This is the 5th year of the Protagonist Soccer Top Tops - where we recognize the the creative and daring kit designs from the US’ second division of soccer and below. Our past winners include Providence City in 2020 with their HAMR re-issue shirt by Inaria; Maryland Bobcats in 2021 with their amazing Glitch shirt; Minnesota Aurora’s Inaugural Home Kit in 2022; finally, in 2023 The Miami FC turned everyone’s head with their Third Kit featuring artwork that encapsulated life in The Magic City.

It is imperative to point out that there is no favoritism; no single person picking out a list and choosing which one they like best. Protagonist Soccer isn’t just giving this award to whoever we want. To begin with, we ask for suggestions - in the past we have used an official nominations form and will likely go back to that. This year, we just threw it out there, “hey, what shirts should we include in our article.”

From left to right: El Paso Locomotive, Sarasota Paradise, Salem City FC, and Charlotte Independence

Some teams missed the queue and to be honest, we missed a few replies. So before we get stuck into the list of those who answered the call to arms, we want to give praise to the clubs and kits who we ran across on social media during the process of finding images for this article - we wish we saw you sooner and we wish you saw our request for kit suggestions!

So how does it work? Each guest panelist was sent a google doc with the same 50 shirts, shown in alphabetical order, and the only notes were the name of the club and the manufacturer. They were asked to independently rank the shirts from 1 to 50 and reply with only their ranking and a sentence or two about their number one shirt. The final rankings are a result of finding the average rankings from the nine of us and putting the 50 shirts in order from lowest average rankings to highest. Lastly, I took the 24 most well ranked shirts and counted down from 24 to the number one rated Top… Top.

From left to right: Hill Country Lobos, Twin City Toucans, MKE Torrent, and Napa Valley 1839 FC

For 2024’s Top Tops panel we brought back Nicole Arias, the self proclaimed kit connoisseur; host of the USL Show, Kaylor Hodges also returns. He’s brought with him Brett Mullinex from the KIT SZN podcast. New to the panel this year are co-host of The C Podcast as well of the Seek and Strike Collective, Chris Walker. The inimitable Sylvs joins us from the Shea Butter FC Podcast. Greggo From For The Culture lends his opinion and expertise. Nicole Hack, co vice-president of the Independent Supporters Council is in the group and our very own Danielle Gawronski from the Super Show joins me, assistant editor of Protagonist Soccer, Joshua Duder, to make our panel complete.

On October 12th, Detroit City FC celebrated Hispanic Heritage Night by introducing the Serapes Charity Kit, “Replicating the fine weave and striking colors of Mexican Serapes.” Proceeds went to the CHASS Center (Community Health and Social Services) in Detroit.

One of the hardest things to do is exclude charity, causes, and shirts that celebrate diversity from the rankings - the sentiment is particularly difficult to explain in the limited amount of characters available in a social media post. The lines of reasoning is sound and simple; we want to avoid the perception that, by vote, one charity is more important or worthy than another - our favorite soccer clubs are a vital part of our community and the causes they choose to champion all have merit!

With that having been said, the final stop before we get stuck into our Top 24 Tops of 2024 is sharing a few fantastic shirts that weren’t included in the ranking process.

MPLS City SC regularly introduce multiple original shirts a year. They also celebrate Pride annually by rocking a beautiful rendition of one of their tops for the season. This year, they wore these on Pride Night when they played Rochester FC on June 29th and 20% of the proceeds were donated to the Gray Ducks to expand opportunities for players in the LGBTQ community. They are still available HERE

F**K Cancer is something I think all of us can agree on. In 2023, Lane United Head Coach John Galas beat sarcoma, a rarity in adults, and to recognize the efforts of the Critical Path Institute the club introduced the “United Against Cancer” kit. Proceeds of the shirt were donated to the Northwest Sarcoma Foundation in support of treatment research. You can still grab one HERE

Inspired by Zoo Knoxville’s most beloved and adorable species, the Red Panda, One Knox SC introduced the Red Panda Kit. Not only did 10% of every sale go toward Red Panda Conservation, you could flip up the inside of the shirt to reveal the Red Panda’s signature sound, “Huff Quack.” The shirt is currently on sale, HERE

Black Diamonds is a safe space for BIPOC soccer fans to unite at New Mexico United matches and local soccer community events. For a second year in a row they partnered with Olive & York to put out a gem of a charity shirt. The organization developed and sold the shirt to send 15yo Denym Lodge to England with his club to train with Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspurs academies. Read more about the shirt and pick one up HERE

Without further ado, here are shirts 24 down to 15, as decided by a panel of 9 voters who come from a variety of podcasts and parts of the lower league soccer community…

At number 24, Orange County SC wore several great looking kits this year, but this was the one by **Hummel** was nominated and finished with an average ranking of 24.3

**New Mexico United**’s Sandia Kit by **Puma** came in 23rd with an average ranking of 24.1
Co-Host of Protagonist Soccer’s The C Podcast, Chris Walker, voted his hometown club’s beautiful shirt Number One.

Number 22 is **AFC Columbia**’s Landmark Kit, designed by Lake Gott and made by **Hummel** with an average ranking of 22.8

New Club, new shirt, by **Hummel**, a brand you’re familiar with. **Iron Rose FC** finished 21st with an average ranking of 21.6

**Minnesota Aurora** have become a Top Tops regular and their 2024 Lumina Kit by **Hummel** finished in the 20 spot with an average rank of 21

**MD Bobcats**, our only NISA club this year, regularly turns heads with their great tops - this year was no different with this shirt by **Hummel**. It came in 19th with an average ranking of 20.6

Another regular contributor to the soccer fashion world is **Forward Madison** and this year’s *Rhythm of the Lakes* shirt by **Hummel** finished 18th with an average ranking of 20.5

**Charly USA** makes their first appearance in this year’s Top Tops list with **Oakland Soul**’s Second Kit which finished 17th with an average rank of 20.3

**Birmingham Legion** had several shirts worthy of nomination this year. From their fun *Sprite Chill* shirt to their *Vulcan* and Juneteenth shirts, they worked with **Hummel** to bring a load of tops to our closets. It was their *Lady Electra* shirt, however, which finished 16th and averaged 20.1 in the rankings.

**Hummel** had another banger with this Third Kit by **Redlands Football Club**, celebrating the orange orchards of Southern California - it rounds out part one of our Top 24 Tops list at number 15 with an average rank of 20.

Top 24 Tops of 2024 will continue the countdown tomorrow with Part Two: from Number 14 down to the Number One ranked shirt by our volunteer panelists!

Until then, if you’re interested, check out last year’s winners!
2023, Part One: Number 23 down to Number 14
2023, Part Two: Number 13 down to Number 1

by Joshua Duder