How Football Shirts Became Streetwear
Football shirts are no longer something to wear on matchday or to 5-a-side, and have taken on a whole world of their own within the fashion space.
Football shirts became streetwear staples through nostalgia for bold 90s and 2000s designs, strong links to youth subcultures, and visibility from celebrities and influencers.
Once symbols of team loyalty, football shirt streetwear has evolved into a recognised style category, with fashion-forward club designs helping cement their place within modern athleisure and street culture.
The Journey
Tracing the rise of football shirts in streetwear reveals how shifts in culture, fashion, and fandom gradually transformed them from matchday essentials into everyday style statements.
Early 2000s
From pitch to street, the early 2000s saw fans turning older kits into fashion statements. Like streetwear, their rarity and inaccessibility made them desirable, an unpredictability that still exists today through Mystery Football Shirts, where fans can relive that excitement by receiving a random kit, often from past seasons, without knowing what they’ll get.
Designs from the 80s and 90s were becoming sought after and easier to get hold of with the rise of platforms like eBay making classic pieces easier to source.
Although some iconic designs such as Nike's T90 templates and adidas' Teamgeist templates, the 00s also saw an increase in template design usage, which although now much-loved, did make some football shirt lovers turn to retro designs which some felt were more bespoke to the club.
2010s
By the mid-2010s, football shirts were embraced by subcultures such as skaters and urban youth, drawn to their individuality and nostalgia. They were practical too: designed for sport, comfortable, and easy to wash. By this point, shirts worn by icons like R9, Kaká, Ronaldinho, and Zinedine Zidane were over a decade old, and wearing them became a subtle tribute to the era that first captivated a generation of fans.
In the 2010s a spike in interest saw large retro football shirt retailers begin to offer frequent pop-up shops to cater for the increase in demand.
The 2010s also saw the increase in major retailers like Nike and adidas starting to re-release previous iconic shirt designs.
The 2018 World Cup in particular proved to create a real hype around football shirts and the culture surrounding it with a myriad of strong designs, from adidas tapping into nostalgic patterns for kits such as Colombia & Argentina, but the real star of the show was THAT Nigeria home shirt which had more than just shirt collectors on strings, as everyone wanted to wear it that summer.
2020 - Present
By 2020, football shirts had gone fully mainstream, worn by figures like Snoop Dogg, Travis Scott, and Rihanna. As clubs moved to annual kit releases, wearing vintage became a subtle rejection of over-commercialisation and a signal of loyalty over consumption. Today, old shirts are worn everywhere, from matches to festivals, and are supported by a growing resale market, with services like Mystery Football Shirts offering a more sustainable, surprise-driven way to access vintage and streetwear-friendly kits.
The rise of "blokecore" in the 2020s has attributed to the growth of football shirt usage within the fashion scene, beginning to be adopted by Gen Z, whereas the nostalgic pull for millennials and above has seen the rise of kids' classic football shirts, passing on the baton to the next generation.
Key Drivers of the Trend
This shift didn’t happen by accident. Several cultural and industry forces helped push football shirts from niche to mainstream.
Nostalgia and Heritage
The bold, expressive designs of 80s and 90s kits evoke a strong sense of nostalgia, allowing wearers to connect with football’s cultural history rather than simply showing allegiance to a team. This emotional pull plays a major role in why football shirt fashion continues to grow.
Subcultural Adoption
Skateboarding and urban subcultures adopted football shirts for their aesthetics and individuality rather than club loyalty. This shift laid the groundwork for football shirts to be viewed as fashionable football shirts, not just sportswear.
The Power of Celebrities and Influencers
When figures like Travis Scott, Hailey Bieber, and Rihanna began wearing football shirts off the pitch, they helped reposition them as everyday fashion staples and push them into the mainstream.
Designer and Club Collaborations
Clubs and brands, such as Venezia FC, started producing fashion-led kits, treating shirts as design objects and lifestyle pieces rather than purely functional sportswear.
The Future of Vintage Shirts
Today, football shirts represent more than team loyalty. They’re cultural artefacts that blend sport, fashion, and personal identity. Wearing an old kit is a way to express nostalgia, individuality, and a connection to a specific era of the game. With Mystery Football Shirts, you have the chance to unbox shirts from both previous and current seasons, meaning you can add hard-to-find pieces - find your mystery football shirt box here.
Image credit: SoccerBible
