Sportswear brand Puma has launched a kit for English football team Manchester City that was designed by a fan using an AI generator.

The shirt was designed using Puma's AI Creator, which is described as a "custom generative AI tool that turns written prompts into kit designs within seconds".

It will be worn as the team's third kit this season, marking the first time a fan-generated AI kit has been used by a professional football team.

"For the first time in professional football, fans were given the power to design a kit using AI with the winning fan-created design set to be worn on pitch this season," said Manchester City.

The white kit, which was created using the AI tool by a fan called Elliot, has a simple design.

It features a central two-tone sash that is half sky blue and half navy blue. There are blue accents on the shirt's sides, while the words AI creator are written inside the collar.

It was chosen following a competition to design a shirt for the club using the AI tool. Powered by Google Cloud, the tool quickly generates kits based on text prompts.

Elliot's design was selected from a shortlist of 10 following a fan vote, with more than 180,000 submissions made to the competition overall.

"Puma AI Creator represents a genuinely new way of thinking about how football kits are made and who gets to shape them," said Puma vice president teamsport Dominique Gathier.

"The volume of entries we received speaks to the strength of the Manchester City fanbase, and the design that came through reflects that," he continued.

"This is a project that sits at the intersection of technology, football, and community and we are proud to have been able to bring it to life."

Although this shirt leaned heavily on AI, Puma does not expect the AI to replace human designers.

"While tools like this will become increasingly important in the future, I don't see them replacing the role of designers," UMA head of product line management teamsport apparel Alonso Sanchez told Dezeen.

"The most successful football kits are built on a deep understanding of a club's heritage, fan culture, and ambitions, which requires close collaboration between clubs and creative teams," he continued.

"AI can enhance the speed in the process, but the vision and final decisions will remain human-led."

According to Sanchez, the main benefit that AI added was allowing fans to contribute to the design.

Although the kit was generated with the help of AI, some commenters online drew comparisons between the shirt and a kit worn by Chelsea in the early 2000s.

Chelsea's 2003 away shirt also has a white background with a dual-toned blue shirt down its centre.

Last year Manchester City's third kit was covered in rain as a "tribute to the famous Mancunian weather".