Shirts and the City

or "James is FORCED to learn some modicum of self-control"

11/9/2025

I was originally going to post this to my sports blog as a bit of a "special feature", but ended up deciding to move it here. Consider it a bit of a "cross-post", if you will, and be sure to check out my sports blog, as that seems to be the one I update WAY more often...

If you’re of a certain age, you may be a fan of vintage or thrift store shopping. It’s become a massive trend amongst the younger generations for various reasons (at least I think it has), and thrift/vintage stores are quite popular on social media.

Personally, I’ve had my fair share of thrift store trips for one simple reason: it’s one of the more interesting ways of sourcing jerseys. Y’see, modern jerseys are often highly overpriced; for example, hockey and baseball (i.e. the two I’ve collected the most) START around $200, but the super nice ones (i.e. the only ones worth getting for me) are typically >$400. However, at thrift stores, you can find jerseys for a much lower price; sure, most of the jerseys you find at thrift stores are random schools, very clearly fake, or those old NFL/NBA jerseys with ironed on lettering that is peeling like crazy, but every once in a while, you’ll come across an absolute GEM (for example: I once found a GAME WORN JERSEY for less than what most retail jerseys cost nowadays).

This post, however, is going to focus on one specific sport: soccer. I’m here to talk about soccer jerseys (or, as I will be calling them going forward, “football shirts”), as I’ve been using them as workout shirts for when I go for walks or to play pickleball with friends since I’ve found that they’re good for these purposes (plus they turn heads).

Inasmuch as I could just stick to the easy to find clubs at American stores (and I kinda have at times)...it’s not always the most interesting thing to me. Yes, I do have some of the bigger clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Newcastle United (I have somewhat of an affinity for them because they play at a place named St James’ Park¹), and there are some shirts that I’m interested in (like that green Liverpool shirt they just came out with), but I’d absolutely love to rock teams like AFC Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, or Fulham - teams whose shirts I have NEVER seen sold in the United States (before this trip²). At vintage stores...you're going to find a lot of the same big teams sadly. HOWEVER...you can occasionally find a gem, and there are certain stores in New York City that specialize in vintage football shirts, so that's what I'd like to discuss in this post³. I visited them both on November 8, 2025, as I had plans later that day in Brooklyn, but decided to head into New York City early so I could check these stores out.

The first store I went to, aptly enough, is named "Classic Football Shirts". They're an "import" from the United Kingdom, and have been featured somewhat extensively on YouTube via a video series in which soccer/football content creators search for shirts in their stores. They have locations in Los Angeles, Miami, and obviously New York (plus a few in the UK - internet "weirdness" prevents me from seeing their UK website, but their Instagram implies they have two).

The other one is a place called "Saturdays Football" (which is kinda sorta also fitting as this trip occurred on a Saturday). From what I can tell, it's an American operation with three locations: one each in the three largest cities in the United States (Chicago, Los Angeles, and, of course, New York).

My original intention was to discuss each of these stores separately; however, they ended up being rather similar: both have some "store brand" items, a collection of current jerseys/shirts, and of course...a TON of vintage shirts. One BIG difference, however: Classic Football Shirts had sizes on the hangars, which IMO gives it a slight edge in customer experience. Also, I felt that some of the shirts both stores had were quite pricey, so I tried to limit myself to avoid spending too much - both in terms of number of shirts and "average shirt price".

I was hoping to have more time than I did for each store - my original plan was to arrive at 11 AM when Classic Football Shirts opened, browse that store for a while, and then go to Saturdays when it opened at noon (conveniently, it's only a few blocks away); I likely would have had a good 30-45 minutes at each store, which I felt would be plenty of time to peruse and make decisions. However, my train into New York got delayed for almost an hour, so I ended up arriving at like 11:45 and had much less time than I wanted. This ended up being kinda important, as the MASSIVE selection of teams ended up being kinda overwhelming, and I didn't have the time to go through all the shirts.

I ended up getting one shirt from each store - both of them being teams from England:

• From Classic Football Shirts: This Sunderland shirt from 2007⁴
  The feel good story of the Premier League as of this being posted, Sunderland have been punching well above their weight in their first Premier League season since 2017 (and having been in the third division as recently as 2022). In fact, the day I bought this, Sunderland played a big game against league leading Arsenal and pulled out an exciting 2-2 draw. It's also apt that the link above includes a Dwight Yorke shirt as its example, as his name and number are on the shirt I got too!

  I thought about getting a Borussia Monchengladbach (from Germany) shirt here, but I ended up deciding against it because I didn't like how the manufacturer (Puma) did the badge (it has rubber letters on it which aren't sewn on)⁵.

  I also considered coming BACK here later in the day to check one thing out, but ultimately decided against doing that as well.

• From Saturdays Football: This Blackburn Rovers shirt from 2006
  With how things have been going for Blackburn recently (having last been in the Premier League in 2012), it can be easy to forget that they're one of two non-Big Six teams to have won the Premier League (back in 1995)⁶. They're currently (as of the date this is published) languishing near the bottom of England's second division, though they JUST missed out on the chance to return to the Premier League (that Sunderland ended up getting) last season⁷. While the contrasting half-and-half design is cool, the front of this one has "mesh armpits" which feature "holes" that are rather small (though probably not 4,000 of them), but are the same colors as the sleeves, and it makes this one look a bit awkward...though maybe not as awkward as that reference I tried to shoehorn in.

  I thought about getting an Everton shirt as well, but I didn't like how much it "rose up" off of my waist when I lifted my arms.

  Also, I got a free Brooklyn FC sticker since I was wearing their shirt!

There are, of course, A TON MORE vintage stores - and that’s just if you’re talking about New York City! Like I said earlier, I didn’t have anywhere NEAR enough time to explore more (outside of a short visit to a nearby store that didn't have anything I was interested in⁸), but maybe in the future...

Also, thank goodness I realized I (almost) forgot my shirts at the pizza place I ate lunch at almost immediately after leaving it...

One final note for those who don't understand the divisions mentioned in the shirt descriptions: most countries have all of their soccer/football clubs in a singular "pyramid/ladder structure" which is divided into several divisions, and teams can go up and down the divisions depending on if they play well/poorly season by season. There are calls to bring it to the United States, but it's unlikely certain MLS owners (i.e. the ones with NFL teams) would be willing to have their teams sent to the second (or even third) division...