With the World Cup on the agenda, the growing prevalence of football shirts on our streets shows no sign of calming down. It’s weird for someone of my age, having actively followed my average team up and down a total of 5 different divisions over the years. I’m wedded to football and its culture, and it’d be easy to knee-jerk and attempt to gatekeep the morsels of culturally important artefacts such as shirts. But football should never be about that. It’s everyone’s game, no matter whether they’re stubbornly following an unfashionable team every week or they just like the colour of the collar on a particular shirt. And no amount of eye rolls or impassioned expressions of why nothing is sacred anymore can change that. So tell your boring mate to turn it in. You know the one.
But, from within what I’ll reluctantly call the fashion industry, the rise in popularity of the humble football shirt has been huge. Elementary research shows the actual game is more popular than ever, so it stands to reason the various commercial tokens of appreciation will become more sought after. The blokecore trend will have added some velocity to the growth in popularity of shirts, too. In addition, clubs with a more switched-on marketing department are wise to this and allied to people like the excellent Classic Football Shirts, the more engaged fan has leaned in to retro shirts of late. It’s trickled down to the high street and a cash-grab scenario that is showing all the signs of boom-and-bust you get with any trend. But I reckon it’ll stick around, not fade away.
With the World Cup returning to North America for the first time since Diana Ross made us all lol in 1994, the football shirt will become a permanent fixture. Think about how New York Yankees and Oakland Raiders caps have transcended mere fandom and the merch of the better-marketed American sports teams have taken on a life of their own. Is football about to follow them into the mainstream? People are already wearing shirts of teams they aren’t really bothered about. And the rules around why you’d wear – for example – a Partick Thistle shirt are murkier than ever. People wear shirts because they like what they look like now, sometimes not knowing the first thing about the team they’re associated with. Tbf, that is pretty weird, but then band t-shirts have been serving that purpose for years too. Exhibit A here.
A look at any city centre square this week will reveal all manner of football shirts, often affectations by fashion brands from the high-end luxury names to high street efforts. Although I’ll stop short of referring to them as ‘jerseys’, it did make me part proud of how far the game has come in my lifetime, but also a little disappointed that something with such a depth of value culturally has in some cases been reduced to a simple fashion item. I went in Primark earlier to try and get an inexpensive phone case. It was a fruitless trip and one I don’t envisage making any time again soon, but the plethora of cheap, crap, football shirts was evidence this whole thing has gone fully mainstream.
My reaction to all this, is not to dig out my original shirts from the 90s, but instead to pack away my original R9 1998 shirt alongside the blue Colombia Away shirt I still have from the same era, and instead dig out the various football shorts I’ve somehow acquired over the years. They’re like shirts, but you know, a bit cooler and more obscure. Yes, I’m a twat, but I’m owning it.
This idea only occurred to me as I wandered back to the office this lunchtime and I spied a couple of lads wearing actual football shorts, but not paired with astroturf boots or anything practical. They weren’t on the way back from 5 a side, it was a style choice, perhaps because of the simple adjacency of shorts to the more prevalent football shirt.
Then I realised I recently invested in a pair of the ACG Inter shorts and decided that I must have unwittingly jumped on a trend before it has even become one properly. I might be old but I’ve still got it. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway.
Anyway, buoyed by this realisation, I thought I’d have a little wander about the web with a view to asking the question: Are football shorts the new football shirts? If they’re not, they should be.
Have a look at these and tell us what you reckon.
One Block Down Camo Cut Soccer Shorts
Anything football-related to come out of Milan will always get fast-tracked to the front of the queue. Throw in One Block Down and there’s a fair chance it’ll be relevant to our interests. While many in this list are a pairing between heritage and contemporary, this is just them being them, doing them and it’s all the better for it.
Get them here
Cafe Nivelcrack – Mate Shorts
Crossing cultural boundaries is what the World Cup is all about, so when we here in the UK see the word ‘Mate’ it feels pretty friendly. Those of us who are more well-travelled or just geeks about this sort of thing know that Mate means something different in South America, and South Korea’s Nivelcrack have made these shorts in tribute to that. IYKYK.
Look at them here
New Balance x Lack of Guidance
The fact these are now sold out on the Lack of Guidance site (before anything else is) suggests maybe, just maybe we’re onto something with our hypothesis.
Good people behind this in both camps.
Get them here (or not)
Nike ACG Inter Milan Shorts
While Inter aren’t of any serious interest to me, their stadium is possibly my favourite. It’s a scandal they’re pulling it down. Speaking of pulling things down (lol), these shorts have served me well for five-a-side and my annual gym trip admirably. They will continue to do so until I’ve worn them to death and suddenly realised resellers are offering them for £150 a pair.
Look at them here
adidas DFB Deutschland Originals Shorts
The trefoil remains the best adidas logo and the brand’s willingness to embrace it in a football setting once again has been good to see, but long overdue. If you’re gonna go with something that has all that teutonic character you’ll find under the surface of adidas, then a pair of Germany shorts might as well back that up.
More here
Meyba Original Swim Shorts
Yeah, ok they’re technically swim shorts but do me a little google search of Gary Lineker in Barcelona and tell me he and the rest of his Blaugrana colleagues weren’t wearing this sort of thing? That little pocket is just panache personified. Just suave.
Get them here
Umbro Panelled Oversized Shorts
In our house, Umbro made and continue to make the best football shirts. I don’t know if it’s just their particular classic yet contemporary style or their heritage from the 60s onwards, but they’re still ahead of adidas when it comes to actual kit. These are a simple embodiment of that, in colours you’ll be happy to wear without making people think you support a team you don’t.
Get them here
Japan Originals Shorts
Ok, so I’ve included these shorts already, sort of, via the German ones above, but the three colours on the stripes make these almost preferable. Just don’t be showing these or the Deutschland ones to an elderly relative.
Get them here
Umbro x Woei Alternative Short
You getting the message yet? Umbro lead the way in my book. And it’s a good book, one that feels like it knows its onions, football culture-wise. So think on. These are another throwback/bringback to older Umbro designs, brought back to life by Rotterdam street and sneaker authority Woie.
I won’t make the obvious Hodgson joke.
Get them here
adidas Originals x CLOT
CLOT was established in 2003 by Edison Chen. Based in Hong Kong, it sat at the apex of East and West culture and has built a reputation rooted in that, and of course streetwear. These shorts are the tip of the iceberg in a collection that takes serious adidas Originals/Football heritage and applies the CLOT aesthetic to it. Lovely stuff.
Get them here
