A THREAD: How to build and maintain a football shirt collection

In this guide, I'll be telling you the best ways to not only find football shirts, but how to look after them too

It's a hobby which is fun yet doesn't need to be overly expensive, as I will demonstrate

There are several sites that are brilliant for buying authentic shirts from, and below I will list my recommendations

Current Season: Directly from the club

Seasons in the last 15 years: Ebay

Classics or hard-to-finds: Classic Football Shirts/Kitbag

Ebay is the ideal site for picking up shirts for little amounts of money

You can search for a specific player/club, but if you simply type in "football shirts" and select your size, you can see which shirts are ending soon at low prices

I picked up this pair for £21.50 combined

If you're feeling even tighter, a good technique is to do the same search but put the maximum price on say £5-£10

You can win some crazily cheap auctions and get great shirts because of it

This Sané shirt for example set me back £5

The biggest risk with Ebay is a lack of authenticity. Always locate images on google of the original shirt, and compare it with one for sale

Look for:

-Sponsor centrality and size
-Badge location
-Style and size of the printing on the back if possible
-Missing features

Another method to confirm authenticity is matching the country of manufacture

Locate more examples that are selling from the same season and see if the country of origin matches

This is more reliable than product codes, which often don't show the shirts even if they're real

Classic Football Shirts also sell some brilliant modern jerseys and give you guaranteed authenticity, though their prices can be high

Look out for when they have sales on, I bought this from them for £32

You'll need to choose the right size

For the average body type I'd recommend a Medium, and for display purposes I'd say Medium or Large, but of course you'll know your size better than anyone

This is the difference between a Puma S and a Puma M

Player-Issue kits, referred by Puma and Adidas as Authentic, and Nike as Vaporknit, differ in sizing

As they're designed for players, the difference between sizes is relatively smaller, and you may want to go a size up if buying one

This is a Vaporknit L with a Vaporknit M

Player-Issue shirts fit tighter to the body, and are more breathable, with printed on badges rather than embroidered ones

If you have the money then they're excellent to buy, but there's no shame in settling for the fan versions

When buying a printed shirt, you should be aware of the difference between league printing and cup printing

Cup printing is worn by players in cup competitions, so I'd avoid buying cup printed shirts with PL badges for example

This is an example of cup vs league printing

Examples of league and cup printing can be found online, and distinguishing between the two is simple

Leagues sometimes have their logos as a requirement on the printing, whereas clubs are free to do their own thing in cup competitions

Now for maintaining shirts

- ALWAYS wash by hand, never in washing machines. They'll destroy the printing

- If you're building a collection, DON'T play sports in them or wear them often. Try to preserve them

- DON'T leave shirts in direct sunlight

For shirts that aren't printed on the back, I recommend either hanging them up or folding them when storing

When folding, ensure the sponsor isn't folded or it'll crease

Here's an example of how to fold them

For shirts with printing on the back, ALWAYS hang them up

Use a proper hangar if possible and not a wire hangar, like this

If your intention is to buy printed shirts for future resale or display, I recommend only buying shirts equivalent to what the player has worn

For example, Torres never wore this shirt with these badges or printing as he missed the games Liverpool wore it with an injury

This concludes my thread

If you have any questions about shirts or want me to validate authenticity, then let me know!