For a long time, football kits were just seen as an extension of the game itself. Players wore them on the pitch, and while fans would don their team's colours to show their support, that was their only real purpose.
Now, jerseys have formed a whole subculture of their own.
Kit collecting has exploded in recent years. Not only are people willing to spend quite a bit of money to get their hands on authentic retro efforts, they have also become a part of mainstream fashion.
There are no shortage of avenues to get your hands on your desired shirts now, but that wasn't always the case. Those who blazed a trail in jersey collecting found it rather more difficult.
Sascha Düerkop was very much at the forefront of the movement.
Based in Germany and a mathematician and economist by trade, he got seriously into the hobby over ten years ago after purchasing a Guatemala jersey on eBay for €4. He recently completed his goal of owning a kit from each of FIFA's 211 member nations.
+++ BREAKING +++
I do now own a football shirt of every single of the 211 members of FIFA.
I believe that I am the first German to ever do so. pic.twitter.com/dGNQwHliH7— Sascha Düerkop (@SaschaDueerkop) October 25, 2022
Of course, amassing such a collection did not involve simply going to an online store and adding the kits you needed to your basket. The process is much easier now with the likes of Classic Football Shirts stocking kits from all over the globe, but those who were doing building their reserves a decade didn't have that luxury.
Considering the obscurity of some of the nations involved, it won't surprise you to learn that sourcing one of their kits can be quite difficult for a collector based in Europe.
Speaking to Balls, Sascha explained the rather roundabout methods he had to use in order to get his hands on some of the kits currently in his possession.
Back ten years ago, when I started, I would say that about 100 of the 211 were simply not marketed at all. You basically had to get one from the players or some old one.
That meant that I tried everything. I spoke to tourism agencies in these countries. I spoke to about 50 German ambassadors or embassies. Some of them helped me.
Also coaches and players, very often coaches that used to work in that country. You have a lot of German coaches that went abroad at some point to do development work, so try to go via them if they have any old contacts.
Even general expats, there are some expat communities. But it really was going on Facebook, looking for people who might live in Djibouti or Madagascar or whatever, and try to ask them for a shirt.
There you go. The left South Sudan and the Gibraltar shirt are matchworn. pic.twitter.com/rfcWzpjJgY
— Sascha Düerkop (@SaschaDueerkop) October 25, 2022
Some kits are easier to find than others. You won't have any trouble picking up designs from major European or South American nations, for example.
Things get a lot more complicated when you get to some of the lesser footballing nations. Teams from the other continents can be incredibly difficult to source, with some in particular forcing collectors to go above and beyond.
In many ways, Djibouti was Sascha's white whale. It was the final FIFA nation missing from his collection, with the process of tracking down their kit taking a number of years. It involved calls to their FA, former players, and American military members.
In the end, he even attempted to reroute a US military convoy in an effort to get his hands on a jersey.
The last one I got was Djibouti. I think that was one of the most spectacular ones as well.
I think I've spoken about at least 50 Djiboutians over the last couple of years. I've spoke to about every single player I can imagine, then the coach, and the FA.
The President of the FA was basically saying I can get one if I pick it up at the FA headquarters for three years. But I mean, that's easier said than done. So I never flew out to Djibouti to pick up my shirt.
What I actually did was I convinced a US soldier who was doing the military convoys in Djibouti to reroute one of his convoys to stop at the FA and pick up a shirt for me. So he did that, but then the FA president was five minutes late. The military is not allowed to wait for a long time, not to be in one place.
So yeah, I kind of rerouted the military convoy to get a shirt, but it didn't work. That was a bit unfortunate.
Luckily, another collector would soon contact him to let him know that he had managed to source six Djibouti kits directly from their new manufacturer in Morocco.
As you can probably tell, Sascha enjoys the chase of collecting kits from some of the lesser-known nations. His favourite jerseys all come from Africa, with the pick of the bunch being a stunner from Uganda that used in the early 2000s (pictured bottom right below).
I can only apologize, but my top 4 would be all African shirts (Botswana, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho and Uganda)... pic.twitter.com/u0NacFYzCL
— Sascha Düerkop (@SaschaDueerkop) October 25, 2022
He would go through more of his favourite kits recently on his The Polyester Atlas podcast, which is available here.
As his jersey preferences would suggest, Sascha has a passion for football in such countries.
In fact, he has around 35 kits in his collection from those who fall outside the jurisdiction of FIFA. For a number of years he acted as general secretary for the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA), which caters to such federations. He played a huge part in organising the World Football Cup, the first of which was held in 2014.
When it comes to manufacturers, he prefers smaller companies as they put more effort into their designs. As a result, he has developed a fondness for a certain Irish brand.
I actually love O'Neills, I think it's an Irish company? They are brilliant. I love all the DR Congo shirts, I think I have all of them. That is like like my kind of design.
All the small ones that really have some dedication to designing shirts. Very often, they are local. I know one of the best brands of my collection has probably Basutoland Ink, which is a company from Lesotho. They designed the Lesotho kits with a crocodile on it. It's absolutely amazing.
O'Neills is up there as well. I'm not sure how they ever partnered with DR Congo or how that came about.
Sascha may have a number of Irish-made kits in his collection, but he has found it all the more difficult to source Republic of Ireland jerseys that fit his criteria for inclusion.
There has been one major obstacle: the FAI's habit of putting a sponsor on the front of their replica kits.
He said that we were the only nation in the world to do this for an extended period of time, meaning he would have to get his hands on player-issued shirts. He eventually got an away jersey from the mid 2000s a few years back, but it was a frustrating process.
Anything that has a sponsor on it, I would not consider that part of my collection. Basically the only criteria that I think all collectors can agree on is that you want to have the shirt exactly as it is worn on the pitch.
Ireland was just not selling that for about 20 years. Somehow, Ireland was the only FA in the world that decided to put a sponsor on these shirts for ages. That really annoyed me, because the only way was getting a match worn shirt, which is really expensive...
For Ireland, I was always trying to get a green shirt that was unsponsored. The only one I do have is a grey one. It is match worn, I think from the U21s or even below that. I actually like the Ireland FA logo within the number print, which is a nice little detail, but otherwise I think it's a rather dull shirt and doesn't really shout Ireland to me.
With Ireland now finally rocking the sponsor-less look, he is keen to get his hands on a green home jersey.
With his goal of finding jerseys from all 211 FIFA Nations now finally completed, what comes next?
That's always the question.
My initial idea was then to travel to every country and give it to a random fan at a home match. Maybe I will do that, it will take me probably 50 years and not ten! That is a job for a lifetime.
But apart from that, I will definitely build the collection. There are few gaps to fill, like having a green Ireland shirt finally. I will definitely try to do that and and get a few of the classics that I'm missing.
If Sascha ever does embark on that journey, it would make for a hell of a YouTube series.
He would certainly be welcomed at the Aviva, where he might finally get his hands on that elusive Irish kit.
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