The Shirt: A Material History of Soccer, from Rags to Fashion and Cotton to Polyester

The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

Soccer jerseys, kits, football shirts - whatever the name, there is no shortage of opinions about them. Pretty or ugly, traditional or not, brands, costs, sponsors; whether to own only those we have connections to, or buy them for style, or collect them...
We’ll cut through all that today, with the help of Alex Ireland, author of the very recently published book Pretty Poly: The History of the Football Shirt. This episode is a short material history of the beautiful game - through the lens of various fabrics, in various colors, we’ll trace football from the beginnings to today.
For a little table of contents, here is what we talked about: 1. the origins: why did teams start to wear the same jerseys anyways, when did colors come in? 2. crests, badges, numbers etc. - what stories do they tell? 3. fabrics, especially the switch from cotton to various plastics, and the opportunities that opened up. And 4., today’s landscape: brands, internationalization, TV, the collector market. All with plenty of concrete examples along the way. Get dressed! And please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE.
HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:

Alex Ireland, Pretty Poly: The History of the Football Shirt (Pitch Publishing, 2023)

Alex Ireland on X/Twitter

John Devlin, True Colors - books and website

Football Kit Archive

TSV Hartberg shirt (yes, it says that)

MUSIC SNIPPETS FROM THIS EPISODE:

Donovan - I Love My Shirt (YouTube)

Oasis - The Girl in the Dirty Shirt (YouTube)

Ken Dodd and the Diddymen - Where’s My Shirt (YouTube)

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Green Shirt (YouTube)
Please leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook.
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• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
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Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind
Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/