Shirt tales: how adults adopted the replica football kit

This study seeks to identify when the replica football shirt transitioned from children’s sportswear to adult leisurewear, and explain why this occurred. Four distinct facets of this process are examined – the production of adult sizes by manufacturers, the promotion of replica shirts by clubs and retailers, purchasing by adults, and the ‘parading’ i.e., wearing of shirts at matches.

Data collected from manufacturer’s catalogues, magazine adverts, match programmes and over 900 crowd photos indicates that replica-shirt adoption by adult males as match-day clothing was not initially driven by an existing industry, but began as a fan-inspired process with roots in big-match fancy dress traditions, changes in wider social dress codes, and youth subcultures. Replica football shirts were adopted by adult males in distinct phases, each involving different sub-groups of fans, with the coincidental removal of barriers to wearing replica shirts more influential than manufacturer strategies or promotions. Moreover, the specific timings and drivers of each stage reflect the dramatic changes in English football culture over the last two decades of the twentieth century more accurately than the established but simplistic pre- and post-1990 World Cup or pre- and post-Premier League narratives.