This year has been a great one for football kits. If we asked you what your favourites were, you could probably rack up a superb list, as so much comes from the fabric and iconography – our very club’s DNA are forged in the fibres of matchday attires. Before the narrative overtakes us, and despite personal choices, in November Footy Headlines compiled their research to display who the winners and losers were this year when it came to commercial successes in the world of football shirts.
While their sales statistics weren’t exactly on par with reality, the charted findings pointed to a correct direction in terms of who outsold who. Involved, the corresponding ratio of shirt sales should be approximately 66%, which is significantly higher than the supposed figure of the site’s 50%. With all that said, what were the best selling club shirts this year?
“Of the top eight football clubs in Europe in terms of global sales, four are in Adidas’ portfolio. Three clubs wear Nike kits, with Puma having only one representative – Manchester City.”
According to PR Marketing, Liverpool sold the most shirts with a whopping 1.8 million units. Manchester United, as per the current form battles of recent seasons, are just behind their Kopite rivals – only managing 1.75 million in the same time spell.
After the English one-two, Spanish shirts were the next best thing. Real Madrid were the winners of this veritable El Classico as they pipped Barcelona with 1.7 million to 1.6 million. Continuing with continental trails, Bayern were hot on the tail of their Champions League rivals. They managed to shift 1.35 million to their loyal Bavarians to send them fifth in the rankings.
After this, the new boys in Europe’s heavyweight City and PSG came in – with 1.29 million and 1.1 million respectively. Bringing in the rear, Arsenal arrive with a sub-million statistic of 850,000.
That being said, Arsenal’s shirt sales for the 22-23 season were up by around 18% on the 21-22 season, with 850,000 shirts sold, surpassing the 2017-18 season (when Puma was the shirt supplier) to become the team’s best shirt sales season in the past 5 years.
With more and more kit manufacturers bringing about excellent designs, it’s a wonder what 2024 will see. Will the traditional apple cart of Nike and Adidas be breached by Puma or even outside dark horses?
