What Do Hell's Kitchen Chefs Wear? The Jackets, the Clogs and the Season 25 Lineup
The short of it — Hell's Kitchen contestants wear a white double-breasted chef jacket with their team colour on the collar and trim — red for one brigade, blue for the other — over dark trousers, an apron, and a closed-toe, closed-heel slip-resistant clog or work shoe. FOX has never credited a footwear or uniform brand for the show, so nothing below is "the same shoe Ramsay's chefs wear." It is what that job actually asks of a shoe, and what three brands sell right now that answers it.
The gimmick this year is age. Every competitor is 25 or younger, and the youngest pair is 21.
| Season 25 | Detail |
|---|---|
| Premiere | Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, 8 p.m. ET on FOX; streaming on Hulu the next day |
| Format | 18 chefs, all 25 or younger, split into a red and a blue brigade |
| Filmed at | Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, Conn., where the show has shot since it moved east |
| Same night | Special Forces season 5 at 9 p.m. ET, also FOX |
What do Hell's Kitchen chefs wear on the line?
The uniform barely changes from season to season, which is useful if you want to copy it. Trim, piping and sometimes the collar carry the team colour. Under the jacket almost everyone wears a plain short-sleeve tee, because the jacket is heavy cotton and the pass sits under heat lamps.
| Piece | What it looks like on screen | Why it is built that way |
|---|---|---|
| Double-breasted chef jacket, white | Two rows of buttons, team-coloured collar and trim, name embroidered on the chest | The double front can be re-buttoned to hide a stain; two layers of cotton over the torso blunt splashes |
| Base-layer tee | Glimpsed at the collar and in the dorm scenes, usually grey, black or white | Moves sweat off the skin so the jacket is not doing that job |
| Trousers, black or checked | Straight leg, no cuff, loose through the thigh | Nothing to catch a spill and hold it against the leg |
| Bib apron | Tied at the waist, swapped constantly during service | The one layer that is meant to be thrown off |
| Closed clogs or low work shoes | Almost always black, rarely in frame | Closed toe and heel, grippy outsole, no laces to soak |
Why is one brigade in red and the other in blue?
It is the oldest piece of staging the show has. Two teams cook the same dinner service against each other, and the colours let an editor tell you in a quarter of a second whose scallops just came back. Since the earliest seasons the split has fallen along gender lines — women in red, men in blue — and season 25 keeps that. Teams get merged into one brigade later in the run, at which point everybody switches to black jackets, and that switch is the show's way of announcing the stakes changed.
Who is on the season 25 red and blue teams?
Eighteen names, nine a side. Ages and hometowns come from the FOX cast announcement on Sept. 2 and the contestant gallery published before the premiere.
| Red team (women) | Age | From | Blue team (men) | Age | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgiana | 24 | Botosani, Romania | Aiden | 22 | Fullerton, Calif. |
| Haley | 24 | Orlando, Fla. | Diego | 21 | Allen Park, Mich. |
| Jeyda | 23 | Houston, Texas | Dylan | 22 | Milwaukee, Wis. |
| Joy | 25 | Pennsylvania | Gabriel | 25 | Lake Worth, Fla. |
| Kylie | 24 | Hopatcong, N.J. | Jonathan "Jonny G" | 23 | Kenscoff, Haiti |
| Mya | 25 | Beavercreek, Ohio | Michael | 24 | Commack, N.Y. |
| Nadia | 24 | Prince George's County, Md. | Miguel | 22 | Houston, Texas |
| Sandra | 21 | Bronx, N.Y. | Miles | 22 | Albuquerque, N.M. |
| Serenity | 24 | Cincinnati, Ohio | Valentín | 22 | Mendoza, Argentina |
What shoes do Hell's Kitchen chefs wear?
No brand has been credited, and the camera rarely drops below the pass, so anyone naming a specific model is guessing. What the job demands is not a guess. A restaurant line is a wet, greasy, hot floor that a cook stands on for eight to twelve hours without sitting down, and a dropped knife or a spilled pan of stock is a normal Tuesday.
That produces four hard requirements, plus one thing most home cooks get wrong.
| Requirement | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Closed toe, closed heel | A dropped knife or a pan of stock lands on leather, not on skin. Open clogs and trainers with mesh panels are out. |
| Grip rated for oil, not just water | Look for ASTM F2913 testing or the newer SRO outsole mark. A wet-tile rating alone does not cover a fryer station. |
| Upper that sheds a splash | Coated or treated leather beads a spill; canvas and knit drink it and stay wet for the rest of service. |
| Arch support for a double shift | Eight to twelve hours without sitting. A rigid rocker sole is why clogs keep winning in professional kitchens despite how they look. |
| The lace trap | A lace holds liquid against the top of the foot, comes undone at the worst moment, and cannot be kicked off if something hot goes down the ankle. That is the argument for the clog. |
What does a pair cost right now?
Three shoes that meet the four requirements, at three prices. Every figure was read off the brand's own United States site on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, at 11:45 p.m. ET, and shoe prices move, so check before you buy.
| Tier | Shoe | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | Shoes For Crews Old School Low-Rider IV, leather | $66.98 (listed down from $71.98) | Slip-resistance certified to ASTM F2913-24 with an SRO-rated outsole, water-resistant leather, gusseted tongue, 13.86 oz per shoe. A lace-up, so it is the compromise pick. |
| Middle | Dansko Professional, black box leather | $140.00 | Rocker sole, contoured footbed with built-in arch support, regular and wide widths, APMA accepted. The clog most line cooks name first. |
| Upper | Birkenstock QO 400 Professional, natural leather | $165.00 | Cork-latex footbed that moulds to the foot, fluid-resistant coated leather, washable microfiber lining, outsole rated against slip, oil and grease, certified EN ISO 20347 O2. |
What should you wear under the jacket at home?
You probably do not own a chef jacket, and you do not need one to cook a four-hour dinner. What carries over is the layer nobody films: a plain, quick-drying short-sleeve tee that pulls sweat away instead of holding it. Cotton is the trap here. It soaks, it stays wet, and standing over a hob in a wet cotton tee is how people end the night cold and cranky.
| Layer | What works | What does not |
|---|---|---|
| Base tee | Knit synthetic or a merino blend — the same fabric a training top uses | Heavy cotton, which soaks and stays wet |
| Trouser | Straight, unlined, no cuff, waistband that does not dig when you bend to the low oven | Anything cropped or cuffed that catches a spill |
| Apron | Bib style, tied at the waist, easy to pull off in one motion | Over-the-head styles you cannot shed fast |
Our guide to identifying clothes you see on television covers how to work backwards from a screen grab when a show credits nothing, which is most of the time.
How does a kitchen uniform compare with what the competition shows issue?
Every show on this site hands its cast a uniform and then makes the uniform do something. Survivor 51 gives its tribes colour-coded buffs and a no-logo rule. American Ninja Warrior competitors fight the sleeve problem, because fabric on the forearm costs grip. The Challenge dresses its teams in compression. Hell's Kitchen is the odd one out: the jacket exists to be seen ruined, which is why it is white.
The footwear question is the same one the Dancing with the Stars rehearsal room answers with a different tool. Both rooms need a shoe that survives eight hours on a hard floor. One needs a heel that pivots, the other needs a sole that will not slide on oil. For the physical-competition version of the argument, see our breakdown of what competition training kit is actually built for; the rest is in Competition Shows and Fitness Shows.
When is Hell's Kitchen season 25 on, and what else airs that night?
Thursdays on FOX at 8 p.m. ET, starting Sept. 24, with Hulu the following day. FOX has stacked the night: Special Forces season 5 takes the 9 p.m. hour with 15 celebrity recruits in the Malaysian jungle, which is the same two-hour block for anyone who likes watching people suffer in uniform. Our sister site has the full season 25 guide and a running answer to whether Hell's Kitchen is on tonight. What this channel covers, and what it does not, is set out in our scope page.
Sources
- FOX fall 2026 premiere dates announcement (Hell's Kitchen, Thursday, Sept. 24, 8 p.m. ET; Special Forces, 9 p.m. ET).
- Hell's Kitchen season 25 cast announcement, Sept. 2, 2026, and the published contestant gallery — names, ages, hometowns, the all-under-25 format.
- Reporting on season 25 production at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, Conn.
- Prices and specifications read from each brand's own U.S. product page, Sept. 20, 2026, 11:45 p.m. ET: Shoes For Crews Old School Low-Rider IV (leather), Dansko Professional (black box), Birkenstock QO 400 Professional (natural leather).