It’s not an easy time to be a Cityzen, with Manchester City lost in a malaise of draws and defeats the likes of which the Pep Guardiola era has never seen. So, to boost supporters’ morale this festive season (and quite possibly to start thinking about next year), the club and Puma have released a text-to-image AI kit generator for fans as part of a competition to design the club’s third match for 2026-27. kit.
The cynics among you might look at this intro and think “you know, it looks like Puma and City are finding a way for fans to work for them while enabling a partnership with an AI company”, but just look at what Manchester City players Ederson, Stefan OrtegaAnd Rico Lewis have already created with the AI generator tool!
A net. For a goalkeeper kit? Innovative. This particular text-to-image AI generator is made in partnership with Deep objectswho describes himself as building “the first truly decentralized design studio” in his Twitter/X bio. One of the most common concerns with AI image generation as a whole is the library of images these programs use to “learn” and the blurred line of plagiarism they create.
There isn’t much information on how DeepObjects and Puma formed this kit creator, but the generator site requires users to verify an agreement that allows Puma and City to make adjustments to the design generated. Presumably, to ensure that any copyright issues on the images are resolved, while still ensuring that the kit looks good and sponsors and badges remain legible.
As for the generator itself, it certainly avoids a lot of obvious cultural references (my invitation to create a kit using the final scene of Martin Scorsese’s The Departed only returned variations on a Golden Age candlelit dinner), and it can be a little finicky to get what you want if you have very specific images in mind. Trying to create a pattern from a crowd of people all dressed like Liam Gallagher from his Morning Glory days, we turned over several kits consisting of cartoon women wearing headscarves, as opposed to bucket hats and anoraks .
If you’re smart, people who may not be City fans can sneak in unkind references to the club, such as the financial accusations made against the club by the Premier League.
If we had to guess, we’d say City won’t be using this design.
Anyone wishing to enter the competition can do so by entering prompts in Puma AI Creator, adjusting the design size, colors, collar type, sponsor and badge colors, and much more. Once you register on the site, you receive 15 design credits, and each text prompt you enter uses one design credit. You can earn more design credits by reviewing other people’s designs, giving them more proficiency in designing AI kits. For each text prompt you enter, you’ll get up to four variations of your prompt, and with 15 design credits by default, that’s a lot of potential designs.
However, entrants only receive two official entries into the kit design competition by default – a number that can also be increased by reviewing other fans’ designs.
A shortlist of the best designs will be created by a combination of fan reviews and kit experts from Manchester City and Puma, who will create their list of 10 favourites. From there, a public vote will take place to determine the winning kit that fans will see on the field in 2026-27.
Cityzens who wish to participate in the competition will have until December 20 to submit their creations. Public voting on the finalists’ creations will begin in January 2025.
Ultimately, an actual kit will emerge next season. Ivan Dashkov, head of emerging marketing technologies at Puma, called the kit’s creator a way for “emerging technologies to bring fans closer to the game they love.” But to be completely honest, most fans will probably be happy with a design that doesn’t include hands with too many fingers.
