You have been told, perhaps, that soccer had a big summer in America. You certainly didn’t hear wrong. Alongside the simultaneous Euro 2024 and Copa America tournaments, you had Lionel Messi’s continued dominance in the MLS, the USWNT reclaiming Olympic gold in Paris, and the rise of star-backed clubs like Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Wrexham and Tom Brady’s Birmingham City. After decades of false starts, the world’s game has really, truly cemented itself stateside.
That includes, of course, the sport’s continued relevance in the world of style, with blokecore—the trend that encompasses vintage footy jerseys, Umbro short shorts, and, yes, Adidas Sambas—remaining very much a thing in 2024. “Soccer’s influence on fashion isn’t a new concept,” explains Lucas Capozzi-Shanks of Scenes NY, a brand specializing in vintage football wares and original designs that draw influence from the sport’s history. “Soccer is a creative, free-flowing, stylish sport, and soccer players specifically have been some of the most stylish athletes in history. And because it’s the world’s game, it’s a wonderfully diverse population of people pulling from a wide range of cultural and style influences.”
Capozzi-Shanks notes that on its own, a full football kit looks great. “A full kit is a good outfit—a heavyweight, boxy shirt (possibly with a collar), a short, breezy pair of shorts, and complementing socks. It’s perfect, unlike basketball jerseys and American football jerseys, which all look like costumes.” There’s an ease of wear to soccer jerseys that allows them to permeate throughout fashion in a way that you don’t see with other sports. They can bridge the gap between high and low, pairing just as well with Patagonia Baggies as they do a full Loewe or Fear of God fit. The vintage jersey market is booming these days, with retailers like The Football Boutique in Los Angeles and Saturdays Football—with locations in New York, LA, and Miami—becoming bonafide hangout spots, with customers congregating for watch parties and summer rec leagues. It’s not uncommon, at either of those shops, to run into an MLS or NWSL player when you stop by to cop a vintage Bayern Munich kit.
When it comes to soccer’s place in the sneaker game, however, it’s long lagged behind sports like basketball and tennis in terms of pure collectibility. Yes, the aforementioned Samba—which Adidas debuted way back in 1949, a groundbreaking model designed to allow players to train on hard surfaces rather than grass—has remained a steady, understated classic for decades. But soccer shoes have hardly ever generated the kind of hype that, say, a hot Air Jordan release or a retro of Andre Agassi’s Air Tech Challenge might have—which makes sense, when you consider that the shoes megastars like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo wore on the pitch all came with, you know, cleats.
