When on June 11, the Mexico national football team faces South Africa at the Azteca Stadium to kick off the 2026 FIFA World Cup — held in Mexico, Canada, and the United States — the eyes of the world will be on 22 players. And on 20 jerseys. 20 because those of the goalkeepers and the referees and linesmen — although competing in sophistication and renewal — have not yet entered the continuous renewal market that characterizes these garments and provides increasingly demanding collectors.
For years, the shapes and designs of football and basketball players’ jerseys — the two major selling sports — remained as unaltered as the teams’ colors. In recent decades, however, football jerseys have become an increasingly imaginative market that invades the streets and has even reached fashion runways. Clubs consider three kits, plus the training kit, and nothing remains except the colors. This evanescence is curious when jerseys, almost as a sign of identification, are increasingly present in our cities. They are worn by tourists who visit and buy them as souvenirs or perhaps as an attempt to approach the local culture. With so many design changes — much greater than the change of number among players — one might wonder about the memory of these new kits.
Some of the most legendary football jerseys in history serve as references for unforgettable matches, conquests, and even personal moments. You know: we tend to remember where we were, and with whom, when Andrés Iniesta scored the goal in South Africa and… do you remember? He took off his jersey to honor his late friend: “Dani Jarque, always with us.” That kit, already as historic as the goal that gave Spain the 2010 World Cup, is now in the Real Club Deportivo Español Museum. It pays tribute to Jarque’s memory, Iniesta’s good work, and values such as friendship and effort.
The largest vintage jersey archive in the world contains more than 7,000 researched and documented garments. It was founded in Manchester in 2006 by two friends — Doug Bierton and Matthew Dale — who, unable to find a West Germany jersey from 1990, when that team won the World Cup, had the idea to recover historic jerseys to prevent their disappearance. They were students. They filled their rooms with jerseys and thus the Classic Football Shirts archive was born, which started by buying and selling rare football kits and today has two stores in the UK, two in the US, and more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram. However, it keeps more than 7,000 pieces intact in its archive.
The first jersey Doug Bierton, one of the two founders, had was from Manchester United. He was given it when he turned seven in May 1992. The following week a new Umbro kit appeared. That change settled in the boy’s mind, who every year, for his birthday or Christmas, wished for a jersey, not his own, but any other. He accumulated so many that children of his parents’ friends gave him the ones they no longer wanted: the Napoli with Mars as sponsor, for example. Thus, studying the jerseys, he came to Italian football. To Baggio or Ennio Tardini and, from there, to rummage through football on VHS: the Italy World Cup, with Rijkaard spitting at Völler or the mascot Ciao.
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The other partner of the company and archive, Matthew Dale, was six years old when, at Highbury, he saw Arsenal play against Leeds. Although at home there was no other option but to be an Arsenal fan, his first jersey was from the visiting team. Dale talks about garments that do not go on sale due to a conflict between designs and says that, in those cases, only those worn by players are available. That happened in the 80s and 90s. That is why they are the most valuable. The Classic Football Shirts archive has all the Arsenal ones.
There are more anecdotes rooting that initiative. When Doug’s younger brother, Gary, played football, the coach left them a box with Aston Villa kits because the colors matched those of the school. He was the only one who knew that, because of the number heat-pressed, the long sleeves, and the sewn details, they had been worn by Aston Villa itself.
Bierton and Dale accumulated so much information about jerseys that they started searching for rare pieces on eBay. That was the origin of their business and their archive. At first, they sold all the jerseys. Although selling some — the first France one of Cantona — hurt them. Over time, they were able to keep the most valuable ones. Today, beyond sales, they have that archive of vintage rarities. Although it is increasingly difficult to find unique pieces, few people have the experience and information they handle to recognize a moment in a jersey. That information is now public. Bierton and Dale share much of what they know in the book Football Jerseys (The Iconic Models from the Classic Football Shirts Archive), published in Spain by the Cincotintas publishing house.
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