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36% of football shirts sold are fake. I spent a week investigating the counterfeit economy.
▲ 68 r/TheKitRoom+2 crossposts

36% of football shirts sold are fake. I spent a week investigating the counterfeit economy.

Made a full investigation into the football shirt counterfeit market. Ended up with a 7-min video covering:

- Where fakes come from (China, Turkey, Thailand)
- How the wholesale pipeline actually works
- What tactics counterfeiters have gotten alarmingly good at
- The 2026 World Cup seizures (Hong Kong $20M, Houston $9M, Toronto arrests)
- What enforcement is actually doing

Sources cited include FIFA data, Corsearch UK report, French Customs (via AFP), US CBP press releases, Hong Kong Customs, and Reuters.

Full video: https://youtu.be/9hEjlG5eVEI

Genuinely curious what the collector community thinks about the state of the market right now. Have you spotted fakes in the wild recently? What tactics did they use to fool you?

u/KitClubOfficial — 3 days ago
▲ 10 r/SoccerJerseys

Is it good for a start?

Started collecting a few months ago. Building a football shirt app (KitClub) got me obsessed with the objects themselves. Here's what I've picked up so far:

Japan 1998
AC Milan 1997 4th kit
USA 2026 World Cup
New York Red Bulls 2026

Curious what people who've been collecting for years think. Am I missing an obvious direction? Any of these you'd have skipped?

u/KitClubOfficial — 14 days ago
▲ 6 r/KitReps

Kayusuki 1998 Japan. Legendary player

Bought this to play woth friends and immediately got injured…

u/KitClubOfficial — 1 month ago
▲ 2 r/ClassicFootballShirts+1 crossposts

Something weird I've noticed about which shirts hold value long-term

Been thinking about this for a while and curious what other people notice.

Most collectors assume the biggest players make the most valuable shirts. Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane. Makes sense on paper.

But when I actually look at what's holding value 10-20 years out, the pattern is weirder than that.

A few things I keep coming back to:

  1. Shirts from failed campaigns often outperform title winners. Netherlands 74. Hungary 54. Nobody remembers who won those tournaments. Everyone remembers those kits.

  2. Weird sponsor decisions age better than expected. Newcastle Brown Ale. Marseille Panasonic. The shirts that looked embarrassing at the time are now the most sought after.

  3. Failed player signings hold up. Bebeto 96 Deportivo. Anelka at Fener. If a player had one weird chapter at a club, the shirt from that chapter is often worth more than his prime era.

  4. Local matters more than global. A specific Nigerian shirt from the 90s might be worth more than a Champions League final winner, if enough people from Lagos want it back.

The takeaway I'm slowly landing on: shirts hold value based on story density, not player fame. Everyone owns a Ronaldo shirt. Almost nobody owns Bebeto's Deportivo.

Curious if other collectors have noticed this or if I'm reading too much into small samples.

(Fair warning: I built KitClub, an app that catalogs shirt values, so I've been staring at this data more than most. Not shilling, genuinely trying to figure out the pattern.)

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 1 month ago
▲ 1 r/ClassicFootballShirts

Doing a WC prediction giveaway Top scorer wins a shirt of the champion team

Saw a few giveaways going around recently and figured I'd do my own thing for the World Cup.

Built a prediction game where you guess the winner and/or exact score of all 104 matches. 1 point per correct winner, 3 more points for exact regulation-time score. Predictions lock at kickoff.

Top scorer at the end of the tournament wins an authentic shirt of the World Cup champion team. I'm paying for it myself. Free, no ads, no paywall.

Lives on an app called KitClub (I built it). It's live on the ios app store (comment for android).

Who do you think will win this World Cup? I say Portugal.

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 2 months ago
▲ 1 r/SoccerJerseys

Doing a WC prediction giveaway. Top scorer wins a shirt of the champion team

Saw a few giveaways going around recently and figured I'd do my own thing for the World Cup.

Built a prediction game where you guess the winner and/or exact score of all 104 matches. 1 point per correct winner, 3 more points for exact regulation-time score. Predictions lock at kickoff.

Top scorer at the end of the tournament wins an authentic shirt of the World Cup champion team. I'm paying for it myself. Free, no ads, no paywall.

Lives on an app called KitClub (I built it). It's live on the ios app store (comment for android).

Who do you think will win this World Cup? I say Portugal.

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 2 months ago
▲ 1 r/KitReps

Doing a WC prediction giveaway. Top scorer wins a shirt of the champion team

Saw a few giveaways going around recently and figured I'd do my own thing for the World Cup.

Built a prediction game where you guess the winner and/or exact score of all 104 matches. 1 point per correct winner, 3 more for exact regulation-time score. Predictions lock at kickoff.

Top scorer at the end of the tournament wins an authentic shirt of the World Cup champion team. I'm paying for it myself. Free, no ads, no paywall.

Lives on an app called KitClub (I built it). It's live on the ios app store (dm for android).

Who do you think will win this WC?

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 2 months ago
▲ 3 r/SoccerJerseys

A gift for you guys that helped me

This subreddit has been the single biggest driver of KitClub since I launched 3 weeks ago. Every legit check thread I've read, every comment that pushed back on my AI being too generic, every DM telling me what wasn't working is how I built this thing.

So I made a argentina shirt giveaway (still active) but I figured I'd give something more back for the World Cup kicks off.

Just launched a prediction game on KitClub (the football shirt collector app I built). Free. No ads. No paywall. Just predictions.

How it works:

- Predict winner + exact score of all 104 matches

- 1 point per correct winner

- +1 for the exact regulation-time score

- Predictions lock at kickoff (server-side, no late submits)

- Need to predict 80% of matches to qualify for the prize

Prize: top predictor at the end of the tournament wins a shirt of the World Cup champion team. I'm paying for it out of pocket.

Who do you think will win? I'm thinking Portugal

Btw: Thanks to you guys we reached 210 users and I decided that the first 300 users (coming from reddit, you guys, real collectors), get the lifetime pro plan for free automatically upon registration so you can enjoy the app for free forever.

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/kitclub-football-shirt-scanner/id6765765479?l=it

Android: kitclub.app (app is in review by google play so you can pin the link to your homescreen)

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 2 months ago
▲ 4 r/ClassicFootballShirts+1 crossposts

What I've learned after a month of looking at football shirts every single day

I've spent the past month working on a football shirt database project. That means looking at thousands of shirts, scrolling through endless eBay and Vinted listings, talking to collectors, reading authentication threads, visiting shops. Wanted to share some honest observations from that month because some of them surprised me.

I'm only a month in, so I'm sure people who've been collecting for years will push back on plenty of this. That's the point. Posting this for the conversation.

  1. The biggest market gap isn't rare shirts. It's trust.

Most collectors I've talked to don't actually have a "what is this worth" problem. They have a "is this even real" problem. Vinted and eBay are flooded with fakes good enough to fool casual buyers. The shirts most people lose money on aren't obscure rarities. They're popular shirts they thought were real and weren't.

  1. Vintage shops charge a premium and it's probably worth it.

When you buy from Classic Football Shirts, Vintage Football Shirts, or a verified pop-up shop, you pay 30-50% more than you would on eBay. Most collectors think this is a ripoff. From what I've seen, it's actually fair. You're paying for the authentication, the curation, and the return policy. If you can't authenticate yourself, the shop premium is the cheapest insurance you can buy.

  1. The "perfect condition" obsession seems overrated.

Collectors will pass on a shirt because of one small mark on the sleeve and then pay 3x for a deadstock version with tags. From what I've observed so far, condition matters less than authenticity and provenance. A worn authentic shirt with a real story holds value better than a mint shirt with a sketchy seller.

  1. African and South American kits look undervalued.

European collectors mostly buy European kits. South American collectors mostly buy South American kits. African collectors are too small a market to set prices. The result is that African and South American shirts trade below their narrative weight. A Cameroon 2002 or a Senegal 2002 home has a story most kits could only dream of, but they sit at half the price of comparable European shirts.

  1. Match-worn vs match-issued vs player-edition seems like the most misunderstood thing in this hobby.

A lot of "match-worn" listings on Vinted appear to be player-edition retail shirts. There's a big price difference between actually-worn-in-a-match versus prepared-for-a-match-but-never-used versus just-the-authentic-version-fans-could-buy. Most sellers either don't know or pretend they don't know. Always ask for provenance.

  1. The fake market is getting smarter.

A few years ago, fakes were obvious. Wrong stitching, weird tags, off colors. Now there are fakes coming out of specific factories that fool experienced sellers. The tells are getting smaller. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

  1. The community matters more than any single authentication service.

The best authentications I've seen happen in collector communities, not at brand authentication services. A 20-comment Reddit thread with detailed observations from 5 collectors will catch fakes better than any single brand check. The decentralized, knowledge-rich approach genuinely works.

  1. Most collectors might be undervaluing their own collections.

A lot of people I've talked to have shirts in their closet worth more than they realize. Specifically: shirts from 5-15 years ago, kept in good condition, that were standard at the time but have aged into rarity. Mid-2000s Champions League finalist kits, early 2010s special editions, anything from a club that's since changed manufacturers.

  1. The most expensive shirt isn't the best collection.

The collectors I respect most after this month have curated collections with stories. They can tell you why each shirt matters to them. The shirt that cost more doesn't impress them more than the shirt with the great backstory. Authenticity beats expensive.

  1. We're in a weird moment for football shirts.

Football shirts are simultaneously becoming streetwear, becoming investments, becoming nostalgia objects, and becoming collectibles in ways they weren't 5 years ago. Prices are rising for some segments and crashing for others. Brand premium is fluctuating. New collectors are entering with different priorities than the old guard. It's a fascinating market to be in right now.

That's a month of looking at shirts. Curious what people who've been doing this longer would push back on, especially on points 4, 5, and 8.

For context, I'm building kitclub.app, an app for shirt collectors with a community + AI authentication feature called Legit Check. The first 250 members get lifetime Pro access for free, which includes unlimited Legit Check submissions. We're at about 100 right now, so 150 spots left.

u/KitClubOfficial — 3 months ago
▲ 31 r/SoccerJerseys

My first buy. Am I cooked?

I was a AC Milan fan since I was a kid (my family loves Berlusconi) but I never really collected anything.

So now Im 26 and I started developing this app for football collectors and I think I got bit🤣I want all the shirts now hahaah

I went to a store in order to partner with them so I bought the first AC Milan kit I saw (200$, prolly got cooked on the price). It’s Cafu Home AC Milan 2007/08 (i know, not the legendary season but yeah…)

What do you guys think?

u/KitClubOfficial — 3 months ago
▲ 6 r/footballkits+1 crossposts

Giving away the Argentina 2026 WC away shirt on WC opening day to a random user in the top 20 most active on KitClub

Sup everyone,

Founder of KitClub here ( kitclub.app , web app, native apps launching this week).

https://preview.redd.it/c03je5adsa2h1.jpg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c97d627d769c2e17822bb56d297e9559f393dfe5

https://preview.redd.it/mo08w5adsa2h1.jpg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c63107e02ba3276a9df85d5027adc862bb2a1352

I'm giving away this Argentina 2026 World Cup away shirt on June 11, the opening day of the WC.

How it works: top 20 most active KitClub users by June 11 enter a random draw. Not winner-takes-all, anyone in the top 20 has the same shot at winning.

XP is earned by:

- Scanning a shirt: +20 XP

- Getting your shirt verified by the community via Legit Check: +100 XP

- Submitting a Legit Check: +50 XP

- Voting on a Legit Check: +20 XP

- Winning a duel: +50 XP

- Following collectors: +10 XP (max 10 per day)

Anti-cheat: max 3 Legit Check submissions per day, no duplicate shirts, all server-side enforced.

KitClub does AI-powered kit identification, valuation, and community authentication. Submit any shirt, get a verdict on a spectrum from Authenticated to Fake with a shareable certificate. Solves the "is this shirt real?" problem currently lived on Reddit threads.

First 250 members get permanent Starting XI founding status + lifetime Pro access. 69 spots filled, 181 remaining. Automatic when you sign up.

Winner announced June 11 (WC kickoff). Real shirt, real shipping.

I'm also running a parallel 28-day series on Instagram (@kitclub.app) ranking each WC2026 nation's GOAT XI by kit value. 7 days in, 21 to go. The series and the giveaway run alongside each other.

P.S. Google Play production access is being reviewed. If you're on Android and want early access, DM me. Helps push the production approval through.

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 3 months ago
▲ 1 r/SoccerJerseys

Recruiting 20 collectors with 20+ kit collections to stress-test our kit identification database

Hey,

Founder of KitClub here (kitclub.app). I've posted here a couple times before about kit valuations and you've been generous with feedback. Now I need to ask for something more direct.

We're launching the iOS app this week and our biggest gap is database coverage on rare and edge-case kits. The scanner does well on mainstream kits but struggles on:

- Pre-1990 vintage shirts with limited photo references

- Special editions, charity matches, and one-off ceremonial kits

- Regional/youth team variants

- Authentic vs replica differentiation on certain manufacturers (Adidas '80s-'90s especially)

- Match-issued vs match-worn distinctions

I'm looking for 20 collectors who:

- Have 20+ kit collections (ideally with some vintage or rare pieces)

- Are willing to scan their collection through KitClub

- Can flag misidentifications and tell me what they SHOULD have been

- Are open to a 30-min call once during the next 6 weeks to walk through patterns we're missing

In exchange:

- Free Pro Lifetime account (includes unlimited scans, advanced valuation history, reseller directory access)

- Direct line to me for kit data corrections (your submissions get prioritized)

- Credit (if you want it) when we publish database expansion updates

No content creation required. No social posts. Just honest feedback from people who actually know vintage kits.

If interested, comment below or DM me with:

- Roughly how many kits in your collection

- One specific rare/vintage kit you own (just to get a sense of your range)

- Whether you're cool with the 30-min call later

I'll respond to the first 20 that fit. No timeline pressure, happy to

have these conversations over weeks.

— Norman

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 3 months ago
▲ 7 r/ClassicFootballShirts+1 crossposts

Hand of God shirt sold for £7.14M. Here's what every other tier of the Argentina 1986 home is worth.

So I've been deep-diving into the Argentina 1986 home for the database I'm building (kitclub.app, football shirt scanner I'm working on, more on that at the end). The price spread on this shirt is wild and I figured collectors

here would appreciate the full breakdown.

Quick context for the kit itself:

- Manufacturer: Le Coq Sportif (1985-1989 era, before Argentina switched to

Adidas)

- Light blue and white vertical stripes, V-neck, AFA crest left chest, Le Coq rooster right chest

- Worn during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Hand of God + Goal of the Century vs England, then 3-2 final win over West Germany

- The actual fabric was changed mid-tournament because the original was too hot under Mexico City sun. Some collectors specifically chase the heavier early-tournament version

The value tiers I've been able to verify:

Modern retro replica (Le Coq Sportif reissue or Adidas Originals): €60-120

Vintage retail original from 1986: €400-1,200 depending on condition

Authentic / player issue from 1986: €2,000-8,000+

Signed by Maradona (vintage): €5,000-25,000+ (prices spiked after his death)

Match-worn from any 1986 tournament match: €100,000+

The actual Hand of God shirt: £7.14M at Sotheby's, May 2022 (record for sports memorabilia at the time)

Few things that surprised me while researching:

  1. The signed prices have roughly tripled since Maradona's death in 2020. A signed shirt that was €4-5K in 2019 is now consistently selling €12-15K+.
  2. There's a real difference between "match-issued" (made for the tournament but unworn) and "match-worn" (actually played in). Most listings conflate them. Match-issued goes for €2-4K typically, match-worn is €30K+.
  3. Le Coq Sportif Argentina shirts from 1985-89 specifically are appreciating faster than Adidas-era equivalents because the Le Coq window was so short (only 4 years). Scarcity drives value.
  4. The "Hand of God shirt" that sold at Sotheby's was actually the one Steve Hodge (England midfielder) swapped with Maradona post-match. It hung in the National Football Museum in Manchester for 20 years before the auction.

About the project: I'm building KitClub (kitclub.app), an app that scans football shirts and gives identification + valuation. Database is still calibrating, there's a lot of weird edge cases with vintage shirts specifically, like the Argentina 86 fabric variants. If anyone here owns or has handled rare versions of this kit and the scanner gets it wrong, hit me with the photos and I'll add the variant to the database.

Anyway, anyone here own one? What tier?

Edit / correction from @[Legends_worldwide]: I missed something important.

The light-fabric Hand of God shirts weren't from Le Coq Sportif, they were sourced last-minute from a market in Mexico City the night before the England match. Argentina's kit man Rubén Moschella went out and bought lighter shirts (essentially counterfeits), then the staff sewed AFA badges and numbers on overnight. Maradona reportedly picked his from this batch. This means the actual Hand of God shirt that sold for £7.14M is technically a counterfeit base, which is one of the strangest provenance stories in sports memorabilia. Thanks to the commenter for the catch.

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 3 months ago
▲ 0 r/SoccerJerseys

Hey all, Norman here. I'm a football fan, not a serious collector, but a few of my friends have shirts sitting in their closets and never really know what they're worth. The info is scattered across eBay, Vinted, Instagram, forums, you name it.

So I spent the last few months building KitClub. It's an app that scans any football shirt and tells you the club, season, manufacturer, value range, and a rarity tier (Common, Hot, or Grail).

Tested it on a friend's 2006 Italy Del Piero #7. Came back as "Hot" tier, authentic versions valued at €250+.

https://preview.redd.it/i5egrzh0jeyg1.png?width=699&format=png&auto=webp&s=04607b786b6bee34146ce29d589ec5162e28ef83

https://preview.redd.it/znkx03t3jeyg1.png?width=706&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd06fe41a8b988a9849d18eff2473fd865a64fd5

I'm not a collector myself, so I genuinely want feedback from people who are. Web version is live at kitclub.app, open it on your phone, scan a shirt, see what it returns. iOS and Android coming soon.

If anything's off, missing, or just wrong, I'd rather hear it now than later.

reddit.com
u/KitClubOfficial — 4 months ago