How football has commercialised nostalgia to appeal to modern-day fans

euronews (in English)

Fans' fondness for the past has seen an entire industry emerge, and vintage football shirts are now hot fashion items.

Transcript

00:00As retro trends sweep wider society, football is certainly no exception and as football becomes

00:06increasingly commercialized and clubs become global brands, fans are looking for a return

00:11to the glory days when it wasn't a big business. So what impact does nostalgia have on modern

00:17football and how are clubs cashing in on the trend of looking back instead of looking forward?

00:22Hello and welcome to Football Now from Oxygen Park in Doha. Whether it be balls,

00:32boots or for the purpose of this episode, football shirts, the game's retro gear has

00:37never been more popular with fans and fashionistas alike. But a shirt manufactured 10, 20 years ago

00:42can be quite difficult to get your hands on in 2024. Many companies have them ready to sell,

00:48but as you can imagine, shirts labeled as a vintage item can be sold at a much higher price.

00:53For example, let's take a look back at a selection of Premier League football shirts

00:57released in 1992 compared to their present day price. Back then, the average price for these

01:03kits was 35 euros. To get your hands on the very same Liverpool retro shirt today will cost you

01:09239 euros. For a Manchester United fan, the rise is even greater, nearly 10 times the original

01:16price at 360 euros. With old shirts now selling at a whopping average increase of 617 percent

01:25compared to when they first went on sale, just what is driving that increase in both demand

01:29and prices? When you club your supporters believing a shirt, a new shirt every season for

01:34120 quid or whatnot, which will then be replaced the next year and doesn't have that legacy or

01:40that history behind it, why wouldn't you go and buy a shirt from the 80s, 90s, noughties,

01:45whatever that has history behind it, you know, like which will never go out of date really.

01:49These sort of shirts have a long lasting memory in fans' mind and for a lot of them they just look

01:54a lot cooler, I think. When people go to festivals or gigs, there's a lot of retro football shirts in

01:59the crowd and I think it's all part of style and fashion now. So the retro kit is now a big

02:03modern day business with outlets dedicated to selling vintage shirts both online and in retail

02:08stores. UK-based company Coolt Kits is just one example. They started as a blog celebrating rare

02:14football shirts 10 years ago, but now boast warehouses full of stock and sources shirts

02:20from collectors all over the world. So how have second-hand hand-me-downs been turned

02:25into a multi-million euro industry? The business started about 10 years ago. Yeah, I think in those

02:30early days, kind of handful of shirts a day, so it was quite a small sort of operation, but I think

02:34there's been an exponential growth, particularly in the last kind of five or six years. We saw

02:39quite a significant rise in customers and revenue during the pandemic because people had time on

02:43their hands and they had money generally as well. We certainly saw an increase in sales at that

02:48point. Whether it's down to kind of a feeling of nostalgia and a feeling of kind of wanting to tap

02:52into something that makes you feel sort of reminds you of the good times, yeah, it's quite possible.

02:57As the popularity of football has increased, football's sort of become cool again. There's a

03:02lot of kind of crossovers into kind of mainstream fashion and culture as well. So that kind of

03:06combination of things has really helped see the business grow really, really significantly,

03:10particularly over the last five or six years. Of course, if people are spending money on retro

03:14kits, it means they aren't spending their cash on new releases, which pushes clubs to take a

03:19slightly different strategy when designing their new shirts. At the end of the day, fashion is just

03:24as important as function. To commemorate their 20th season, Brisbane Rose shirts this year are

03:30designed by their first ever club captain. How important is it to capture the fabric of a club

03:35in the fabric of the club? The response has just meant more to me than anyone could know. Like,

03:40I don't think globally any designer could put what we've put into these kits. Like, for those that

03:46don't know, I'm the first ever captain of this club. I am the first African Australian captain

03:50in A-League history. It's the last jersey I wore professionally. This is not six months, this is

03:5520 years worth of work into this. I think for us, first and foremost, on pitch, we wanted to

04:01create kits that look different and amazing, but also had the heritage and the story within them.

04:06It's about history, it's about authenticity, it's about continually telling those stories and passing

04:11them on to generation to generation. So there's so much out there at the moment. I think the consumer

04:16actually, yeah, you just have to be authentic and I think it can be done. It's just the timing and

04:20possibly a caring factor, but yeah, just always having that authenticity shine through.

04:24Two of Manchester City's kits this season have been inspired by ones they had in the 1990s.

04:30Back then, they were in the lower divisions of English football and not the European superpower

04:34we see today. Despite unprecedented professionalism and popularity, many fans still look back on that

04:40period very fondly. So what is it about the good old days that fans prefer to the modern game?

04:46I have to say it does have an appeal because it takes you back to when you were younger.

04:50You know, we don't live our life in years, we live our life in seasons as football fans.

04:54And if you look at the demographic now with the Premier League, such as the price of tickets,

04:59etc., it is an older fan base that go and watch the games on a regular basis and have the season

05:05tickets. So I do, though, think that there's a problem with modern football when you look at

05:11what's making back page headlines, financial fair play, profit, sustainability, all that stuff,

05:18I think generally is a turn off. The football fans, there's so much football everywhere. It was

05:26rare. And because it was rare, it was special. So I think that's part of the reason why we look at

05:32the past. I think it was a bit more pure, if that's the right way. Football, as we know it,

05:38is a huge industry and clubs are ready to cash in one way or another. Let us know if you think fans

05:43should let go of the past or if there's nothing wrong with taking a little bit of inspiration

05:47from the good old days using the hashtag football now nostalgia. That's all we've got time for here

05:52from Oxygen Park in Doha. We'll see you next time. Bye for now.

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