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Football Laundry is a blog about my small collection of football shirts. Why? Just because I like football shirts, and I like writing, so why not combine the two? Unless you mean “why collect football shirts,” in which case I’d say I’m fascinated by the history involved. The kits worn by teams during their most famous moments, the design trends that have evolved over the last fifty years or so, the rise and fall of sportswear corporations, the effects of money on the game. Plus, there’s that childish part of the brain that likes to see many variations on the same shape, the same fascination you’ll find in collectors of beer cans or Matchbox cars. However a football shirt is designed, on a basic level it’s still just a t-shirt. Part of the fun comes from seeing the strange directions that template can be pushed into.

As for my own personal philosophy about collecting football shirts, I do tend to favour “ugly” kits; over-the-top designs, neon colours, avant-garde pattern choices that look like the designer dropped a kaleidoscope into a bag of fabric scraps. That’s not to say I don’t like more “normal” shirts, because I do, but my all-time favourite is probably Chelsea’s 1994-96 away shirt. Look that one up and you’ll get a good idea of why I shouldn’t ever be allowed to actually design a football shirt.

I should also mention that I am by no means an expert on any of this. I’m a football fan, but football is so big that no-one can know everything, so I apologise in advance for the mistakes I’m bond to make.

I also don’t like paying much money for football shirts, partly because I’m poor but also because finding them cheap is a big part of the fun. I tend to get mine from charity shops, as gifts and from eBay auctions where the seller misspelled “football” in the title of the listing. This means Football Laundry is unlikely to ever feature some of the true masterpieces of the artform, such as Hull City’s “tiger stripe” kits of the early nineties. Maybe one day I’ll find £250 down the back of the sofa, but until then I hope you enjoy seeing the shirts I do have.

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US AVELLINO 1912 HOME 1995-96

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