Puma Kicks Gen AI Into Gear, Letting Followers Design Manchester Metropolis’s 2026 Equipment

Followers can then share their designs on Instagram, Instagram Tales, or X.

The initiative faucets into the eagerness of Manchester Metropolis followers, who already share their very own jersey designs on-line.

“Should you go on Instagram and lookup Man Metropolis kits, you’ll discover tons of, if not 1,000s of illustrators and designers that create their very own kits,” stated Dashkov. “All people all the time has an opinion on these kits.”

For followers, designing a jersey gives an accessible, thrilling strategy to deliver their concepts to life with the assistance of AI. “AI offers them an opportunity to try this,” Dashkov added.

Puma spent over a 12 months creating the AI jersey design undertaking with FTR Studio and Deep Objects, utilizing a Secure Diffusion base mannequin.

“We’re exploring the way to increase this [concept] however have to see the learnings of the primary one earlier than making concrete plans,” Dashkov stated, including that extra soccer groups or different elements of their enterprise might get related AI-driven experiences, however wouldn’t share extra.

AI guardrails take the sphere 

To make sure accountable use, Puma has layered a number of ranges of content material moderation for the AI device.

“There’s an industry-standard listing of issues you possibly can’t immediate—sure matters, like profanity phrases or content material that’s restricted even on platforms like Midjourney,” stated Dashkov. The corporate additionally filters out competitor IP and types it doesn’t personal.

An AI program opinions all generated photos for security, and any flagged content material, resembling humanoid figures like robots or aliens, is robotically changed. Lastly, all competitors submissions undergo human moderation earlier than approval.

Nonetheless, like many AI fashions liable to hallucinations, early testing revealed some quirks—one immediate requesting a “repeating picture of Batman, of Batman and Superman” resulted in a jersey that includes these characters, highlighting the potential for IP-related points.

Following the voting course of, a shortlist of prime entries will likely be reviewed by an professional panel, who will make sure the designs adjust to FIFA laws. The ultimate 10 will likely be chosen, and followers will vote once more on the winner, who will change into Manchester Metropolis’s official third package for 2026.

Individuals begin with 10 AI generations (prompts) and may submit as much as three designs. Voting day by day—20 votes per day—unlocks extra generations and submissions.