Counterfeit and unlicensed football kits have always been around — but as the cost of authentic shirts continues to rise, so has the prevalence of fakes.
Football shirts are a beacon of representation in football. They’re your colors. They’re a symbol of you, your city, and your culture. First and foremost, they indicate identity, pride, and heritage. While they’re now a fashion piece as a secondary purpose, the core of a football shirt lies in that connection with your club. But in 2025, we’re seeing an epidemic take over the subculture. Counterfeit shirts are a booming market in football. But what does this mean for the industry?
In August 2025, five people in the United Kingdom were arrested for distributing £5 million worth of fake football shirts. The internet is flooded with counterfeit kits. From DHGate to eBay to Depop, fakes are ubiquitous throughout the web. Even if you aren’t specifically seeking one out, the chance of you running into a fake kit online are extremely high.
Trusted shirt resellers like Classic Football Shirts can often come at more of a premium, so to the untrained eye, a rare shirt from the ’90s for £30 might seem like a solid deal.
The thesis is that the current situation in football shirts is how counterfeit kits don’t just reflect illicit trade but also the shrinking affordability of authentic shirts for the core fan. Official shirts can set you back £85 for an authentic replica, with upwards of £110 for the high-spec shirts. On the other hand, you can get a counterfeit for close to £10 in some places.
Ease of access for fans through resellers and the potential income of the shirts for the sellers themselves are two big reasons that counterfeit shirts are so rife right now. The increase in sophistication on the design is another reason, making the typical fan’s decision to opt for a fake shirt at a fraction of the cost of a real one a no-brainer.
The original core of the game, the working-class fan, can no longer afford their club’s shirts. Add in the ease of starting an e-commerce business, and you have a market. Source a fake, list it online wherever you choose, sell it for a serious fraction of the real, and profit. Simple. There’s also the sheer number of shirts to focus on for fans. Some clubs are releasing three, four, five shirts a season. Then add in retro remakes, training gear, and special edition shirts. The amount of gear a club is releasing makes it incredibly hard for fans to keep up, thus turning to fakes to keep their identity alive without sacrificing precious income.
The impact on the real shirt market means clubs and manufacturers lose revenue. And, while many (me included) don’t care about a club’s bottom line, you can’t ignore that it’s a real outcome of this epidemic. And this applies to the big clubs, but perhaps more so to the smaller clubs and grassroots teams, which is where the serious issue comes in. Those clubs losing out on profits, especially in countries where revenues and attendances are already struggling like in Spain and Italy, can be very damaging for a club’s future and the community it represents.
Another issue is that the kit collecting community suffers, too. Collectors now spend their time figuring out what is fake and what is real. No longer is the focus solely on design and aesthetic but instead, the conversations center around authentic or inauthentic. Plus, the rising popularity of retro shirts and their rare nature has increased the production of fakes. Nostalgia is a commodity, and if a fake shirt seller can tap into that like clubs are doing, then the outcome can be lucrative.
For some fans, it’s an act against the commercialization of the game. No longer can these big clubs and brands exploit the common fan by charging extortionate prices for what is, essentially merchandise acting as advertising. Others see it as stealing from the club they love, damaging its (and by proxy, their) futures. It’s a cultural divide within this epidemic. Purists versus pragmatists.
One of the main issues about buying fake football shirts is the ethics. The unregulated world of fake shirts often includes child labor, underpaid work, terrible conditions, abuse, and trafficking. It’s a crime, and the workers suffer in order to fill the pockets of those at the top.
A horrendous ordeal, with sweat shop workers in third world countries suffering so fans in the U.K., United States, and beyond can have a shirt for £8, which is probably still a huge profit based on the cost of production. It’s an abhorrent exploitation of people across the globe. Crackdowns from police are regularly ongoing, but it’s proving hard to contain counterfeits — both in physical shops across the world and online.
The broader economics of football merchandise show that this was inevitable. Rising ticket prices, memberships, ballots, shirt prices, TV costs — it’s all going up, positioning football as a luxury product and diluting its connection with the working class. The disconnect between club and fan is clear and becoming more prominent by the season.
What’s next for football shirts, then? The crackdown will continue on counterfeit goods. And whether or not it will work is another story. However, if it does work and if they want to stop the fake shirt trend, then something has to be done about real ones and their accessibility. Lower prices, more “levels” of shirts without sacrificing on design elements. The stadium versus premium approach has already happened but isn’t doing enough. Explore subscription models. Direct-to-fan engagement. If pricing remains unsustainable, counterfeit culture will not go away.
In conclusion, the real cost of a fake shirt is loss of connection with core fans as well as human rights abuses, enabling criminals, and causing an unsafe society for many. Fake shirts are a sign of alienation of fans from clubs, and lead to a worrying situation for supply chains and people in developing countries. Until football clubs find a balance between profit and accessibility, fake shirts won’t go away and the counterfeit epidemic will continue ripping through the football shirt world.
It’s interesting to see how fans balance passion with practicality, sometimes making tough choices to maintain identity and connection to their club. Speaking of balancing choices and strategy, if you enjoy incremental progression and optimizing every move, you might want to check out brainrot clicker.