A full football shirt authenticity check guide
Perhaps you've already noticed, buying a vintage football shirt isn't as easy as it seems. With the high prices of newly released shirts from the current season and the difficulty in finding older shirts in perfect condition, many individuals and businesses opt to sell replicas instead of genuine ones. That's why it's crucial to know what to look for when purchasing authentic vintage football shirts.
In this article, we'll focus on identifying the authenticity of shirts from the year 2000 onwards, as football shirts from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s are more challenging to examine. This difficulty arises because, unfortunately, you have to assess the shirt's characteristics on a case-by-case basis and compare them with other reliable sources on the internet.
The care label
When buying an authentic shirt, you MUST pay attention to the shirt's care label. If the football shirt doesn’t have a care label on the inside, it might indicate that the shirt is fake. For added assurance, compare the care labels with other shirts you can find online.
Exception: Some shirts, such as Nike shirts intended for players, do not have a washing label; instead, the size chart is printed inside.
In addition to that, if there's writing on the care label, often times the shirt is not authentic.
The collar
Check the collar of the shirt and compare it to other pictures available on Google. You should also compare the text on the collar to the text on the care label. In the case of this counterfeit football shirt, it's noted 'made in Morocco' on the collar, while the label inside the shirt says 'made in Thailand.'
Sometimes, the collar might have a completely different format or appearance, but at times, the difference can be minimal, as in the following example. Can you spot the difference?
Manufacturer product code
In the 2000s, some major manufacturers started adding product codes as labels inside shirts, alongside the washing instructions. Manufacturers did this to facilitate the process of identifying an authentic football shirt (note: some manufacturers began doing this a bit later).
Nike Adidas
Puma New Balance
Under Armour Umbro
Umbro and some other brands didn't have product codes. Although Umbro shirts from the early 2000s sometimes had a number inside or below the wash labels, this number wasn't necessarily a unique product code. The following example includes a size label in the collar, but not necessarily a product code to confirm that the shirt is from that year.
Google the product code!
The next step in identifying whether you have an original shirt is by typing in the product code in Google. This means: Google the product code to verify if the results match the shirt you have.
Good result example:
In this case we're looking to buy a Manchester United long-sleeve home kit from the 2016/17 season. The seller sends us a picture of the authenticity label. Let's type the code into google...
Here, the result matches the shirt we're looking for, namely the “Manchester United 2016/17 home shirt”. Conclusion: authentic Manchester United kit!
Bad result example:
In this case, we're looking to buy a vintage PSG 2013/14 home kit, the seller sent us a picture of the label. Typing in the code (478323-410) into google shows us the Barcelona 2012/13 home kit. Not what we were looking for. Conclusion: not authentic.
Google the authenticity badge
The final step is to look up the authenticity badge. For the authenticity badge, you don't want to find any results when you type it into Google.
Please note:
Match-Issued shirts, player issued shirts, long sleeve shirts, and children's sizes may have different deviating labels and also different product codes from the normal short-sleeved kit.
There might be shirts that may not yield any results in Google. This can occur with rare or very old vintage shirts. In this case, please continue reading.
What else can you watch out for?
If at this point you're not entirely certain yet, you can check the following details:
The logo's: Is the badge the correct size? Is it of high quality? Does it match precisely in design, size, and color to that of the trusted source, or are there differences? Note: the difference could be very slight.
The stitches on the inside of the shirt: official merchandise will undergo stricter quality controls and will not allow poor stitching. Fake football shirts often have inferior stitching and other details. This includes weak seams or inferior badges.
The price of the shirt: 35€ for a Ronaldo longsleeve shirt with badges is just too good to be true.
Comments before we end
It is possible that labels or details of the same shirt may be different. It is still very wise to be cautious when comparing the features of one shirt to another, as the same shirt may have different characteristics.
Here are some examples:
This shirt has been used in 1999 and 2000 and, following a Nike marketing campaign, has multiple versions in the size indication inside the collar:
The next shirt is from Umbro. In this case, a size should be indicated on the label (but it doesn't necessarily have to be). The jacket is a children's size and therefore replaced with the letter Y (youth):
In all cases the products may be genuine.
Overall, counterfeit shirts may have production flaws here and there that are initially hard to spot. We've explained how we address this, and with our approach, we confidently offer a 100% guarantee that our products are authentic. However, it never hurts—and is even quite important—to conduct your own research.
It's crucial to thoroughly investigate. For instance, compare your shirt with other offerings in the market or seek assistance from genuine professionals.😉
Interested in learning more about identifying whether an article is authentic? Feel free to send us a message!"