If you’re a football fan, you might have heard about the booming online market for classic football shirts and strips. For many people, this is a great way to expand their football fandom into other areas of life, but for others, it is a complete mystery. If you’ve never understood what the deal is with classic football kit, then we’re here to help. We’ve got a basic introduction to what this is, how it works, and why people are so obsessed with football shirts. Even if you’re completely baffled, we’re here to help you wrap your head around it!
What is a Classic Football Kit?
The retro football shirts market deals with selling replica and authentic football shirts from a wide range of teams and eras. Because football kit changes over time, with different shirt designs every season in some cases, many people have particular attachments to styles of shirt that simply don’t exist anymore, even before getting into factors such as player numbers and transfers! Home kits, away kits, even sometimes training shirts or support staff shirts: all of these change as sponsors and styles change. The current kit for your favorite team might look very different from the styles from a few years ago! There are hundreds of different options to collect if that’s your preferred option.
How Old does Football Kit have to be to count as Classic?
There’s no definitive cutoff for how old a shirt has to be for it to be classed as “retro football kit” or “classic football kit,” but a good rough rule of thumb is that if it’s not a current shirt being worn by players this season, it probably counts as classic. You might find that some vendors will only sell shirts from a few years earlier than that, but in general, if it’s not the current kit, it’s a classic kit.
Why Buy Classic Football Kit?
There are many reasons to buy a classic football kit. Are you a fan of a team and want to collect a full set of that team’s history? Are you a fan of a particular moment in time? Maybe you just want to own some shirts from your childhood or from when your favorite player played for your favorite team. The nostalgia factor is a huge part of the popularity of classic football kit sales, and there’s never been a better time to indulge that feeling.
Authentic vs. Replica Classic Football Kit
While some vendors will only sell authentic, genuine football kits from back in the day, others will sell modern replicas instead or as well. While there’s no “correct” option, make sure you check which it is you’re buying! An authentic classic football kit can be harder to find and significantly more expensive but matters more to some dedicated collectors and is also often higher quality. Replica shirts are less prestigious and often quite poor quality, but they can be much cheaper and easier to find than their authentic counterparts.
Conclusion
The world of classic football shirts is a wide and exciting one for keen collectors or nostalgic football fans. This has been a brief, basic overview of the field, but the best way to understand how it all works is to dive in and buy a shirt!
