Every Challenge Jersey Ranked

The Challenge Jersey. It’s an underrated gem that changes every season. While some fans don’t care much about the jerseys, others seem to fantasize about their favorite competitor wearing their favorite colors.

I’ll admit, I started out as one of the people in the earlier category. I thought the jerseys were cool, and a good way to distinguish competitors once they left the big team format, but not all that important. While I still don’t think Jerseys are important, I do enjoy seeing the changes and branding for each season.

Not every season has its own jersey. Fresh Meat 1 was the first season to have some jersey variation. Prior to this, one team wore blue and the other wore red (or pink, for Battle of the Sexes). This was the way we knew who was competing with whom. Because Fresh Meat gave us 12 teams, there were 12 colors used to differentiate the teams. A few seasons later, starting with The Gauntlet 3, Under Armor would become the official sponsor of Challenge gear and their logo would be prevalent. I’ll be honest, I love this product placement. It makes The Challenge seem more official and the jersey quality significantly improved once Under Armor became involved. Under Armor’s partnership with The Challenge is the second most important product partner ever, right after reading clues on my T-Mobile Sidekick 2.

In this post, I am going to rank every single Challenge jersey we’ve seen thus far. Fresh Meat will be the earliest season, and every other season will follow. The Island is omitted because there were no jerseys this season. However, Invasion & Champs vs. Stars 2 gets the distinct honor of being mentioned here twice because of the changes in teams.

I love every single jersey. I love that the show has these and they change slightly each season. However, I am going to be very picky here. I’m judging on text placement, graphics, unique variations, colors, and design flaws. Keep in mind, this is 100% subjective and just for fun.

38. Invasion of the Champions (pre-Champions)

• Front: The Challenge, with “THE” being in the border
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: MTV logo left arm
• My thoughts: There is something seriously blah about these jerseys. At their best, they’re a Rivals 3 clone- the only different being that men’s jerseys had the Under Armor logo centered. At their worst, they’re the colors you never touched in the crayon box. Seriously, who approved of Anthony’s beige jersey and Dario’s key lime jersey? Then, inexplicably, Bruno and LaToya have the same color but they’re not a team.

37. Fresh Meat

• Front: Lizard logo (men) or Australia logo (women)
• Back: Lizard logo (men) or Australia logo (women)
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I liked this season giving every team their own color! However, the logos are underwhelming. When we boil it down, it’s just a t-shirt with a small picture. At the time, this was the future!

36. Champs vs. Stars 2 (Red & Blue Teams)

• Front: Errea and MTV logos. Name and “champ or star” beneath
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: The jerseys Booby and Tony were wearing are really nice, but there were too many variations. Louise’s jersey is darker, and Wes’s jersey has a weird black line going down it. All players had these minor variations when on Red or Blue teams.

35. Final Reckoning

• Front: The Challenge, Under Armor logo, small name under Challenge logo
• Back: Nothing. Nothing at all
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I don’t mind the front, but the back being blank is annoying. However, we’re at the point where people have their name on their shorts, so we can always check someone’s ass if we want to know who they are. My biggest problem: the color suck. These colors remind me of the colors in a crayon box no one uses. They’re close to usable, but not quite a color anyone wants.

34. Battle of the Exes

• Front: Challenger name, Under Armor logo
• Back: Huge Battle of the Exes logo
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I liked the colors this season, though most were brighter hues than normal. The Battle of the Exes logo is quite large and seems out of place and it looks like the designer accidentally bolded all the text on these jerseys before printing them.

33. Cutthroat

• Front: Under Armor logo, Challenger name
• Back: “The Challenge Cutthroat” and gulag logo
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: These jerseys look cool, but placing the logo on the back is a design flaw in my opinion. The Cutthroat logo is barely legible. Names on the back would have been better.

32. The Gauntlet 3

• Front: Nothing but an Under Armor logo
• Back: Gauntlet 3 logo and name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: This season introduced Under Armor to The Challenge, but that doesn’t make the jersey any better. The fronts are awfully plain, and The Gauntlet 3 logo made no sense. The bones making up the “III” had no place in the theme of the season.

31. Challenge: World Championship

• Front: Challenge logo, player name, country flag
• Back: Nothing
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: The prints we see are fine, and I like that different countries have different jersey colors. But, there’s so much wasted space on these and they could have at least added players’ names to the backs.

30. Champs vs. Pros

• Front: The Challenge logo. And “Champs” or “Pros”… usually
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: These jerseys were blatant screen prints and not the best quality logos. My biggest qualm: sometimes they say “champs” and sometimes they don’t.

29. The Challenge: USA

• Front: The Challenge logo, player’s name, and Under Armor logo.
• Back: Under Armor logo.
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I understand this spin off is going back to the basics, but this design is beyond boring. The player’s name isn’t even on the back of the shirts.

28. Spring Break Challenge

• Front: Team name
• Back: “Spring Break Challenge 2010 (MTV logo)
• Sleeves: Just a white mark, not a logo
• My thoughts: I kind of like these, even though they don’t identify the competitors individually. The back has a very simple logo that is reminiscent of a free college shirt. Given this is the Spring Break Challenge, that works. The only sad thing here is the “2010.” Granted, this was filmed in 2010, but adding a date implies there will be a second season filmed the next year. There wasn’t.

27. Ride or Dies

• Front: Challenge logo, competitor name, Under Armor logo
• Back: Under Armor logo at the neck
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: This feel like a reskin of Spies, Lies and Allies and Double Agents, but the purple text doesn’t really show too well on the charcoal jerseys. Plus, the most fun thing about those seasons — the country flags — are gone.

26. Challenge: All Stars 2

• Front: Challenge logo, Reebok logo above and center on the green shirts or the logo on the left on the black shirt.
• Back: Competitors’ names
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: It’s a bit odd that the placement of the Reebok logo isn’t uniform, but not a big deal. My real criticism is the weird green color. It’s nearly black and can be hard to tell apart in the wrong lighting.

25. Total Madness

• Front: Green challenge logo, competitor name, country flag above logo, Under Armor logo
• Back: Nothing
• Sleeves: MTV logo
• My thoughts: I like the black and green contrast, but the front is incredibly cramped. The back is wasted, and the country flag is useless because this didn’t end up being a War of the Worlds.

24. Vendettas

• Front: The Challenge, MTV logo on the right, and Under Armor logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: There’s nothing wrong here, but the placement of the word “The” and the MTV logo always irked me. However, this season does get props for the  amount of swag it gave competitors. This is the first season where they got “The Challenge” hoodies and jackets, and the bottoms changed from the typical black to gray.

23. Champs vs. Stars

• Front: Champs or Stars and Challenger name. Under armor logo is lower on the shirt
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: MTV logo
• My thoughts: I like these! Slightly different, but they were cleaner than the Champs vs. Pros jerseys. The jersey colors are reminiscent of Battle of the Sexes and the text is an odd metallic color. The cast also got a generous amount of other team clothing.

22. Double Agents

• Front: Silver challenge logo, competitor name under logo, country flag above logo. Some jerseys have Under Armor logo at bottom hem.
• Back: Nothing or Under Armor logo, depending on cut of shirt.
• Sleeves: MTV Logo
• My thoughts: This is almost a copy of Total Madness, but the coloring is more subtle than the bright green. Removing the Under Armor logo from the top of the shirt makes the jersey less cramped. Bonus for all of the gear the cast is getting: helmets, puffer jackets, hats.

21. The Ruins

• Front: Huge Ruins logo, Under Armor logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I liked the white on the sides of these jerseys, and I like the darker colors this season. The Ruin logo isn’t really legible, but I did like that the season logo was on the front.

20. Fresh Meat 2

• Front: Huge Fresh Meat 2 logo. Under Armor logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: Like the Ruins, liked the white on the sides of these jerseys, and I like the darker colors this season. The odd Fresh Meat 2 logo isn’t the best and looks like it’s stylized to appear painted on, but at least I can read it.

19. The Duel 2

• Front: Huge The Duel 2 logo, Under Armor logo centered
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: The Duel 2- Fresh Meat 2 was an era of huge logos, and The Duel 2 was the best one. I oddly liked the tribal design and it was noticeable enough without being overbearing.

18. War of the Worlds 2

• Front: Challenge logo, team’s flag above the logo and to the left. Player name below the logo and to the left.
• Back: Challenger name in big yellow text
• Sleeves: MTV logo on the left.
• My thoughts: This season was a downgrade from the first War of the Worlds. The front has more text. The colors are odd, with black camo and an odd leafy camo print that can also be found on Crocs.

17. Spies, Lies and Allies

• Front: Challenge logo in the center, player name underneath to the right, country flag centered
• Back: Nothing
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I like the navy and silver color scheme. It’s also cool that they have track jackets with the challenge logo and their country of origin. This is a simple jersey, but it contains all information.

16. Rivals

• Front: Name and Under Armor logo in the center
• Back: “RIVALS” in huge text, almost looking like it was sliced in a game of fruit ninja
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: These jerseys have a cool design on them, even though the Rivals logos look like someone played Fruit Ninja on it. I would just switch the location of the logo and Challenger names.

15. The Duel

• Front: Brazil flag
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I fully acknowledge a lot of funky colors were used this season, but I loved these jerseys. Simple, paid homage to Brazil (whose flag was used in The Duel logo), and this was the first season to put names on the back. However, after the first couple of episodes many competitors saw their jersey color change.

14. Champs vs. Stars 2 (Champs & Stars teams, Partnered Teams)

• Front: Name front and center, “Champ or Star” beneath. “errea” and MTV logos
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: I really liked the changes here. The names were very visible, team name directly below.The piping on the jerseys resulted in cool styling. These were my favorite spin off jerseys.

And now, we get into a series of very similar jerseys. From Exes 2- the beginning of Invasion we had fairly consistent jerseys. This is not bad! I liked these simple jerseys and they were good branding for The Challenge.

13. Battle of the Exes 2

• Front: The Challenge, MTV logo, Under Armor logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: These are simple, basic colors, but they worked well. I liked the jerseys were toned down and I even preferred “The Challenge” rather than the actual season name in many cases.

12. Battle of the Bloodlines

• Front: The Challenge, Under Armor logo- centered for women and on the left for men
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: MTV logo – right arm
• My thoughts: Like Exes 2, very simple but they worked well! I prefer the MTV logo on the sleeve- only real difference.

11. Rivals 3

• Front: The Challenge, Under Armor logo- centered for women and on the left for men
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: MTV logo -left arm
• My thoughts: Almost the exact same thing as Bloodlines, but the MTV logo is on the left and not the right. It’s much better on the left. It’s a fact, don’t fight me. Also, I ranked Rivals 3 higher because it had a few more jersey colors.

10. Challenge: All Stars

• Front: The Challenge All Stars logo, Under Armor Logo, and star
• Back: Challenger name, Under Armor logo
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: More recent seasons have added to the jerseys and made them overly complicated. All Stars tones it down, and it looks great. The metallic gold fits the theme well though it provides a level of glare while filming.

9. Challenge: All Stars

• Front: The Challenge logo in gold. Under Armor under collar.
• Back: Challenger name, Under Armor logo
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: More recent seasons have added to the jerseys and made them overly complicated. All Stars tones it down, and it looks great. The metallic gold fits the theme well though it provides a level of glare while filming.

8. Invasion (Champion/ Underdog Teams)

• Front: The Challenge logo. Under Armor logo on the right
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: MTV logo -left arm
• My thoughts: It has been so long since we saw proper team jerseys, and these were great! Simple text, but the white sides were a change from the norm. Unlike the teams on Bloodlines, it seemed like there was something unique about being part of the team.

7. Rivals 2

• Front: Challenger name, Under Armor logo centered.
• Back: “Rivals 2”
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: This is a simple jersey, but I loved them. Rivals 2 was very prominent on the back, Challenger name prominent on the front. A simple jersey perfected!

6. The Inferno 3

• Front: “Inferno 3” logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: This is the first time we saw team jerseys, and I loved them! The Inferno 3 logo is great, with the fiery 3 fitting the Inferno well. Names on the back are simple but nice. Nothing to complain about at all!

5. Challenge: All Stars 3

• Front: The Challenge All Stars logo, Under Armor Logo, and stars
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Nothing
• My thoughts: This season has a nice, clean, simple shirt. But it gets major props for using the stars so creatively and updating jerseys as the competitors win.

4. War of the Worlds

• Front: The Challenge logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: Country of origin’s flag on the left arm, MTV logo on the right.
• My thoughts: I really liked the change of pace this season in terms of colors. Everything was army green, light brown or camo to fit the War of the Worlds theme. Plus, the print was in yellow to make the text stand out. Adding flags to the sleeves was a huge plus in my eyes.

3. Dirty Thirty

• Front: The Challenge XXX “Dirty Thirty” logo, centered Under Armor logo
• Back: Challenger name
• Sleeves: MTV logo- left arm
• My thoughts: After seasons of just The Challenge on the front, I liked the Change to the huge XXX logo. For the theme of the season, it was pretty badass, and I even liked the standard orange jersey. The daily Challenges introduced different colors which were hit or miss, but the Dirty Thirty logo was super cool and makes this jersey one of the best.

2. Battle of the Seasons

• Front: Challenger name, Under Armor logo on the left
• Back: Battle of the Seasons logo
• Sleeves: Real World season subtitle… or “Fresh Meat.”
• My thoughts: A clean jersey, but it gets major props for doing something unique with the sleeves. I also liked the color varieties this season.

1. Free Agents

• Front: The Challenge logo, white borders (thinner for women), MTV logo on left, Under Armor logo on right
• Back: Challenger name and randomly assigned number
• Sleeves: White borders
• My thoughts: Everyone knows Free Agents was the best because of the random numbers on the back. People love to think of The Challenge as a sport, and the numbers make it seem more official. Especially during Free Agents, it was a great touch. This was also the first season to replace the season logo with just “The Challenge.” To be honest, I prefer that. This season also featured other color jerseys for daily challenges without a white border, but they’re very similar to Exes 2.