“That was a real shock! I mean, it's certainly not Shakespeare, but the interest in it it's amazing. I think it's the right book at the right time. People really love to see football shirts, and I felt I came at it from a different angle. Football is about people, and I didn't feel like the people side of the football shirt collecting industry had been told. But, yeah, it was an amazing surprise, it's nice to have been recognized,” a very happy John Blair tells Tribalfootball.
We catch him on a video-call from his adopted home in the US where winter has descended upon his town to talk about his popular book. We do so, just as his book, “A Culture of Kits – the definitive guide to classic football shirt collecting”, has been awarded the William Hill Sportsbook front cover of the Year, and while it might not be Shakespeare it is nevertheless an extremely well-written ode to an ever growing subculture of football.
Working in private equity with asset and wealth management it is perhaps slightly surprising seeing someone like John Blair take such a keen interest in kits but the explanation is obvious.
“I've been collecting shirts for 30 years and in the book, there is an element of looking at the numbers and the costs of shirts and inflation. There was a natural kind of intersection for me there to try and bring those two things together.
“The shirt interest definitely started first, but the thing that really prompted me to write the book was that I was curious as to why some of the shirts from the 90s were worth hundreds, if not thousands of pounds and others were close to worthless. What are the data points that really drive up the value of a shirt? And then if you can figure out the framework around that, does that mean that you can predict future classics and understand where the market's going,” John Blair explains as the premise of the book in which he’s detailed what he calls the “9 Pillars” of how to define the success of a football shirt.
“My notion about this was that the design of a shirt was a little overemphasized because there are some amazing designs out there, but the teams have been relegated and these kits haven't increased in value. People don't have the desire to pick them up. Football is about moments. It's about goals. It's about players and we all have the same moments.
“We create the same nostalgia around those goals. That really increases the demand side. Think of the Marco van Basten Holland-shirt from 1988 when he scores that goal. That kit is in really high demand and at the moment trades for over a thousand pounds, roughly, for the replica shirt.
“Player association is a big one in driving up the value of a shirt. Roberto Baggio's time at Brescia, those kits are really expensive and hard to come by. There’s Zola at Chelsea, Asprilla at Newcastle, kits that have that kind of player name on the back tend to be about 40% higher in price than those that don't,” explains the Scotsman who has a few favourite shirts himself.
A collection of 500 shirts
“I'm certainly a kid of the 90s and Italian football in the 90s was huge in the UK. Those shirts from Inter Milan, the Fiorentina’s with the Nintendo sponsor, the original Ronaldo, a lot of the Juventus kits. I tend to gravitate towards those but I feel I give a different answer every time,” Blair laughs before admitting one shirt in particular holds a favourite spot in his heart, pulling out the legendary black Manchester United top with Eric Cantona’s name on the back from the rack behind him.
“I do really love it. It is the first black kit ever worn in the Premier League. Referees changed color in ‘95 making black available. It has this bright yellow print set with the manufacturer badge and then obviously it is culturally important,” Blair says, referring to when Cantona kicked the living daylights out of a fan in the stands at Selhurst Park when wearing the black shirt.
John Blair’s personal collection of shirts he estimates to be around 500, give or take, and seems to have struck gold on the personal front as well. His wife actually doesn’t think he’s bonkers!
“She comes from a footballing family who are all Sunderland fans, season-ticket holders and all up there in the northeast so she's embraced the soccer mom role,” grins the man who still keeps an eye out for the results for his local club Elgin City in the Scottish League Two.
The two most priced assets in his own collection come from England and Italy, though.
“I've got a signed Manchester United FA Cup final shirt with the likes of Ronaldo (the Portuguese, ed.), Rooney, Van Nistelrooy and Sir Alex Ferguson. I've never actually had it valued, but I'd imagine that one's probably worth a decent amount. In terms of the most I've ever spent on a shirt it's the UEFA Cup winning shirt for Inter Milan in 1998, the Ronaldo (the Brazilian, ed.) era”, says Blair, estimating it will set you back around 500-600£ these days to get hold of a shirt which cost “probably 40 pounds back in the day.”
John Blair is already working on a follow-up to “A Culture of Kits” which is available at assorted book-shops, at the Pitch Publishing website or right here.
John Blair’s 9 Pillars to what drives up the value of a shirt:
1: Success on the pitch
2: Player association
3: Design
4: Sponsorship
5: Controversy
6: Nostalgia
7: Milestone
8: Scarcity
9: Size of the fan base
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