Are the World Cup Player’s Edition Jerseys Collectible?

It has been said that the World Cup is a ‘large-scale exhibition’. This year, it ignited the market of ‘old jerseys’ and brought the jersey culture back to the forefront of fashion after many years. With celebrities such as Rihanna and supermodel Bella Hadid ‘bringing in the goods’, and trend bloggers stealing the ‘old bat’ from British pubs in the 70s, the BlokeCore style formula was born! –The BlokeCore style formula was born – ‘old jersey + jeans + vintage sneakers’, the essence of which is to tuck the hem of the jersey into the trousers. Most of the people following this trend are post-95s and post-00s faces. The ‘old jersey’ soon became a traffic code, BlokeCore refreshed tiktok tens of millions, Xiaohongshu more than 5 million views. Obviously, the ‘jersey’ has come out of the ‘bleacher seats’. E-commerce platform data, Tmall since October this year, football category turnover rose 40%, of which football clothing growth of more than 50%. Jingdong new department store shows that the turnover of jerseys increased by 3 times year-on-year, female consumers bought 40% of the German and Spanish national team series of jerseys. Perhaps you can hardly imagine ‘winter to buy short-sleeved’ strange, but this is enough to reveal the power of the ‘collection economy’ under the football culture. Nowadays, the footballer’s jersey is not only the treasure of the fans, but also the trend of young people’s single product, the scale of tens of billions of dollars of visible market.

‘Five or six years ago, the hottest thing was basketball jerseys, this year it’s the turn of football jerseys. If you look closely, those trend bloggers who follow BlokeCore are wearing either ‘old jerseys’ or ‘replica old jerseys’. Some people say that this is another wave of the father’s wear after the ‘hall style’. Half new and not old, stable and half mature, retro and casual perfectly cater to the psychology of personality manifestation. But it can not be ignored is that the ‘old jersey’ in line with the World Cup wind direction. Buy ‘dumpling skin’ La Ibu doll is a hilarious, the real fans will purchase viewing clothes, with jerseys to express the attitude. They prefer those elements of the game, including jerseys, shoes, football, football cards, and even World Cup stickers, gloves and scarves. These belong to the joy of the fans, the achievements of today’s ‘old jerseys’ hot scene.

A Brazilian national team home shirt in good condition from the 1980s can fetch up to RMB 6,000 on the secondary market, while Arsenal’s ‘bruised banana’, which was worn for two seasons in the 1990s, has been fetching hundreds of pounds. ‘The Nigeria home shirt sold out in just three minutes after it went on sale. At the time it was sold for about six hundred yuan, now on eBay has risen to two or three times the original. A signed jersey on eBay can easily sell for more than 10,000 RMB, which is enough to be called ‘jersey finance’. Rumour has it that ‘a hundred pieces of jerseys are worth a suite of rooms’ and ‘there is a car hidden in the organiser’ may not be exaggerated. Hardcore jersey collectors can only be called ‘trenchless’. In the concept of jersey collection, there are several versions: the fan version, which is supplied to the retail channel and ‘improved’ for the public to wear comfortably; the player version, which is the ‘same model’ of the star’s uniform; the locker room version, which is exclusively supplied by the manufacturer for the club; and the field version, which is worn by the player on the field of play. The price of the first two can be double. The latter two collection weight is heavier, scarcity is higher, the price is not expensive. Especially the field version, ‘good story’ plus body can even shoot sky-high prices. In May this year, Maradona a jersey shot 7.1 million pounds (about 60 million yuan), a new sports memorabilia auction record. This jersey is the 1986 World Cup Argentina against England in the game, Maradona created the world-famous ‘Hand of God’ (Hand of God) when wearing the robe. At the end of the day, it’s supply and demand that determines the value of old jerseys. With a steady stream of new jerseys for the new season, the stock of ‘old jerseys’ is limited, making them scarce. This year, Messi, Ronaldo (Crow) both to the end of their careers, and their related collectibles hot, some of the last two years of the league’s jersey secondary market circulation price has exceeded the hair price. Neymar also almost to the farewell moment, he said in a previous interview with the Brazilian media Global Sports, ‘I can not guarantee that I will play another World Cup, so I will take this as the last.

Messi’s jersey collection will actually pull a round of ‘value small cycle’ every season. As the season comes to an end, the winning team will often attract a large number of ‘passer-by fans’ to buy jerseys, when the demand is greater than the market stock will produce a premium, on the contrary, slow-selling products will flow into the discount area. Overseas, ‘old jerseys’ have formed a relative market order. British jersey trading platform Classic Football Shirts has nearly 7,000 square metres of offline space on the outskirts of Manchester, displaying tens of thousands of vintage jerseys, attracting a lot of jersey enthusiasts to go to the card. To buy footballers’ autographed peripherals, British sporting goods website ICON provides consumers with official certificates of authenticity (COA). There are also apps like Momento Market, which are auctioned with the fixtures, and purchasers can get digital authentication certificates with unique identifiers.

Classic FootballShirts official website shows shops individual collectors tend to look for suitable lots on eBay, clothing resale platform Depop, or ins looking for individual collectors to trade privately. For domestic collectors, want to exchange an old jersey is not easy, niche jerseys is even more difficult. There is no specialised domestic jersey trading channel, even in the Hupo, the thing and other platforms, ‘old jerseys’ sense of existence is not very strong. The vast majority of domestic sources from cross-border e-commerce or overseas purchases, the ability of the business can be swept to the Outlet, a large number of old jerseys into the idle fish. The water depth of the jersey market is no less than that of sneakers, similar to Putian shoes, jerseys also have Thai version. In addition, some of the ‘locker room version’ ‘drop field version’ from the ‘personal contacts’ and ‘internal channels’, its sources The source is more opaque and harder to verify the authenticity. Many new players have a one-step mentality, which makes it easy for them to ‘pay tuition fees’. There are nearly 200 million fans in China, and about 30 million fans have the habit of watching football matches on a regular basis. The huge group base has given rise to a prosperous sneaker collection scene, but the jersey collection market is still lagging far behind. On the one hand, the Chinese market is not the main battlefield of the jersey, each sports brand’s global market strategy is different, a lot of brand jerseys are not on sale in the country, coupled with this year’s World Cup is scheduled for the winter season, the epidemic caused by the supply chain supply is unstable and other factors, in the domestic sale of the jersey series is not much. Domestic play jerseys are more ‘passive’. On the other hand, football jerseys do not have a circulation system like the NBA. Especially like the expensive version of the ‘drop field’, the NBA has a relevant auction site and support certification, its related transactions are more simple and transparent. Football ‘drop field jerseys’ buyers often can only look through the field of play compared to ‘stains’, ‘wear and tear’ and other photo characteristics to judge. The reality is in front of us, the old jerseys are often traded only ‘because I believe so believe’. In the more than 5 million fans of Wang Tao jittery tone live room, the most basic several hundred yuan fan version of the jersey, plus the signature can be transformed to sell to ten thousand yuan. There is no lack of contempt in the circle. Put aside the questioning, a senior collector pointed out that the jersey is fundamental, the signature is just icing on the cake, the significance of the collection of jerseys is that the clothes carry the story. To put it bluntly, ‘this is not the rice circle that set’. Some jersey enthusiasts are constrained by their economic ability to collect jersey cards, especially with jersey slices of ‘jersey cutting cards’, equivalent to finding ‘flat replacement’. Although these fabric slices are not much larger than a fingernail cap, but in the sentiment and cultural beliefs driven, fans willingly pay for this. ‘Catch that wave of young people’ Whether it is the old jerseys that are hot, or the young people who are looking for BlokeCore old jerseys replica, it is a reflection of the expansion of the market volume. Global market research firm Technavio data, the global football apparel market size of 9.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, is expected to grow to 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. The report also pointed out that the jerseys printed with players’ names and numbers are the biggest driving force pulling the market.Euromericas Sport Marketing statistics of football jersey sales list in 2021, Messi, C Luo, Levin ranked in the top three, amounting to 1.2 million, 1.05 million, 970,000 respectively. These market results, inseparable from the many sports brands together under the ‘fashion medicine’. This year’s World Cup in Qatar, Nike, Adidas, Puma three brands bagged a total of 32 strong 80% of the team ‘robe’. Plus New Balance, Hummel, Kappa, Majid, Marathon and One All Sports, all offering a variety of options. After years of being criticised for ‘templated’ designs, brands are going retro: the unique design language of the football world, the ‘interlocking stripes’, has been revived, and the collar and sleeves of the 90s jerseys have been revived. The iconic and medallic elements of popular team logos and brand labels have become fashion icons, and Balenciaga has used its design expertise to re-structure sportswear with Adidas, alongside AdidasxGucci, LVxNike, Off-WhitexNike, PalacexAdidas, and many other sports and fashion brands. And the street trend to break the sub-dimensional wall, let young people in the fashion insulator ‘football jersey’ smell the taste of the trend. A survey of 2,000 people in the UK this year showed that four out of ten respondents recognised the fashion attributes of retro jerseys, with 90s jerseys being the most fashionable, followed by 80s jerseys.

LV ads in the past those concerned about the NBA, NFL star celebrities also began to cast their eyes on the green field. Rihanna has been taking photos of her jersey mash-ups on the street, and BlackPink is wearing a Manchester United jersey in their music video, which, along with a number of stars in the hip-hop community, makes for an outlook textbook. When jerseys embrace trendiness, brands lay down the dry wood, and social media drums up the wind, the World Cup just needs to be given a spark. For the clubs, the sales contribution of the jerseys is secondary, and more importantly, the jerseys are trending to hit the heart of the youth market. It must be mentioned that the ‘magnificent turn’ of PSG, supported by the ‘money power’ of the Middle East consortium from the French market to the outside of the green field to climb up, and increase the commercial value. Drawing on the success of the NBA and the MBL, PSG has sought to ‘de-football’ while embedding its DNA in fashion trends, and continues to find multiple brand values in lifestyle. Last year, when the official PSG and Dior campaign was released, it was hailed as ‘the most handsome men’s team’ rather than ‘a football club’. It was also the first time that Dior collaborated with a club. The clubs are happy when the jerseys become a talking point and a hit, when the brand is on the cusp of a trend. After all, the market of the future does not only belong to the ‘green field’, but also to the wider youth market. In any case, the growing number of new fans will undoubtedly drive the market forward. In particular, the ‘old jersey’ craze has also started to interest women on Little Red Book. More and more people are paying attention to jerseys and the culture behind them. Looking at the domestic market as a whole, the main male collectors are still concentrated in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. They are wedded to sentimentality and can’t get away from the psychological implication of linking consumption to investment value. As CFS co-founder Doug Bilton said, ‘If you’re willing to keep wearing the jersey, there’s definitely an investment opportunity.’ But the market for ‘old jerseys’ is far less frenetic than the market for player cards, and fans are passionate about their long-termism. They agree with the collection value of jerseys and are enthusiastic about the spread of football culture. He can talk eloquently about an unforgettable match, the story of the stands, well versed in a pair of sneakers more than 100,000 yuan, a dress tens of thousands of yuan of the market.

But if asked, how much have you spent on this? ‘Don’t let your girlfriend know’, that’s an open “unspeakable secret” among jersey lovers.