Vintage/Retro Rangers Shirts

[BobbyShearer]

I noticed in lockdown that the market for these tops was buoyant and wondered what the situation was now for collectors?

Why is it such a big thing and are people buying to collect or wear?

Do people find that genuine tops from pre-90s are virtually impossible to come by?

Is it as competitive a market as programmes used to be and generally a decent investment for a good item?

I remember going to the games in my teens and it would be an embarrassment to be seen in anything other than the current shirts-now I think it’s brilliant walking round the stadium and seeing folk in a variety of tops from years gone by.

 

[DragonBlue]

Do not buy them as an investment, buy them because you want them. Nobody can say what the value of these shirts will be in 5 years tbh. If you want to invest buy shares not footy shirts.

 

[IbroxForever]

I got back into collecting Rangers tops again about 2 years ago. Up to about 60 now. For me it's not about making money on them, just always loved football strips from a young age and obviously love Rangers ones the most.

The Ashley boycott years put my collection on hold for a while.

 

[83rd]

The 90s are just the latest era old enough to have people nostalgic for it. This has resulted in a massive boom in the popularity of the 90s aesthetic (clothes/TV shows/ movies etc). The pandemic also played a role in this boom with people having spare time and income from not going out during lockdowns etc it was filled with these nostalgic type purchases. You even had old Pokémon cards and WWF figures going for hundreds if not thousands, if still new in box, so it's a general trend that old football kits are apart of.

Football kits generally have been gaining popularity again for the past couple years, we've seen fashion forward kits dominate in recent years think the PSG Jordan kits or Nigeria stuff. As kits become more about what you can wear 7 days a week not just on a match day. Also in a era when teams release 4/5 kits a season they are turned over with such a fast rate that for many people they become a blur. Therefore for some these retro kits are ones they connect with most and thus sites like Classic Football Shirts have went from strength to strength.

You could also throw in the idea that in a society that is dominated by mass produced items, for some, vintage/retro have simply became a fashion statement for people to stand out. Limited releases of clothing are also all the rage, shoes or clothing getting sold in limited quantities get flipped for 2/3 times the retail price have created this also fever-like market of you have to have it at any cost. And I suppose the ultimate limited supply is stuff they made 20/30 years ago. So I suppose there is almost like a statement of saying of yes I managed to find this 25 year old shirt, you know I probably paid a pretty penny for it but I'm nonchalantly going to wear it.

Then you add the general Rangers dynamic to this situation with the retail boycott and the hell that was 2012 to 2020. So many turned to kits from happier times and that in itself created its own demand.

The Dhgate/fake/unofficial remakes bring out an interesting dynamic to this whole debate. From the Rangers ones I've seen they are very easy to distinguish when comparing to the real deal. But that's probably because they are trying to remake kits from 20+ years ago and don't care if the sponsor or design isn't 100% accurate and for £15 some will put up with it when the real ones go for £80 plus. But I'm the kind of fanny who would know to check these sort of small details out and they can be dangerous to the average Joe if searching on eBay thinking they've got a deal when they've spent £50 on a fake. I've even seen people say that they've became too common that they don't wear the real one now because people will think it's fake at first etc.

Overall, nostalgia sells and football kits are in vogue

 

[Mckellar]

Probably a little to do with the fact tops nowadays aren't very good compared to the classics teams had in the 80s/90s and 00s. It's all very generic.
Some of the fakes are terrible, embarrassing spending your hard earned cash on counterfeit goods.

 

[Danny Wilde]

The 90s are just the latest era old enough to have people nostalgic for it. This has resulted in a massive boom in the popularity of the 90s aesthetic (clothes/TV shows/ movies etc). The pandemic also played a role in this boom with people having spare time and income from not going out during lockdowns etc it was filled with these nostalgic type purchases. You even had old Pokémon cards and WWF figures going for hundreds if not thousands, if still new in box, so it's a general trend that old football kits are apart of.

Football kits generally have been gaining popularity again for the past couple years, we've seen fashion forward kits dominate in recent years think the PSG Jordan kits or Nigeria stuff. As kits become more about what you can wear 7 days a week not just on a match day. Also in a era when teams release 4/5 kits a season they are turned over with such a fast rate that for many people they become a blur. Therefore for some these retro kits are ones they connect with most and thus sites like Classic Football Shirts have went from strength to strength.

You could also throw in the idea that in a society that is dominated by mass produced items, for some, vintage/retro have simply became a fashion statement for people to stand out. Limited releases of clothing are also all the rage, shoes or clothing getting sold in limited quantities get flipped for 2/3 times the retail price have created this also fever-like market of you have to have it at any cost. And I suppose the ultimate limited supply is stuff they made 20/30 years ago. So I suppose there is almost like a statement of saying of yes I managed to find this 25 year old shirt, you know I probably paid a pretty penny for it but I'm nonchalantly going to wear it.

Then you add the general Rangers dynamic to this situation with the retail boycott and the hell that was 2012 to 2020. So many turned to kits from happier times and that in itself created its own demand.

The Dhgate/fake/unofficial remakes bring out an interesting dynamic to this whole debate. From the Rangers ones I've seen they are very easy to distinguish when comparing to the real deal. But that's probably because they are trying to remake kits from 20+ years ago and don't care if the sponsor or design isn't 100% accurate and for £15 some will put up with it when the real ones go for £80 plus. But I'm the kind of fanny who would know to check these sort of small details out and they can be dangerous to the average Joe if searching on eBay thinking they've got a deal when they've spent £50 on a fake. I've even seen people say that they've became too common that they don't wear the real one now because people will think it's fake at first etc.

Overall, nostalgia sells and football kits are in vogue

Thank you, Sir, an excellent survey of this topic.

 

[Okey Dokey Roll Em’]

Very much zero investment and all nostalgia for me. As a boy supporting Rangers my first strip was the home 92/93 and my mum sent me a picture of me wearing the strip that I’d never seen before-that motivated me to source one and there are a number of sites you can utilise and prices vary. There are other strips I’ve bought that bring back many happy memories and I mostly use eBay, I’ve said on another thread it’s a minefield-so many terrible replicas but also so many convincing fakes! At the beginning of the Gerrard era I also took a different approach-I decided at the end of the season I’d buy some of the strips at a much cheaper price and retain them in the original packaging, again not to make money in the future but to hand to my grand children or other young Rangers enthusiasts. Imagine in 30 years time as a young Rangers supporter being handed a pristine original Champions 55 home shirt, I’d be doing backwards somersaults if someone handed an original brand new with tags Gazza 8inanrow home right now

 

[BruceyBalboa]

For me, I just collect the ones that I like, bethat recent ones or ones I had growing up from 86 onwards.

It's an absolute mental market just now for jerseys/training gear/other Rangers Adidas/Nike merch from say 92 - 98. Would say websites like Classic Football Shirts and the like have a lot to do with that. They've obviously bought up tonnes of vintage stuff and set the price, now other websites and independent sellers have to follow it if they want to get what they are meant to be worth.

During the 2009/2010 season I bought both the red away and the lilac away tops off of ebay, I can't mind exactly how much but I don't think I paid more than £80 quid for both of them. Absolutely no chance of buying both of them for less than £200 just now.

What 83rd has said above is absolutely true, especially about the 90s fashion being very much back in. Current kit manufacturers are trying to replicate these designs with their kits now with a bit of a modern tweak.

I sold the 96/97 white goalie jersey a few years ago, before the demand for retro shirts really kicked off and I've regretted it ever since. That thing was pristine but just hanging in a wardrobe doing nothing, will never get that for as cheap as I got it first time round again that's for sure.

Some of the "reproductions" shall we say are ok. The only ones of those I will buy are of tops that the genuine ones are going for silly prices. You can definitely tell the differences between them and the legit ones, subtle as they may be. Some of them are horrendous though. I wouldn't buy a fake of anything that I could get from the club now - like I wouldn't buy a fake version of our current home, away shirts etc.