Football jerseys used to be a) something players wore at work, and b) something fans wore in the stands to show solidarity with the players on the pitch.
It may seem out of the blue to the uninitiated, but it has now become the uniform of British music festivals and a source of inspiration for major fashion houses.
The 2010s saw several events that showed that soccer jerseys had become mainstream.
For example, Canadian musician Drake wore a pink away kit for Italy’s Juventus during the 2015-16 season, causing an internet frenzy among the fan base. And two years later, the landscape completely changed when Nigeria unveiled their kit for the 2018 World Cup final.
“Since 2016, we’ve seen a few years of blank kits,” says Phil Delves, kit collector, designer and influencer. “It’s no wonder so many people are talking about the 2018 Nigeria kit and the excitement surrounding it. The design itself isn’t the craziest thing we’ve ever seen, but the moment it arrived and the fact that it was coupled with a major tournament just magnified everything.”
pink juventus
2015 – The latest version of the Juventus pink kit was unveiled in 2015. The kit not only gained popularity on the pitch with big-name players like Pogba, but also reached a wider audience thanks to rapper Drake.
I hope there’s another great pink kit coming out soon! pic.twitter.com/BGoucrstPM
— Classic Football Shirts (@classicshirts) August 2, 2018
Before Nigeria went to the tournament in Russia, the shirt they wore took on a life of its own. Designed by American artist Matthew Wolff as a tribute to the African nation’s performance in the knockout stages of the 1994 World Cup, the kit featured a green and white body with black-and-white triangle-patterned sleeves.
The bold and vibrant design for 2018 represents the emerging ‘Nigerian’ culture, centred around the country’s history and a hopeful outlook for the country’s future, embodied by a new generation of exciting players and a growing arts sector.
Following the kit’s announcement, the shirt has been worn by internationally renowned musicians including Nigerian singer Wizkid, who has been nicknamed ‘Starboy’ by Bukayo Saka, and London-born and raised rapper Skepta, who was born and raised in London to Nigerian parents.
Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup kit was a big moment on the field (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)
At the time, England were enjoying their most successful international campaign since their 1996 European Championship semi-final appearance, and both die-hard fans and casual observers were shopping for retro kits to wear while watching the games.
Just after the 2018 World Cup, French champions Paris Saint-Germain announced a collaboration worth around €200 million (£168 million, or $223 million at current exchange rates) with Nike’s Jordan Brand. The striking black-and-white kits produced under the deal caught the world’s attention, with global football superstars including Neymar and recent World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe sporting the logo associated with American basketball legend Michael Jordan while playing for PSG in the Champions League.
This isn’t the first time PSG has taken inspiration from other fashion disciplines – their 2006-07 away kit, inspired by Louis Vuitton, was the first of its kind – but it marked a time when collaborations between fashion and football, once confined to a narrow swath of the globe, were becoming mainstream.
PSG’s 2006-07 away kit inspired by Louis Vuitton (Pascal Pavani/AFP via Getty Images)
“The summer of 2018 was a real turning point for our business,” said Doug Bierton, CEO and co-founder of Classic Football Shirts. “We opened our first store in London and saw the enthusiasm and excitement first-hand.”
Classic Football Shirts began in 2006 when Bierton and co-founder Matt Dale set out to find a Germany shirt from the 1990 World Cup for a costume party. After purchasing the shirts on eBay and purchasing an England shirt with Paul Gascoigne’s name printed on the back, the pair realised there was a lack of authentic retro jerseys available online.
Beerton and Dale started a business buying and selling football shirts, reinvesting their profits into new inventory. In less than 20 years, Classic Football Shirts has amassed over 1.3 million Instagram followers, stores in major cities in the UK and the US, and is expected to generate over $50 million in sales by 2024.
After securing $38.5m (£29m) in cash from investment firm The Chernin Group in May, the company announced several other strategic investors this month. New investors include actor and Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney, recently retired USWNT legend Alex Morgan and global sports and entertainment agency Wasserman.
Beerton knows better than anyone how the business evolved from a relatively niche collecting industry to one of the most prominent subcultures in both football and fashion.
A model wearing a football shirt at Paris Fashion Week in 2018 (Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
“It was much more underground,” says Beerton. “It wasn’t until the 1994 World Cup and the Premier League that football shirts really started to be mass-produced. So when we set up the company in 2006, there was a limited scope to look back on. When we first started, it was more about the 1980s shirts – the indie style, the Adidas Trefoil type.
“People weren’t buying 1990s shirts from a fashion standpoint because the baggy clothes weren’t really trendy. It was more, ‘I want to buy a David Beckham shirt because I’m into shirt collecting or football.’ But as time goes on, kids get older. People are going back to a different era.”
But passionate football fans make up only a small portion of the industry.
Over the years, high-end fashion brands including Giorgio Armani, Dior, Stella McCartney, Yohji Yamamoto and Balenciaga have teamed up with football teams to design special kits. Non-sporting celebrities like pop stars Rihanna and Sabrina Carpenter (the latter of whom wore an England shirt over a Versace dress to England’s ‘Capital Summertime Ball’ festival during the recent Euros) have jumped on the hype train.
As the internet trend known as ‘blockcore’ gained traction on TikTok, it became common for people of all ages and genders to wear retro football shirts with casual attire, and there were no restrictions on who or where these kits could be worn.
“We did a few pop-ups in the U.S. last fall, and the turnout was incredible,” Beerton said. “There were lines waiting in Los Angeles, New York, Miami.
“It was incredible to see the range of things people were wearing. It was a mix of die-hard fans who loved the game and wanted a shirt that showed their knowledge and passion, and people who thought it was pretty cool to wear a football shirt. One guy asked a customer why he was wearing an old Sheffield Wednesday shirt and they replied: ‘I don’t even know what Sheffield Wednesday is!’”
Some old football jerseys are worth more than others (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
As the industry has grown, the chances of going to a charity shop and finding a rare shirt with a unique design have greatly diminished.
People are becoming more conscious of the price of second-hand football shirts, and resellers and large third-party retailers have increased prices to reflect demand. In some cases, a legitimate, high-quality shirt in adult sizes, such as the one worn by the Netherlands in their 1988 Euro victory, can sell for over £1,000 ($1,300). An authentic USMNT “denim” pattern shirt worn by the host nation in the 1994 World Cup typically commands prices of £500 or more.
With prices for modern shirts rising from around £60-£80 for a typical ‘replica’ version to well over three figures for a ‘player’ version produced for a Premier League club, the sales of fakes are on the rise. According to Corsearch, a global leader in trademark and brand protection, the online market for counterfeit football shirts for Premier League clubs has grown to £180m a year.
“There’s been a lot more fakes in circulation in the last two or three years,” says Jack McAndrew, president of Sound Trout, an online independent vintage retailer. “It’s because of social media and influencers wearing football shirts, and even influencers who are unknowingly wearing fakes. It’s indirectly increased demand and created opportunity.
“I’ve seen a lot of them from reputable sellers, but because the demand for the shirts is so high and the quality is so high, people fall for them. The funny thing is, the factories that make the fakes don’t just make things that are considered cool and desirable, like the 2004-05 Atletico Madrid home shirt with the Spider-Man kit sponsor, they also make random, generic ones.
“I should have been a lot more careful. If a shirt is from the 1990s and in ‘pristine’ condition, nine times out of 10 it’s too good to be true.”
An authentic USMNT “denim” pattern shirt worn during the 1994 World Cup typically commands a price tag of £500 or more (Ben Radford/Getty Images)
For independent shop owners like McAndrew, the growth of the counterfeit market means they have to be especially careful when buying shirts online or inspecting them in person at a back-of-house dealership.
Running a fairly large operation with over 160 employees, the staff at Classic Football Shirts are responsible for filtering out counterfeit products and sourcing legitimate retro classic products from all over the world.
“We have a rigorous certification process,” Beerton said. “That involves looking at labels and product codes and comparing them to the shirts we have. We used to have thick written manuals, but now it’s computer-based, and we have a team of about 20 people doing this process. It’s harder now, especially with the quality of the counterfeit stuff that’s being produced, but after a few months of working here, you can usually tell the difference.
“It’s still true that more than half of our classic shirts are sold to people through our website. But we have this crazy job within the company that’s basically called hunters, whose job is to find shirts in the wild for us. They travel the world and network to find old shirts.”
As the trend gained popularity, it developed into an international industry. While there have always been collectors around the world (Classic Football Shirts sold its first jersey to a Liverpool fan in Norway, and has attracted “hardcore” kit enthusiasts in Korea since its founding), subcultures have developed to reflect specific interests within the population.
“A lot of fans, especially in the U.S., are drawn to ‘hero print,’” Bierton says. “It’s about the player and the team. I think the American customer has a similar appreciation for Italian football in the 1990s as I do. I don’t necessarily support any team, but I like the idea.
“I’ll have a Parma shirt, a Sampdoria shirt, a (Gabriel) Batistuta, (Francesco) Totti or (Roberto) Baggio shirt. That’s the Premier League for a lot of fans in the US. They might like Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney or Sergio Aguero. They’re more interested in the technical side of things in Asia and prefer the players’ shirts.”
The 1990s remain a golden era for long-time shirt collectors and those who have recently fallen in love with the trend. Manchester United and England shirts with Beckham’s name printed on the back are among the most sought-after of classic football shirts, rivaling those of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
With the introduction of ‘Icon’ cards into the EAFC video game’s Ultimate Team mode, legends of the era such as Zinedine Zidane and Brazil’s original Ronaldo remain a major presence for younger generations, with their kits still among the most coveted of all time.
Football 1997 – A time when players’ shirts were decidedly baggier (Alex Livesey/Allsport)
“The ’90s were the heyday,” says Beerton. “There was a lot more freedom of expression in the kit. It was bolder and looser. It didn’t have ‘Fly Emirates’ on the front of the shirt, it had a pre-commercial feel. I think there was still something pure about these shirts.
“There’s something about the 1990s and early 2000s that has managed to capture the imagination of the younger generation.”
Go deeper
1989 Liverpool kit and Beckham’s boxers: Why US investors are investing £30m in retro football kits
(Above photo: Getty Images, Design: Dan Goldfarb)
