About CLASSIC FOOTBALL SHIRTS LIMITED

Started in Manchester in the mid-2000s by two students, the company grew into the best-known dealer in vintage and retro football kit, with physical stores and a large online catalogue.

Its stock is genuinely finite. Shirts are sourced rather than manufactured, so a listing is often a single garment in a single size, and once it goes it does not return.

What they carry

Original match and replica shirts from past decades across club and international football, modern shirts, training wear, and licensed retro reissues. Original and reissue are different products: an original is the shirt as sold at the time, a reissue is a new garment made to look like it, cut to modern sizing.

Sizing, which has changed completely

Football shirts from the 1990s are cut far wider and shorter than modern ones. A large from 1994 can measure closer to a modern extra large across the chest and sit higher at the waist.

Ignore the size on the label and use the measurements in the listing. Chest measured flat, doubled, compared against a shirt you own is the only method that works across thirty years of different manufacturers.

Player-issue shirts are cut slimmer and lighter than the replica sold in shops, so the same size in each is not the same garment.

Condition and authenticity

Vintage listings are graded, and the grade describes wear, fading, bobbling and any repairs. Read it and look at the photographs of the actual item rather than a stock image.

Check the badge, the maker's mark and the wash label against the season being claimed. Counterfeits are common in this market, which is exactly why buying from an established dealer costs more than buying from a marketplace.

Looking after old kit

Wash cold, inside out, no fabric conditioner, and never tumble dry. Heat-pressed names and numbers from the 1990s lift easily, and once a letter goes it cannot be matched.

Using a Classic Football Shirts discount code

Apply the code as soon as you have decided, since single-item stock does not wait. Recent-season shirts and licensed reissues are more often included in offers than genuine vintage.