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In this text I want write more about classic football shirt brands, about history and variety.

At the beginning it was a practically a three big commercial brands who was making football shirts, at seventies it was Adidas, Admiral and Umbro. It was a genesis. Later began to form more different manufacturers. Clubs had got a bigger variety and be able to choose from ever-increasing companies. It started to appear a first commercials at front of kits. Football shirts began to be more colourful, varied, sometimes very strange. It is even a “the worst football shirts top list”. Sometimes manufacturers got too much of imagination. In my opinion that imagination gave us very special, unique and one of a kind vintage football shirts. Also technology was change. Manufacturers started to use different kind of fabrics, they trying to make more comfortable and modern equipment. Football shirts are lighter, breathable. But I think that is “killing” something important, something uncountable. Modern shirts are boring, it’s look almost the same, in opposite of that are vintage football shirts, when You keep it in your hands you can almost feel the history, textile is different. Embroidered logos and commercials makes them almost like handmade.

The most diverse “part of football kits manufactures” in my opinion is Great Britain. When I start collecting old football shirts I’ve known a few the most popular brands. Later I realized I did know nothing.  There are so many small brands, so many manufacturers that I didn’t even know they are exist. Some clubs had their own brand like for example “Fox leisure” was making shirts for Leicester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers got “Wolves leisure”, Portsmouth “Pompey Sport”. Some clubs are changing manufacturers very often, some very rarely, it depends on the benefits. It’s normal that big companies are paying many million pounds to make equipment for clubs like Manchester United or Arsenal London. It’s a big business, very big, it’s making billions pounds yearly. Small clubs don’t have that kind of comfort. Over the years I met many brands, sometimes very small, sometimes that companies doesn’t exist anymore. Brand, club logo and commercials on classic football shirt gives on of kind mixture. Something unique. That You know there’s only one design.

In early years it was mostly: Admiral and Umbro rarely Adidas, later appears brands like Matchwinner, Jan Webster, Erima, Europa, Spall, Nutmeg, Pelada, Super League, Patrick, Diadora, Puma, Nike, Avec, Le coq sportif, Hummel, Henson, Reebok, Asics, Hobott, Burrda, Surridge, Scoreline, Lowfields, Gola, Xara, Reusch, Lotto, Kappa, Sporta, TFG Sports, Uhlsport, Carlotti, Fila, Errea, Carbrini, Ribero, Mitre, En-s, Ellgren, Bukta, Osca, Joma, Skill, Vandanell, Airness, Canterbury, Influence, Jako, Hi-tec, Mizuno, Strikeforce, Lonsdale, H2O... Currently we can find new brands like Macron, Under Armour, Fc Liverpool signed contract with Warrior Sport. A little bit different it’s for example in South America where they got their own brands like: Topper, Astro, Marathon, Walon, Kallini, Dellerba, Penalty, Atletica, Fulmen Sport, Olan, Olympikus... Sometimes we can also find “official products”, it’s not a fakes but different, cheaper, not so valuable. Of course that’s not all, it’s only few examples to show wider perspective. Times are changing and shirts are changing. For a few years probably I’ll searching for present kits, they will became to classic football shirts. Sometimes I wonder what can surprise me in the future, maybe some big fashion brands like Hugo Boss or Armani will start to making football shirts?! No one knows. It’s a big business and right now money has a big power. It’ll be funny but tragic in one moment. Vintage football shirts will lost their magic, I think.

Since I remember football was a very important part of my life. At the beginning I was watching few games per month, later it was more. Right know I can watch football all the time. My favorite is English Premiership. After time I became interested something more then a football. It wasn’t enough, I needed something more, I started searching deeper about football clubs history, from beginning to present. A specially my attention focused on classic football shirts, about history, sponsors, manufacturers.

Since I remember football was a very important part of my life. At the beginning I was watching few games per month, later it was more. Right know I can watch football all the time. My favorite is English Premiership. After time I became interested something more then a football. It wasn’t enough, I needed something more, I started searching deeper about football clubs history, from beginning to present. A specially my attention focused on classic football shirts, about history, sponsors, manufacturers.

At the beginning it wasn’t so easy, internet access was hard to get. I had to searching in international press, football albums, archives. My hobby began to absorb more and more time, I was searching deeper and deeper, it start to be… a addiction. Right now is much easier, global Network is properly everywhere. Writing this blog I want to share with people like me information what I found about clubs, history, interesting facts, “artifacts” what I found and about my personal opinions.

I know it’s a lot of people who like me are fascinating a retro football shirts. Around the world I met a lot of people who collect rare vintage football shirts, they can buy a item from pal from other end of world, they can searching for hours to find a missing part of their collection, sometimes it’s crazy!;). My hobby and people similar to me is very hard because like I wrote before is like addiction, real! If You started “playing” whit this, You want more and more “I’ve got vintage Manchester United football shirt from 1994, no I want older, rarer”. It’s like that. When I was starting it was hard to get a original classic football shirt, so I was buying fake reply, I remember my first shirt, it was a replica of Juventus from Champions League final 1997, on the back: “#21 Zidane”, I was love it! I was a just a kid but I now it is love for whole life.

After that I was spending more money, more time to search for original and more rare shirts. At the beginning classic football shirts it was a small part of my closet, right now it’s a quite big collection. The biggest part of my “trophies” are shirts of English clubs but I got a lot of more different stuff. I like to get old football shirts from “exotic” parts of world, like for example Sierra Leone national team or Basque national team. Another thing are away and second or third shirts. It’s very hard to get a rare shirt in good condition, that’s why there are so valuable.

My favorite in collecting a classic football shirts is unique of them. Unique in almost everything, it’s amazing! Sometimes it’s a real small difference, color of collar, location of club logo, sponsor logo shape, etc. For normal people imperceptible detail, for collector big difference. It’s something fascinating to have a something unique, something special, thing what have only a few people worldwide. That’s make You feel special, like art collectors. Yes it’s some kind art, art for people who loves football, like me, like many people similar to me. For that kind of people is this blog. In next parts I’ll try to tell more about classic football shirts history, about clubs, manufacturers. I hope You like my text and You will back here, if not no problem I understand that. I know I’m not a writer but I’ll try my best to improve my texts and maybe interest somebody, people
with the same hobby, the same fascination, the same addiction.