Manchester City and Puma unveil AI-designed kit
Sportswear brand Puma has launched a kit for English football team Manchester City that was designed by a fan using an AI generator.
The shirt was designed using Puma's AI Creator, which is described as a "custom generative AI tool that turns written prompts into kit designs within seconds".
It will be worn as the team's third kit this season, marking the first time a fan-generated AI kit has been used by a professional football team.
"For the first time in professional football, fans were given the power to design a kit using AI with the winning fan-created design set to be worn on pitch this season," said Manchester City.
The white kit, which was created using the AI tool by a fan called Elliot, has a simple design.
It features a central two-tone sash that is half sky blue and half navy blue. There are blue accents on the shirt's sides, while the words AI creator are written inside the collar.
It was chosen following a competition to design a shirt for the club using the AI tool. Powered by Google Cloud, the tool quickly generates kits based on text prompts.
Elliot's design was selected from a shortlist of 10 following a fan vote, with more than 180,000 submissions made to the competition overall.
"Puma AI Creator represents a genuinely new way of thinking about how football kits are made and who gets to shape them," said Puma vice president teamsport Dominique Gathier.
"The volume of entries we received speaks to the strength of the Manchester City fanbase, and the design that came through reflects that," he continued.
"This is a project that sits at the intersection of technology, football, and community and we are proud to have been able to bring it to life."
Although the kit was generated with the help of AI, some commenters online have drawn comparisons between the shirt and a kit worn by Chelsea in the early 2000s.
The club's 2003 away shirt also has a white background with a dual-toned blue shirt down its centre.
Last year Manchester City's third kit was covered in rain as a "tribute to the famous Mancunian weather".
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