FOR THE 26/27 AWAY KIT, ADIDAS AND LIVERPOOL RECONNECT WITH AN ERA THAT STILL DEFINES THE CLUB 

Published: 29/07/2026 | By: Alex Courbat

Football has a habit of romanticising the past. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it feels like a brand rummaging through old photo albums looking for engagement. Every now and then, though, someone gets the balance right. The Reds’ 26/27 away kit is one of those moments. 

Rather than chasing the loudest trend in football design, adidas has done something far more difficult: exercised a bit of restraint. The new away shirt takes its cues from the club's iconic adidas years between 1985 and 1988 – not by copying them stitch for stitch, but by understanding why they still resonate four decades later. 

The first impression is simplicity. A clean white base, framed with understated red and grey detailing across the collar and cuffs. No unnecessary flourishes. No overworked graphics trying to convince you they're iconic before they've earned the right. 

Then your eye lands on the Trefoil. For Liverpool supporters of a certain vintage, that logo carries almost as much nostalgia as the Liver bird sitting beside it. It belongs to an era when Kenny Dalglish was collecting trophies, European nights felt inevitable and adidas kits became woven into the club's visual identity. Bringing it back isn't fan service for the sake of it. It feels earned. 

The smartest part of the shirt, however, is also the easiest to miss. Running through the fabric is a tonal graphic inspired by historic Anfield match and season tickets. It's a lovely piece of design because it doesn't ask for applause. You only notice it when you slow down. That's increasingly rare in football kits, where every panel and print often arrives with its own paragraph of marketing copy. Here, the storytelling is stitched into the shirt rather than printed across it. 

There's been plenty of conversation around the styling too. The decision to pair the white shirt with red shorts has divided opinion, largely because it feels unfamiliar through a modern lens. Yet that's precisely the point. adidas has reached back into the same mid-'80s period for the full look, making the combination less of a gamble and more of a history lesson. Football has a funny way of rejecting something on launch day before declaring it a classic two seasons later. Don't be surprised if this follows the same path. 

Underneath the retro aesthetic sits all the modern performance tech you'd expect. The authentic shirt is built with lightweight engineered fabrics and adidas' CLIMACOOL+ technology, keeping players cool without compromising the throwback feel. Heritage on the outside. Twenty-first-century engineering underneath. 

The goalkeeper shirt deserves its own spotlight. Purple, black and white shouldn't work as effortlessly as they do here, but somehow it taps straight into the glorious chaos of '90s goalkeeper culture. It feels like the sort of kit that would've made David James ask for the loudest gloves in the catalogue just to complete the look. Goalkeepers have always lived in a slightly different universe. Thankfully, this shirt does too. 

Ultimately, this isn't a shirt trying to reinvent Liverpool's identity. It's reminding everyone that the club already has one. 

In an era where football kits can sometimes feel designed for social media before the stadium, there's something refreshing about a release that trusts timeless ideas to do the heavy lifting. White. Red. A Trefoil. A Liver bird. Some things don't need updating. 

Now, they just need bringing it home when away from it.