Classic football shirts: check your wardrobe for hidden treasure
Classic football shirts have become a fashion item and are soaring in price. Have you got a winner in your wardrobe?
Football shirts are no longer the preserve of the terraces, much less the boozer on a Saturday afternoon while the footie is on the telly. Colourful vintage strips have become – dare we say it – fashionable. Singer Mabel “recently sported a retro Arsenal 1992-1994 home jersey in Los Angeles… delighting football-shirt spotters like me”, says Felicia Pennant in British Vogue. A K-pop girl band “electrified” the crowd ahead of a match in Seoul and Kim Kardashian was spotted wearing a 1997 Roma shirt last year. Fashion houses have even teamed up with kit makers, giving us Reebok X Botter, for example, plus Umbro with Aries and Palace, and Adidas Arsenal x Labrum.
Smaller, independent fashion labels are going out of their way to source old shirts online, giving them new life as fashionable items of clothing for women. “Shirred football tops and England bandeau-style shirts [have] proved extremely popular for womenswear,” Charlie Oxley and Freddie Rose of Vintage Threads tell Vogue. Their “reworked” football shirts are stocked by Selfridges.
“Part of the appeal [of vintage football shirts], without a doubt, is the streetwear boom,” says Rory Smith in The New York Times. Last year, private equity firm Chernin Group bought a stake in Classic Football Shirts, a retailer with shops in London and Manchester, spying the potential for fashion to do to shirts what it did to trainers. Former US football star Alex Morgan and actor-cum-Wrexham-FC-owner Rob McElhenney have followed suit and now the company is planning its expansion across the Atlantic.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Why are vintage football shirts so popular?
But vintage football shirts also “root the wearer in a specific era [and] act as a gauge of the depth of their fandom”, says Smith. Every shirt is personal and “each jersey acts as a repository of memory”. Another factor is that, before the 1990s, clubs and kit makers were slow to cotton on to the money that could be made from selling fans their shirts. As a result, many are extremely rare.
“The collectors’ holy grail is Holland ’88,” Tomas Jones, founder of Wrexham-based Vintage Football Shirts, tells Alexander Tyndall in the Financial Times. The bright orange, geometric-patterned tops today fetch around £900. West Germany’s white 1990 World Cup shirt, with its “angular red, black and yellow swoop across the chest”, is also much sought after. Swindon-based Cult Kits sells it for £300 on its website.
Such has been the craze – web searches for “vintage football shirts” rose 5,000% in the past few months globally, notes Vogue – that fakes have begun entering the market. “Always go to a trusted retailer,” warns Josh Warwick of Cult Kits. His firm is careful to authenticate the shirts it sells as genuine.
But not all knock-offs – or “vintage bootlegs”, as Charlie Holder of Brilliant Corner Shop calls them – are bad. In the old days, “designers [were] making guesses” as to what a team’s new kit would look like before its official release, the seller of vintage apparel tells the FT. “The notion of unofficial shirts is really evocative.”
This article was first published in MoneyWeek's magazine. Enjoy exclusive early access to news, opinion and analysis from our team of financial experts with a MoneyWeek subscription.
-
The most influential people of 2025Here are the most influential people of 2025, from New York's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to Japan’s Iron Lady Sanae Takaichi
-
Millions of parents are missing out on up to £720 a year in extra pension cash – are you affected?A mum who narrowly missed out on the pension boost said she “never knew the government rule existed” and wants other parents to use it
-
8 of the best properties for sale with indoor gymsThe best properties for sale with indoor gyms – from a four-storey mews house in London’s Knightsbridge, to a 1920s Arts & Crafts house in Melbury Abbas, Dorset
-
Top stock ideas for 2026 that offer solidity and growthLast year’s stock ideas from MoneyWeek’s columnist and trader, Michael Taylor, produced another strong performance. This year’s stocks look promising too
-
Market predictions for 2026: Will Dubai introduce an income tax?Opinion My 2026 predictions, from a supermarket merger to Dubai introducing an income tax and Britain’s journey back to the 1970s
-
Stock markets have a mountain to climb: opt for resilience, growth and valueOpinion Julian Wheeler, partner and US equity specialist, Shard Capital, highlights three US stocks where he would put his money
-
The steady rise of stablecoinsInnovations in cryptocurrency have created stablecoins, a new form of money. Trump is an enthusiastic supporter, but its benefits are not yet clear
-
SRT Marine Systems: A leader in marine technologySRT Marine Systems is thriving and has a bulging order book, says Dr Michael Tubbs
-
Goodwin: A superlative British manufacturer to buy nowVeteran engineering group Goodwin has created a new profit engine. But following its tremendous run, can investors still afford the shares?
-
A change in leadership: Is US stock market exceptionalism over?US stocks trailed the rest of the world in 2025. Is this a sign that a long-overdue shift is underway?
