Dublin Go Teal: What the 2027 Alternative Jersey Says About GAA Kit Culture
The Dubs are going teal. On 8 October 2026, Dublin GAA and O'Neills launched a new alternative jersey for the 2027 season, a change kit that all four senior inter-county teams — footballers and hurlers — will wear in selected games next year. For a county so tied to its sky blue and navy, a teal shirt is a genuine talking point, and it is the latest sign of how seriously counties now take the business of a second jersey.
A teal change jersey from the Sky Blues
Dublin's first-choice colours have been sky blue and navy for generations — the reason the county is known as the Sky Blues in the first place. The 2027 alternative jersey steps away from that with a teal colourway O'Neills describe as giving the shirt a distinctive look. It was put together by O'Neills' Walkinstown design team, carries Dublin's sponsor Staycity Aparthotels across the front, and went on sale through oneills.com from launch. There is a goalkeeper version in the range, and a kids' cut too, so the whole set is there for families who want the full matchday look.
None of that makes it an everyday jersey. A change kit is, by design, the one you see less often — worn when the home jersey clashes, or saved for particular fixtures. That scarcity is exactly what makes alternative shirts interesting, and not just to Dublin supporters.
Why alternative jerseys matter across GAA county jerseys
A decade ago, most counties made do with a home jersey and, if they were lucky, a plain away one. Today the alternative jersey is a fixture of the GAA county jerseys calendar, launched with a photoshoot and a social-media rollout of its own. Counties have worked out what soccer clubs learned long ago: a well-judged change kit is a chance to play with county jersey colours, to reference a club or a crest or a bit of local history, and to give supporters a reason to buy a second shirt.
It is a trend worth watching if you care about Irish county colours at all. The home jersey is sacred and rarely changes much from year to year. The alternative jersey is where counties take their risks — teal for Dublin, and over the seasons everything from charcoal to maroon to retro reissues elsewhere. The away shirt has quietly become the most creative canvas in the GAA.
The collector's angle: change jerseys become the rare ones
Here is the thing that collectors already know and casual buyers often miss: the alternative jersey is usually the one that becomes hard to find. A home jersey is produced in big numbers and worn all season, so there are plenty of them about for years afterwards. A change kit is made in smaller runs, worn in a handful of games, and quietly retired when the next design lands. Five years on, it is the away shirt — not the home one — that people are hunting for.
That is why so many of the shirts that end up on collectors' walls are the odd ones out: the one-season change kits, the clash jerseys, the specials that only appeared a few times. If you want the long version of how counties ended up with the palettes they did — and why a county would ever move away from them — our piece on why counties wear the colours they do is a good place to start.
Teal, and the move away from tradition
Will Dublin's teal jersey become a classic? That is never clear on day one — the shirts that last tend to be the ones attached to a big day or a good team, and the most iconic GAA jerseys of all time are almost all shirts that became scarce the moment they went out of rotation. What is clear is that a marquee county reaching for a colour this far from its own is the kind of decision that gets talked about, and the kind of jersey people remember buying. Collectors will keep an eye on how often it actually appears on the pitch in 2027, because the less it is worn, the more sought-after it tends to get.
Where a county jersey sits in a wider kit culture
A new alternative jersey is a small event, but it points at something bigger: GAA kit has become something people collect, debate and display, not just something players pull on. A county shirt now sits alongside club jerseys, retro reissues and one-off commemoratives as part of a proper collecting culture — one that rewards curiosity about the shirts you do not already own.
That is the whole idea behind a Gaelic football shirt box from Shirt in a Box: the fun is in not knowing which county, which colours or which era turns up. The shirts are genuine and officially licensed, and the surprise is the point — much like spotting a county try something unexpected and reaching for teal. Dublin's 2027 jersey is one more reminder that, in the GAA, the shirt is never just a shirt.