Tom van Leent

For football fans, it's a no-brainer. You buy the latest shirt of your favourite club, every season. The shirt shows where you belong and who you support. Some shirts carry a memory, of that one match, that one season, that one player. That's what makes a shirt worth holding onto. But there are also shirts that transcend the context of football entirely. So what makes a shirt more than just one season, or one player?

Image: via Pinterest / source unknown

Image: Monica Zulema

Several factors can free a shirt from its context and make it loved beyond the stadium. The autonomy of the design. A shirt needs a layer that adds meaning outside of football. Something you can associate with beyond the game. The Mexico 1998 shirt is a good example. Based on an Aztec calendar stone, the graphic object adds its own story. It's an element you can find recognition in, something to identify with or connect to.

Cultural weight is perhaps the strongest factor that makes a shirt timeless. It can hint at something larger than football. A reinterpretation of culture, offering a new way to express it. The best example is the Nigeria 2018 shirt. It sold out within minutes. Not because of the high expectations anyone had of the team at that World Cup, or because of any particular player. It sold out because it managed to capture an African identity in a shirt that would be worn on the world stage. Even for people outside the region, the visual statement was strong enough that they wanted to be part of it.

Image: Nike

Less is more. The third factor for a great shirt, and one that often goes unchosen. A shirt loaded with sponsors, heavy prints, special numbering, and loud colours becomes far less appealing to wear day to day. Venezia was one of the first clubs to understand this. Over several consecutive seasons they created shirts that everyone wanted, regardless of where they sat in the table or who was playing. They looked beyond football and approached the shirt from a fashion perspective, drawing inspiration from the cultural identity of the city.

Image: Venezia FC

Rarity is another important factor. Not scarcity in terms of limited editions, but scarcity in the club's recognition. Shirts from obscure clubs that rarely, if ever, travel beyond their own borders. Teams nobody knows, and with which nobody has any pre-existing association. That absence of expectation creates the opportunity to rise above it and become something larger than football. Athens Kallithea, who followed the Venezia blueprint, and Jamaica in 1998 are both good examples of this.

What these shirts have in common is that at some point, a choice was made. A graphic choice, a cultural choice, or a fashion choice. That choice is what helps a shirt break free from its context. A shirt where no choice is made disappears to the back of the wardrobe after the season ends. A shirt where a choice is made will live on outside the stadium.

Image: Athens Kallithea

Image: via Pinterest / source unknown