Manchester, London, and now New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles. Classic Football Shirts has crossed the Atlantic and arrived on American shores just in time for the soccer boom in the U.S., with the 2025 Club World Cup just past and the 2026 World Cup on the horizon.
The retro jersey store was started by Doug Bierton and Matthew Dale in 2006 when the pair were searching for an original 1990s West Germany jersey ahead of the World Cup in Germany. Over the next 11 years, the company collected over 100,000 soccer-related products to resell to fans who have longed for a store that sells jerseys from their childhood years.
“We have a whole team in the UK whose job is to scour the web, talk to clubs, talk to businesses that are maybe closing or they have a whole warehouse in the back who need to get rid of,” Ronaldo Ayala, content creator and keyholder for Classic Football Shirts NYC, said in an interview with amNewYork. “Before we buy any shirt, there’s a process of authentication, seeing what’s wrong with the shirt, rating it, pricing it.”
The New York City store, located on 323 Canal St., has become the flagship store in the States and has been packed since it opened in May this year. However, their presence stateside began with pop-ups in the city, and by 2024, fans and consumers couldn’t get enough.
“We weren’t supposed to be staying until it just got so much traction,” Ayala said. “Football shirts, in general, have been getting a lot of traction with ‘Blokecore,’ the influencers and fashions becoming a staple here. So the UK guys said, ‘Why not just keep it?”
Classic or retro soccer jerseys have a special place in many fans’ hearts because they represent a nostalgic time that reminds them of a particular player, manager, or season when their club achieved something memorable.
In addition to the nostalgia, the football and fashion world collided in 2021 when “Blokecore”, the TikTok fashion trend that incorporated soccer jerseys with everyday outfits, went viral. It created an intersection between both worlds where jersey manufacturers Adidas and Nike would collaborate with fashion icons like Pharrell Williams to design chic football jerseys that can be worn casually or on the pitch.
“What differentiates an old shirt from a classic is, like a classic is from a given era,” Ayala said. “So let’s say we’re talking about the 1999 [Manchester United] Beckham [shirt] from the year they won the treble. We would have that same shirt from that year, and an old shirt would be a regular shirt you can find anywhere. These classics, you can’t just walk into a store and find them unless it’s here.”
Besides being a famous footballer and fashion icon, David Beckham won a trio of trophies in the 1998-99 season that had not been achieved in English soccer before — the English Premier League, the FA Cup, and the UEFA Champions League. Since the treble was a historic first, the jersey from that season means a lot to the club’s supporters.
Whilst highlighting a few rare and stylish jerseys on their Instagram, Ayala and his team have been creating content on their Instagram with skits and collaborations with New York City soccer content creators like Alfardy Ali that highlight the passionate soccer community.
It’s nothing new for Classic Football Shirts, though. Ellis Platten, more commonly known as AwayDays on YouTube, has interviewed celebrities, football stars, and other content creators on their favourite jerseys and what each one personally means to them. He has interviewed household names like Giorgio Chiellini, Fabrizio Romano, and Rob McElhenny in the London and Manchester stores, reaching over a million viewers on some videos.
In essence, Classic Football Shirts aims to be a third space for the soccer community wherever they are. Besides over two dozen racks containing soccer jerseys from every corner of the world, the store has two gigantic televisions hung up in the back fitted with spacious couches for fans to interact, replicating what every U.K. store has.
The store hosted activations and watch parties at the end of the European soccer season and during the Club World Cup, bringing together not just New Yorkers but fans from around the world.
“It’s super important to have something like this in the back where you can come, sit, and watch the games, because now you really can’t go anywhere and sit for free, especially in the States,” Ayala said. “We have a sign outside saying, ‘Come inside, let’s take chill, we have AC,’ and we try to push that clubhouse field, because everything right now costs money,” Ayala said.
AmNewYork visited the store the moment it opened on a Friday morning, and there were already people glancing in and asking if the store was open. An hour later, it was completely packed with fans of all ages.
“It’s amazing to see people just wait outside the door,” Ayala said. “People have said to us, ‘Hey, we saw you on TikTok!’, or ‘We saw the store on Instagram, we’ve been wanting to plan our trip to New York just to come here.’ It’s amazing to see all the people show some love.”
