Man turns vintage football shirt hobby into job

A man has turned his collection of about 15,000 retro football shirts into a full-time business.

Shane Jackson, from Malvern, said the vintage collection at his Historic Football Shirts unit spanned decades, with some memorabilia dating back to the 1960s.

Items in his possession included England shirts from the 1980s, a match-worn shirt from Italia '90 signed by the squad and a shirt worn by Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Steve Bull.

"I started collecting shirts and football memorabilia when I was younger and decided just over 10 years ago to start selling some of my private collection," Jackson explained.

Jackson said there was a "massive market" for the shirts and it had boomed since lockdown, due to a change in the fashion habits of younger generations.

"I overpriced them and if they sold, great, and if they didn't sell then I collected them," he said of the shirts.

"The oldest England shirt we have is this Admiral 1980."

Some personal collections of retro football shirts are now thought to run into thousands of items, with value rising as demand increases.

Jackson said he had also seen an increase in interest in his retro shirts due to the World Cup.

"Based on this time last year, we're about 45-50% up on this time last year," he added.

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