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Sustainability

‘Every Shirt Has a Story’: The Designers Saving Football Kits From Landfill

The increasing popularity of retro football kits has helped to ease the flow of polyester garments to landfill sites.
AC Milan partnered with Paris-based label Koché on a collection made from upcycled jerseys.
Many designers are upcycling old football kits. (AC Milan)
By
BoF PROFESSIONAL

It may have been a quiet January transfer window, but even so, thousands of new shirts will be printed for Lucas Paquetá, returning to his former Brazilian club Flamengo, while his West Ham shirt instantly feels old. Not to mention the thousands of other players moving from one club to another. Uefa estimates that up to 60 percent of kits worn by players are destroyed at the end of the season, and at any one time there are thought to be more than 1 billion football shirts in circulation, many of which are discarded by fans once players leave.

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Further Reading

Shein, Nike and Fashion’s Widening Sustainability Gap

Copenhagen Fashion Week’s 20th edition offered promise in pushing fashion’s sustainability agenda from within, defying the wider industry's pullback from the cause. But with fashion’s decarbonisation trajectory offtrack, Shein’s questionable climate targets, paired with labour abuse in Nike and Prada’s supply chains, there’s still a long way to go.

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