JJ Watt designs Burnley FC's 2026-2027 soccer kit for away games

The cream always rises to the top.

That's the message J.J. Watt is injecting into Burnley FC, the English soccer club that he is a minority investor in.

The former Houston Texans great tapped into his "Milk Man" persona to help design the side's cream-colored away kit for the 2026-2027 season. Burnley, which was founded in 1882, released a lighthearted promotional video called "The Cream Rises" on Friday, July 31 to share the design with the world.

In in the visual, Watt plays a local milk man. After starting his day among cows and sheep, he drives a milk float through the countryside, dropping off deliveries to local legends, including cricket great Sir Jimmy Anderson and entrepreneur Dave Fishwick. Instead of actual cream, the goods delivered are one of the new kits. The defensive star ends his trip at Turf Moor, the Clarets' stadium, showing off the full Castore jersey with the cream base and horizontal red and green stripes.

"From day one, I didn't want this to be just another football shirt. I wanted to create something quintessentially Burnley," Watt said in a statement on the team's website. "Every decision we made started with one question: are we doing the supporters of this club proud? As I’ve said many times before, this club existed long before I arrived and it will exist long after I’m gone. But during this time, my goal is to help honor its great past while also shepherding it to a brighter future."

Watt, who is married to former United States soccer star Kealia Ohai, spent two years with the club creating the design. He studied past kits and decided he wanted to bring back one of the club's old crests, an intricate shield that has symmetrical lions, roses, a bee and a knight's helmet. It was used from 1979 to 1983 and again from 1987 to 2009. There is also a subtle geometric pattern throughout the kit inspired by the stonework at Burnley's historic training facility, Gawthorpe Hall.

"I am merely a steward for this club," Watt said in the club's behind-the-scenes video of the making of the kit, "but the opportunity to create a kit with this badge and this crest and hopefully with the proper respect for what it means is an incredible honor for me and I hope everybody likes it."

"It's been great fun working with JJ on this project," Ed Stewart-Lockhart, Burnley's Chief Marketing Officer added, calling the jersey "future-retro." "He's brought incredible energy all the way through. You can see how much he's enjoyed it, but also how much it matters to him that we've got it right."

The club said that the first 100 fans to buy the jersey at their official store would get a collector's box that had an exclusive cap and signed photo of Watt. The first 100 online customers would also get an autographed photo.

Burnley will play in the EFL Championship this upcoming season. They were relegated after spending one year in the Premier League.

The cream kit will make its debut on Sunday, August 2 in a home friendly against Torino.

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