Fans of World Cup teams kitted out by Nike face the highest costs if they want to buy a replica shirt before the tournament kicks off this week amid a “striking” overall increase in prices.
Alongside the official match versions, which are retailing for as much as €160, manufacturers typically make “stadium”, or replica, versions aimed at supporters.
Fans of England, France and Brazil typically face spending €110 (£95) on an adult Nike replica shirt, as the tournament in the US begins.
For Adidas, dresser of Spain, Germany and Scotland, and Puma, home to Portugal, it is a draw at €100, according to market research by Dr Peter Rohlmann, an analyst who specialises in football merchandise.
For children’s tops Nike is still the priciest at €85. Puma charges €80 and Adidas €75. The figures are the average for a national team jersey calculated using prices on the European websites of the sports brands themselves and football associations at the start of the campaign.
The price differences are writ large in the UK, where fans of Thomas Tuchel’s team are being charged £15 more for a standard Three Lions shirt than the Tartan Army’s Adidas strip.
In the UK, an adult England stadium shirt costs £90 for a replica, or £135 for the “match” shirt worn by the players. The equivalent prices for the Scotland kit are £75 and £120. At £65, a child’s England shirt costs £10 more.
Replica kits are big business and Rohlmann estimates that fans will buy between 18m and 23m shirts for this competition.
Adidas, Nike and Puma will bank close to 80% of these sales. Even at the bottom of this estimate shirt sales would eclipse the 14.4m sold for the Qatar tournament as the popularity of football continues to grow.
Over the last five World Cups the “steady increase in prices for fans buying their national team jerseys is striking”, says Rohlmann. The average price for an adult stadium shirt across all teams is up 53% since South Africa hosted in 2010, according to his data.
In 2010 a stadium shirt cost €65. Today it costs €100. For Qatar, in 2022, the average price stood at €90.
For English fans Rohlmann says football shirt prices have “risen much faster and proportionally more sharply” than the general cost of living, “meaning that fans’ love for their favourite teams is being ruthlessly exploited”.
On the same basis an England shirt cost £45 in 2010 (Nike replaced Umbro in 2013) and £75 at the time of the last World Cup, in 2022. Four years on the price has jumped to £90.
The shirts can be even costlier if shoppers opt to personalise them by adding a name and number. Some children’s kits also vary in price, according to size.
Nike said: “We know that any kit price increase matters to fans, and we never take that lightly. We regularly review our product costs to make sure we’re delivering the best possible performance and innovation, while balancing rising material, manufacturing and logistics costs.”
Adidas said the pricing of its jerseys “reflects the technology, development, and materials behind them. We offer authentic and replica jerseys at different price points and continue to minimise the impact on consumers of rising costs across the industry, including the increasing fees paid to clubs and federations.”
Puma did not respond to a request for comment.
Faced with high prices some fans opt to buy fakes or are duped by seeming discounts on rogue websites. Buying a fake shirt “can lead to major disappointments”, says Rohlmann. Packages did not turn up, shirts were of poor quality, or involved subsequent customs or tax payments, he warned.
According to KitLegit, an app that uses AI to verify whether football shirts are genuine, 30%-40% in circulation are counterfeit based on its data.
“The price of official shirts will be having an impact on demand for fakes, but due to the cost of living crisis many fans seek out counterfeit product,” says KitLegit’s co-founder, Ben Houston.
“Some consumers are knowingly buying fakes, but some are being duped,” said Houston, who pointed to issues with some secondhand platforms and clone websites. “Consumers think they are getting official product at a slightly reduced cost, when in actual fact they are being sold as fake at a higher price.”
