Retro & new football shirts,
catalogued by season.

Retro, vintage, replica, reissue — the words mean different things

They get used interchangeably and it costs people money. Vintage football shirt generally refers to a garment from the period itself. Retro football shirt is used the same way in casual speech, but the trade also applies it to modern reissues of old designs — which is why the word alone tells you very little. Read what a listing actually says rather than the category it sits in.

A replica football shirt is not a lesser thing. In football retail, replica is the standard trade term for the fan-version shirt sold to the public, as distinct from the authentic or player-issue version made to match specification for the squad. Both are licensed. The replica has a looser cut and heavier fabric; the player issue is tighter, lighter and usually carries different construction at the collar and cuff. A reissue is a modern manufacture of an old design, sold new by the brand. A match-worn shirt was worn in a fixture; match-issued was prepared for a player but not necessarily used. Provenance separates the last two, and provenance is worth more than the shirt.

Shirt, kit or full strip — what you are actually buying

The words get used loosely. A football shirt is the shirt on its own, which is what most listings are and what most people want. A football kit usually means shirt, shorts and socks together — standard for kids, less common for adults, and always stated explicitly on the listing rather than implied by the word.

Home, away, third and goalkeeper are separate products, not variants. Most clubs run a home and an away every season, a third in most seasons, and a goalkeeper shirt that is often produced in far smaller numbers than the outfield ones. Long-sleeve versions exist for many shirts and are listed separately where we hold them. Where a shirt is sold with shorts and socks, the listing says so in the title and the price reflects the full set.

Sizing — the single biggest cause of returns

Vintage shirts run large, and 1990s shirts run very large. A 1994 Large is roughly a modern Medium. The cut was deliberately boxy: wide through the body, short in the sleeve relative to the chest, and designed to be worn over a base layer in a colder game than we play now. A shirt that fits a modern 42-inch chest on paper will hang off the same person in a 1996 cut.

Ignore the label. Every listing carries measurements in centimetres — pit-to-pit taken flat, length from the collar seam to the hem, and sleeve from the shoulder seam. Lay a shirt you already own flat, measure it the same way, and compare the numbers. That is the only reliable method, and it takes ninety seconds.

How to check a football shirt before you buy

Copies have improved and the obvious tells are mostly gone. What remains is construction. Check the collar first — period ribbed collars are knitted as a separate piece and attached with a clean interior seam; cheaper copies often use a folded strip of body fabric. Check the tag typography: brands changed their neck labels regularly, and a 1994 shirt carrying a 2004 Umbro tag is not what it claims to be. Wash-care labels carry country of manufacture and codes that should match the period.

Look at stitch density around the crest and sponsor. Period embroidery is dense and slightly uneven; modern reproduction is uniform and flat. Sponsor print on a 1990s shirt should show its age — fine cracking under a stretch is normal and a print that looks perfect on a thirty-year-old shirt deserves suspicion. Finally, price. A genuinely rare shirt at a third of the going rate is not a bargain, it is an answer.

What makes a shirt worth keeping

Four things, roughly in order. Tournament association — a World Cup or European Championship shirt outperforms a league season every time, which is why the 1990 and 1996 England shirts do what they do. The player — Maradona in 1986, Gascoigne in 1990, Bergkamp in an Arsenal shirt in 1998. Scarcity — goalkeeper and third kits were made in far smaller runs than home shirts, and third kits from the 1990s are among the hardest to find at all.

And the design itself. The years between roughly 1988 and 1998 were the last period in which kit design was genuinely allowed to be strange — sublimated patterns, sponsors sized without restraint, colourways nobody would sign off now. The Netherlands 1988 shirt and the Scotland 1994 away are collectible because they are good objects, independent of who wore them.

Looking after one

Wash cold, inside out, on a gentle cycle, and never with fabric softener — it degrades printed graphics and clogs technical fabric. Do not tumble dry. Dry flat rather than on a hanger, which keeps the shoulders from stretching. If it needs pressing, iron inside out and keep the plate away from sponsor, crest and any printed name entirely.

For storage, flat and dark beats hanging. Hangers stretch the shoulders over years, and sunlight fades reds and yellows faster than anything else. Acid-free tissue between folds is worth the small cost on anything you consider a keeper.