T-shirts for playing football, especially when it comes to professional sports, must meet several mandatory requirements. Unlike ordinary T-shirts for everyday wear at home, for going to the street, to the store, to work, or on vacation. Real T-shirts used by professional footballers need to be comfortable and breathable, which is why they used to be made from organic cotton. However, as the practice has shown, natural cotton fabric is not durable and practical.
What should be a real soccer jersey?
First, let’s define terminology. Authentic is called a genuine shirt, that is, one that is used by professional football players during matches. Such T-shirts are expensive, as they are made in compliance with all the necessary technologies. One of their important differences from other inexpensive T-shirts is in low weight. For an athlete who plays an official match on the football field, this is a very important parameter.
A replica is a T-shirt that looks like an authentic professional athlete T-shirt but may lack some special technology. The replicas are genuine jerseys from official manufacturers, they are approved by football clubs, and they are simply used not at matches, but in training or as an item of everyday wear. And they are much cheaper than authentic T-shirts.
Important! Authentic t-shirts are otherwise called the match, original, and replica t-shirts are game. The cost of replicas is on average 30% or even 50% lower than the original T-shirts.
How does an authentic T-shirt differ from a replica in appearance?
Sewn to fit, so it sits more tightly on the athletic body of a professional football player. Replicas are made with a looser cut.
The logos on the original jersey and its replica may differ (but not always). For example, some firms apply the club logo to the original T-shirt using thermal transfer and use regular embroidery on the replica. The ventilation system in authentic T-shirts is much more advanced, which will certainly affect their price.
Match jerseys may have special holes for additional ventilation of the chest or back (micro perforation).
Some authentic T-shirts are equipped with patented systems that allow them to adhere more tightly to the body of a football player while massaging certain areas of the skin.
Both authentic match jerseys and replicas always have an inscription that indicates the technologies used to create them. From these inscriptions, you can easily understand what kind of T-shirt it is. Unless, of course, you know how to decipher such inscriptions, since each manufacturer uses its own.
Strength and materials used
Since match original shirts fit very tightly to the body, it is quite difficult to hook them during contact sports. In addition, they are much stronger than ordinary T-shirts due to their high elasticity. It is very difficult to tear authentic custom soccer jerseys. They do not lose their original shape for a long time, threads do not come out of them, and the seams remain intact even with serious physical exertion.
Authentic T-shirts are made of thin polyester, which is equipped with all modern technologies, allowing T-shirts to provide excellent levels of ventilation, moisture resistance, and compression. Replicas usually cannot boast of so many high technologies, and the material from which they are made is denser.
Feelings of playing sports in original t-shirts
Almost every man is aware of the feeling that occurs after 20-30 minutes of intense exercise. What happens to the t-shirt? It gets very wet, loses its former elasticity, and is very unpleasantly felt on the body.
Authentic T-shirts never lose their shape. Although they are much tighter on the body, playing sports in them does not lead to such unpleasant sensations as in the case of replicas or regular T-shirts that are sold in stores. The original match jersey does not feel like a foreign object on the body but like a second skin. Even if the T-shirt becomes wet, it still fits well to the body and is almost not felt. And special ventilation and cooling systems, such as mesh inserts or micro-perforations, prevent the athlete from overheating.
Football club logos and other details
Authentic jerseys are easy to distinguish from replicas, if only by the way in which team logos are applied to them. For these purposes, thermal transfer technology is always used. This is since the thermal transfer of the logo does not affect the weight of the T-shirt in any way, and besides, it does not cause any discomfort to the athlete during the match. What cannot be said about logos applied by embroidery or by chevron patches? But in replicas and most ordinary T-shirts, logos are just very often simply sewn onto the fabric.
Another feature that is inherent in the original T-shirts is the presence of small details such as small inscriptions, symbols, or logos that are important for a particular football club. They are usually applied to the inside of the collar or on the back of the sleeves. In-game T-shirts (replicas), all these small details are not always reproduced.
As a result, let’s say that it makes no sense for an ordinary person to purchase an original T-shirt for sports. The difference will not be as noticeable as the difference in price between an authentic piece of clothing and a T-shirt from a simple clothing store. In addition to professional football players, they are purchased only by collectors and fans of football teams.
