With the rise of the fashion trend Blokecore, football shirts have weaved their way into mainstream fashion trends. This has been responded to with the mass production of shirt-adjacent products from companies like Urban Outfitters, H&M, and other dominant cheap fashion brands.
Blokecore, as defined by JD Sports, is the recent trend of styling football shirts with more casual outfits: “Over the last five decades, football shirts and terrace-inspired trainers have become staples in street-ready style, trickling into our everyday looks from the stadium to the city.”
Wearing shirts to represent the team you support is not a new trend, but wearing shirts as a fashion piece — removed from the team that you are wearing — is.
For many football fans, the team you support is rooted in your identity, from religion to class. When this is commodified, what happens to our identity?
The best example to look at is the iconic yellow Brazilian shirt. One of the most historic shirts in football has now become the centre of Blokecore, with consumers caring little to nothing about Brazil, the football team, or any of the players.
Culture shouldn’t be a trend.
Currently, if you go to Urban Outfitters, you can find a line of these “football” shirts for sale, under an Urban exclusive brand named iets frans. These shirts aren’t real — made purely to make money on a trend. What does wearing one of these shirts say about your identity? Does it have any meaning?
Laziness in the football shirt world isn’t just pervading third-party brands, either, as the teams themselves have begun to lean into the Blokecore trend. Recently Manchester City announced their third kit, where fans were given the ability to use the “PUMA AI Creator” and submit their designs. The winning design was produced by a Manchester City fan named Elliott — a white shirt with two stripes, one navy and one light blue, with a gradient around the sponsor in the middle of the shirt.
Although the shirt was designed by a fan, the use of AI gives pause, especially for such a simple product. Is typing a prompt really a design? In an article published by Manchester City, the prompter, Elliott, said he made the “design” on his lunch break. Does a shirt designed with so little effort show any meaning? Is it a real commitment to supporting a team steeped in generations of cultural contexts?
Trends come and go. Eventually, these major fast fashion brands will stop producing football shirts, but for now, remain conscious about what you wear, who you support, and what it means for your identity.
Photo by Bibesh Manandhar on Unsplash is licensed under the Unsplash license.
