The 10 best under-the-radar kits to help you impress at five-a-side

Parma’s late ‘90s kits take some beating. Back then, the team wore kits made by Champion, and its star-studded lineup was packed with the likes of Hernan Crespo, Juan Sebastian Veron, Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluigi Buffon. Since then, the club has been on quite a journey – although Buffon is back – and it has taken almost 25 years for the kits to hit their peak again.

The 2022-23 away kit comes in Parma’s traditional yellow and blue colours (white and black became the home colours in 2005), while the use of “lightning zigzags” adds an extra dimension to the design. As well as being one of this season’s best kits, Parma’s away shirt brings with it all the European heritage of Serie A’s fallen giants.

The story of Venezia’s journey to being the world’s coolest club has been well told, but the team behind that journey began working with Athens Kallithea in 2022. Just like the Italian team, Athens Kallithea’s shirts are produced by Kappa and designed alongside Bureau Borsche. The design ethos is clear with Kallithea’s kits.

Arguably the stand-out is the home shirt, which sports a navy blue base finished with a white collar and gold trim. The design is so good this will guarantee you’re the best-dressed person playing five-a-side, or in most other situations to be honest.

Brazilian club Corinthians is always a good bet for its kits. Its traditional white and black colours make for classic designs, while Nike and Corinthians have experimented with everything from mosaic graphics to graffiti-style stripes. The club’s Japan-themed third shirt is the most striking of Corinthians’ most recent releases, but it's the away shirt that stands out.

The shirt still uses the black base – although it's adorned with a faded grey pattern – and the design is finished with a smart gold trim around the sleeves and collar. It’s a sleek and classic option for your after-work kickabouts.

Palermo’s bright pink kits are an all-time classic in European football, and Kappa honours those designs for the Sicilian club’s 2022/23 third kit. It shows again how the brand has become one of the best kit manufacturers around, even if the Serie B team is less high-profile than some of Kappa’s other designs.

For the third kit, the Sicilian club’s bright pink appears as a flower and skull pattern on the white base of the shirt. The finishing details are the retro-style collar and the gold and black detailing. Obviously it’s not subtle, but the combination of roses and skulls in bright pink is a striking choice that’s guaranteed to make an impression.

Almeria are celebrating their first La Liga season for the best part of a decade with one of the league’s stand-out away shirts. While the home kit is pretty similar to the club’s traditional red and white stripes, the away kit goes for a black and light blue design, most notably with the diagonal stripes, which get clearer and clearer towards the bottom of the shirt.

While the kit deserves to be on this list for its design alone, it hasn’t been a lucky charm for Almeria this season. So far, they’ve failed to win a single game away from home and sit bottom of the table on away form. Still, at least it looks good.

Vermont Green only launched last year, but already the USL League Two team has been gaining a reputation. Admittedly, that’s more because of its club crest (arguably the best in US football), its focus on environmental justice and, in no small part, its kit design.

The best of the bunch – which includes a pink tie-dye goalkeeper’s shirt and a third kit covered in pine needles – is the Vermont Green home shirt. The home kit is a nod to the team’s home state with a green tie-dye finish designed to celebrate the natural beauty of Vermont. As well as declaring your eco credentials, you can almost guarantee no one else at five-a-side will be wearing a Vermont Green kit this week.

On a cold winter evening on an astroturf pitch, you could be blamed for dreaming of warmer climates. Spezia’s 2022/23 third shirt comes with that built-in. The club is based close to the iconic Cinque Terre, a string of five villages known for their colourful buildings and steep seaside cliffs. This location is the inspiration for the third kit.

A yellow base is covered with colourful stripes in honour of those colourful houses. The idea is to promote environmental, cultural and ethical values, and there’s no reason you can’t do that on the cold astroturf as well as in the towns of the Cinque Terre itself.

Seeing as French club FC Lorient have released a tattoo-themed shirt this season, perhaps the team should be known for pushing the envelope with their designs. Luckily, the third kit manages to restrain things enough to deliver a design that puts most other kits to shame.

The club is based on the coast, and so the colour palette – a sand-coloured base with specks of orange, black and grey – is in honour of the surrounding beaches. As well as helping to celebrate the local area, the beach motif also makes for an eye-catching design – and maybe it's helping Lorient in their successful Ligue 1 season so far.

Las Vegas Lights only began playing in 2018, but the team gained cult kit status the moment it started working with Meyba. The first away shirt from that partnership arrived in 2022, and features a brightly coloured pattern – inspired by the topography of the desert around Vegas – against a white base.

While the Lights’ reach playing in the USL Championship might not be huge, working with Meyba – best known for their decade working with Barcelona – has helped them reach a whole new audience. You’re bound to get some envious looks if you choose to wear it.

Another Kappa kit only reinforces the Italian brand’s status as the king of kits. This time working with Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, Kappa has delivered another elevated kit that is bound to turn heads. Whereas the club’s home and away kits both utilise Vasco’s traditional diagonal sashes, the third kit takes a different approach.

The shirt arrives in an off-white colour, finished with a subtle jacquard pattern inspired by the tiles of the club’s São Januário Stadium. As if that wasn’t enough, the smart and sophisticated kit is finished with black and gold detailing and trim.