorado Springs, most of Super League, and more.

Statistics

• Rated 160 kits across the USL-C, USL-1, USL-2, USL-Super & USL-W in 2025
• 486 kits all-time across the USL. #500 will happen in 2026!
• Charlotte Independence went full Napoli and released 6 kits in 2025.

League Scores:

The USL-C has seen a steady increase in kit quality, and design as a league over our 4 seasons - and have mastered the ability to combine professionalism and design.

League One has a few teams, but too many using templates that is hurting the league’s score overall. Madison and Omaha remain to be the main bright spots, but the expansion sides really pushed the envelope in 2025.

Super League seems to be the most simple kit wise across the league. Far too many teams either don’t care by not releasing kits (DC Power fiasco), or by using simple templates. We are hoping they are just doing what the Championship did a few years ago and built off of their branding into proper kits.

League Two and W remain the most creative leagues in the USL. The amount of work put in from the Semi-Pro sides is unmatched. From the needed financial gains, to the new and unexplored regions sporting wise (Vermont, Ballard, Women’s game in general), these two leagues seem to be the most poised for a viral kit. The W in particular also benefits from fresh branding and often unused non-masculine colors (pinks, purples, teals) that has many kit fans flocking to their kits.

• USL-C - 3.50
• USL-1 - 3.22
• USL-2 - 3.69
• USL-Super - 3.34 & 2.63
• USL-W - 3.71
• Overall - 3.35

Best Rated Teams per League:

USL-C: Oakland remains the best in the Championship. The partnership of Charly and Oakland Roots may be the best in the world. They have yet to miss out in Oakland. Happy to see El Paso make a splash, San Antonio + Charly look great together and Indy (design-wise, not quality wise) take a massive step up under Under Armour. Vegas and New Mexico continue to produce quality kits.

USL-1: Madison maintains their top spot, but it was due to their excellent 3rd and 4th kits. There might be a little kit fatigue in Madison. The expansion sides (AV Alta, Portland, Texoma) really pushed the league score up. Richmond tapped into their local community fantastically, and Knoxville continues to be better than in state rival Chattanooga.

USL-2: All these names are household names for producing some of the best kits across the US. It’s not surprise these teams are here. It was surprising to see FC Buffalo and the second year West Seattle Junction. West Seattle was able to tap into local market with the help of Austin Chen from Equipt Studios (check out our interview here). SF City came out swinging in 2025 and caused a lot of online activity (also check out our interview with them). Lane United went out on a kit high before ending their run before the League One Sporting Cascades starts in 2026.

USL-Super: Lexington is the class of the league and it’s not close. Spokane and Brooklyn put in solid effort, but doesn’t match up with Lexington’s overall designs. Jacksonville player it way too safe (a common point for far too many Super League teams). Carolina had the best kits in 2024 but went too hard with them in 2025 and missed for us. Hoping they can go back to their successes as the league tries to get creative.

USL-W: Minnesota might be the best dressed side in the US. We interviewed design Cassidy Sepnieski about the 2025 kits, should really check it out. The Ivy came back to form and produced some high quality kits. The Soul continue to stand out themselves. Newcomers Sioux Falls City (moved from WPSL) and Salmon Bay (expansion) came out swinging. What were we to expect from the sister club of League 2 kit legends Ballard FC? I also recommend you check out my interview with Taylor Thomas from Sioux Falls who plays for the club and helped in designing the kit.

5’s Club Additions

5’s Club Additions in Order of Gallery Above

• AV Alta: Spirit of the Valley Kit - Native Art will always bode well for a club.
• Forward Madison: The Flock Kit - Finally gave us a flamingo kit!
• Birmingham Legion: Stars Fell Kit - Learned so much about Birmingham and it’s culture from this kit. Such a beautiful kit.
• Sioux Falls City: Pathways Kit - It’s fun, creative and has a pathway for everyone.
• Minnesota Aurora: Brighter Together Kit - This one made Fox cry, so we had to add it to the club.
• Salmon Bay/Ballard FC: Sarah Robbins Kit - (Ballard FC or Salmon Bay) + Artist Collab = Instant 5’s club member.
• San Francisco City: x Jeremy Novy Pride Kit - Koi Fish, Pride and Art
• Las Vegas: Downtown Gold Kit - This just SCREAMS Vegas. We dig it.
• Oakland Roots: The Bay Waters Kit. It’s literally art on a kit
• 9 Kits total with USL-C and USL-W both having 3 entries
• USL-2 had 2 and USL-1 with only 1 addition.
• USL-Super had 0 entries

You can catch the full episode here:

You can view all the kits (with links) from this link: KitSZN Kits - 2025

You can see the FULL Rankings for all 160 kits from 2025 here:

If you would like to see anything else from us or just wanted to provide some general feedback, you can do so via this link! We appreciate every single one of you who have been with us this year, and we are looking forward to an even better 2026.

Thanks and see y’all next year!