Created in partnership with Rizla
The rumors that Justin Bieber was wearing a Swindon Town shirt ahead of his headline set at Coachella shows how far football kits have traveled. Once they were only for the terraces, now they don’t look out of place on the world’s biggest stages.
The pop star has been seen sporting Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Chelsea shirts, so while the Swindon top was unfortunately just a lookalike, it’s clear the humble football kit has now taken on a life of its own, which goes far beyond the sport itself.
Dua Lipa posing with a River Plate jersey, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani showing off his love of Arsenal, rapper Offset dressing his son in a Southampton top. In recent years, we’ve seen countless celebrities and public figures wearing football shirts.
Over the last decade, replica kits have infiltrated every aspect of culture, from music to fashion, politics to film—or as Neal Heard, author, historian, and founder of fashion label Lover’s F.C, puts it, “football shirts have eaten football.”
“This was led by us, the people,” Neal told VICE. “It wasn’t like the big massive brands getting together and going, ‘Right, we’re going to make football culture cool,’ or music management saying, ‘Let’s put our new acts in football shirts.’ It came from the streets—they’ve run to catch up with us.
“Music and fashion go hand in hand, they always have done. Some of the earliest adopters who helped spread the word were rap artists; Drake wearing a Juventus shirt was a seminal moment, whether you like him or not.
“I’ve long fought against the Americanization of all fashion and lifestyle. Wherever you go in the world, it’s so ubiquitous people don’t even stop to think about it. Britain’s a really creative place and I’m glad that our game is punching back a bit and having our say in the street.
“For our item to become that garm makes me proud.”
Back in 2016, Neal released a book called A Lover’s Guide to Football Shirts, and in the ten years since, the popularity of kits has come on at a pace, reaching “hyper speed” more recently.
The name of his fashion label, Lover’s F.C, reflects the changing position of the football kit within wider pop culture (“we’re all lovers of shirts… all races, all genders, let’s embrace a love of football without being overtly fans”).
Neal says he first realized that people who “you didn’t think were into football” were starting to wear replica kits after spotting a skateboarder in a Manchester United top—something that would’ve previously been unheard of.
He said, “I’ve always been an admirer of appropriation. And the journey of football shirts is a story of appropriation. The masses of fans on the terraces wearing replica kits will always exist, but now there are people who love them for the sartorial angle.
“That movement was driven by countries outside the traditional football-supporting hotbeds. The Yanks were big into it, and Southeast Asia massively. They were fluid, they swapped it around, wearing an Arsenal cap and a Manchester United shirt. They broke the rules because, to them, there weren’t any rules. It’s just like, ‘That’s a cool logo, and a cool shirt, and I love the sponsor.’
“It’s like New York Yankees caps, or varsity jackets, and hoodies with American collegiate writing on them. The football shirt is worn as much as an item of fashion as it is to say that you’re a fan.”
The role of the United States in the surging global popularity of football culture is apt, given this summer’s big tournament, which will be taking place in North America for the first time since 1994.
Lover’s F.C have teamed up with Rizla over the last few years, and they’ll now be releasing new reworked, competition-inspired kits—perfect for long beer garden evenings, fan park screenings, or, if you’re lucky, soaking up the match-day atmosphere at one of the games.
“If I’m honest, the shirts released by all the nations, to show if we support that team or not, they’re supposed to be the holy grail, but they’re probably the most underwhelming part of the whole thing,” Neal said.
“It’s down to concept kits or lifestyle brands to give us the shirts we want to see that the main manufacturers aren’t giving us. People want to see cool collaborations. They want to see the sponsors on the shirts they dream of seeing they’ve never seen.
“There’s a massive depth of people who love Rizla, love the brand, love the logo, want to see it on things. That’s the hole we’re looking to fill, for people to be like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the shirt I want to see. I wish my team had it.’”
Last year, festival sites and Instagram feeds were full of football shirts—no surprise to Neal, who says many kits are “exceptionally visual” and “aesthetically gorgeous.”
For Neal, shirts offer a holy trinity of branding, with the team badge, manufacturer’s logo (for example Adidas or Nike), and sponsor, each boasting their own cult followings (a classic example might be ACF Fiorentina’s Nintendo kit).
He reckons football clubs should give more thought to this when choosing a sponsor and says it’s just one of the ways in which the “dinosaurs” who run the game are behind the times.
But Neal admits that they are starting to catch up a little and have “milked to death” the recent craze for vintage shirts, which saw La Liga teams wearing retro kits for a weekend of fixtures earlier this season.
“Fashion companies and football shirts would have been anathema, now it’s huge, and it’s going to be the norm,” Neal said. “It might have waxes and wanes, and the retro thing might fade away, but lifestyle and football isn’t going anywhere.
“Most football shirt fans are probably getting excited about the summer already. There are burgeoning wardrobes that are going to be expanded further once all the brands release their offerings.
“Everybody wants a piece of the action. Everybody wants a football shirt because they know how important they are now.”
Head over to the Lover’s F.C website to check out the whole collection.
The post From Drake to Dua Lipa: How the Football Shirt Dominated Pop Culture appeared first on VICE.
