Danny grew up in Hillsborough, close enough to the ground to hear it, and bought his first shirt with paper-round money in 1996 because everyone at school wanted the England one and he wanted the Germany one. He read Graphic Design at Sheffield Hallam and spent fourteen years at a print studio in Kelham Island, mostly setting type for packaging, which is where the eye for a badly kerned squad number comes from.
The shirts were a private habit until a colleague asked why a 1994 away top was worth more than the home. The answer took an hour, and he has been writing versions of it since. He now runs the Shirt Archive journal, covering kit releases and the design decisions behind them.
He is a Macron sceptic and will say so, thinks the tailored-by-Umbro run of the mid-nineties is the high point of English kit design, and refuses to buy anything with a heat-pressed badge. Away from it he restores steel road bikes badly and plays Sunday league on a knee that disagrees.
Areas of expertise
How the shirts are checked
Every release piece starts from the primary source: the club or manufacturer announcement where one exists, and the reporting that broke it where one does not. Anything the source does not state does not get written, including trophies, dates and release windows.
Dating an older shirt is done the same way each time, in this order: manufacturer, sponsor, badge construction, then collar and cuff. Three of the four have to agree before a season goes on a listing.
By the numbers
Background
Recent articles by Danny
Editorial approach and corrections: about Shirt Archive. All authors.