How to Choose the Right Football Shirt for Your Child

How to Choose the Right Football Shirt for Your Child

There are four guiding principles to selecting the correct football shirt for your offspring; making sure that the size allows growth up and down (in length and width), the type of fabric (can it stand the use and sweat?), the difference between your authentic and replica (can I get a cheaper one?), and whether you want some sort of personalisation. Get those four factors correct and you will avoid the common pitfalls of football shirts that are outgrown in a season or shattered in a month.

It may seem doesn’t really make much difference, but it does for a good reason: children wear these shirts hard. This is not like the odd shirt you buy your kid once a year, it becomes their kit for: the garden park training, and school mufti days. So swerve fit and comfort are equally as important as the club or player on the back. Thankfully it’s as simple as understanding what it is that actually matters about fit and durability.

What Size Football Shirt Should You Buy for a Child

Often there will be a choice of age bands or height in cm, and the latter is far more accurate. A 7-8 year kit will be about 122-128 cm, but two children of the same age could be a full size apart, so measure your son against a tape rather than rely on the number on the hanger. When buying online, follow the manufacturer’s own size chart for the particular kit (all the big brands Nike, adidas, Puma, and Castore, all have their own specifications). The challenge is working out how long the shirt lasts so you can buy it big enough.

This works to begin with, but if you go too much bigger than the child quickly ends up heavy in their shirt. Generally going up by one size is the best betthe shirt will go for just over a season. Yet, if the child is between sizes or the kid is going through a growth spurt, always go for the bigger one, as the shirt is going to shrink in the wash.

Which Football Shirt Materials Hold Up Best for Active Kids

Most modern football shirts are made of polyester, again most polyester is recycled, as it is much better at breathing, dries quickly and lasts much better over time than cotton on repeated washing. For a child who will be sweaty after a game and training, or will simply be wearing it to get on with running around, then this is extremely important and So the biggest reason you should not fit a cotton T-shirt instead.

The difference on shirts is in the quality of construction. Higher quality shirts will use mesh panels under the arms and across the back for breathability, flatlock seams that don’t chafe and printed or heat-stamped badges instead of cheap glued-on crests that lift after a handful of washes.

The super-cheap options you’ll see on unofficial websites tend to omit all of these details and that is why they are stiff and begin to crack at the badge so quickly. Washing is where most damage occurs, so the more you can do oneself, the better. Cold, turned inside out, no fabric conditioner, and line dry instead of tumble, as it’s heat that lifts the printed names and numbers and causes breakdown of the synthetic fibres.

Authentic, Replica, or Retro: Which Is Worth the Money

This price difference is huge and is worth knowing before you buy. A new official replica child’s shirt will normally be in the region of £40-75 (or your local currency), an authentic player specification version will be more, and the unofficial copies are a fraction of the cost but come with serious long-term quality and safety issues. Sure, for a child who will only use the shirt for a year’s growth, then paying top dollar for an authentic shirt is almost pointless.

The standard replica is the sensible compromise for most families as it gives the authentic badge, the right materials and the appearance that your child actually wants without the premium performance price. If money is an issue, then the old season’s kit is normally heavily discounted as soon as the new one comes out, and a child neither notices nor couldn’t give a toss whether it’s last seasons shirt or not. Buying the previous seasons shirt is one of the simplest reductions in price you can make without buying an obvious counterfeit.

Retro shirts are a separate consideration and often a lovely option if your child has caught the bug from a parent’s era of supporting the club. The full range of official current and classic Premier League football shirts gives you a sense of how much variety exists between modern kits and reissued classics, and a retro design can be a more distinctive choice than whatever everyone else at school is wearing. Just check that a retro reissue is cut and sized for children rather than being a small adult fit, because those can run long and narrow.

Should You Add a Name and Number, and What to Consider First

Off the peg then, personalisation is what takes a shirt from ‘nice’ to ‘OMG I love it so much I might take a second to wear it in my world’. But what kids ask for more than anything else, is their own name, the players name or their favourite number on the back. Official printing will normally cost around £10 – 20 extra and is heat pressed into the shirt with a nameplate like style of lettering which will last the life of the shirt if treated with gentle hands in the wash. Do it through the official retailer and you get, not only the logo font, but a much better chance of it lasting the wash.

There are a couple of problems to consider first. A player name dates quickly, as footballers change clubs, so a shirt with a current star on the back can seem outdated within a season or two, whereas the child’s own name never is. Personalised shirts are usually non-refundable, so make sure you get the size spot-on first time.

Guest Article.