The England World Cup 2026 home kit has dropped and spoilers… it's lovely.
With kits dropping thick and fast ahead of the March internationals – our last pit stop before World Cup 2026, guys! – it is of sheer relief that England will be well-dressed in the heat of North America.
Grab us some paracetamol, because this get-up is getting us testing positive for World Cup fever…
The England World Cup 2026 home kit is our favourite for a long, long time
Nike have been producing the England shirts for over a decade now, and in that time, we've had some solid efforts – though the Euro 2024 home and its corresponding away didn't exactly go down particularly well with the buying public.
Sure, Nike probably knew that grape was a daring choice (we loved it, FWIW), while the home's main distinction was a marmite collar, with little else to define it aside from that.
We're happy to say that this is a return to form.
The 2026 shirt feels very Euro 2000 with its rounded collar and red numbers: of course the piping is red and navy blue, as we expect by now, and the flourish extends over the shoulders.
But just look at that base pattern: the pride of the Three Lions adorns the background of the shirt itself, along with the letters, ‘ENG’, all over the top, for something particularly majestic.
This is the first time that Nike have attempted an ambitious base graphic on a home top, which admittedly, is more Adidas's wheelhouse of late – and it's a triumph, feeling classy and classic, with the star representing our single, gleaming Jules Rimet gold once again to give this a vintage feel.
Really, they've hit the nail on the head: yes, we say this a lot, but if the unthinkable actually happens after 60 years, this is a fine effort to do it in.
It's nice as well to get some kind of cohesion with the away kit: Nike have produced something very similar in red for the change strip, and hey, we're really not mad about that in the slightest.
What do you think, though: stonking or honking? Wowsers or trousers? Tell us below…
