I’m a sucker for a soccer shirt. Sacrilege, I’m told by footy fan friends, but I’m a woman of the cloth and fashion is my faith.
Naturally, I show allegiance to the teams I support (even if that support is somewhat hypothetical), take Liverpool or France as examples. I’m there in spirit and in uniform.
I did recently embarrass myself, however, in a conversation which went something along the lines of: “Sick tee, is that a France shirt?” “Yeh.” “What year is it from?” “2001.” This was wrong, apparently. A testament to how little I know about football. (Did I research it? No. Am I relying solely on the information exchanged during the flea market transaction? Yes.) “There wasn’t a World Cup in 2001.” In my defence, I did hesitate.
Where I might not be a superfan, others are and the sheer influence football has in mainstream culture is almighty.
Back to football shirts, a very technical affair.
A football shirt needs to be lightweight, thin and strong. It needs to be hydrophobic, allowing it to ‘wick’ or repel water (sweat or rain). Due to its molecular structure, polymer fibres – such as polyester – are all of the above. Fibres can move water away from the skin to the shirts’ exterior for evaporation, without absorbing it as cotton might, allowing for control over the body’s temperature. Polyester is also cheap which is always a plus. So, as it currently stands, synthetic polymers like polyester are most commonly used for sports apparel.
This is all good, well and arguably unavoidable. But, in 2021, Bayern Munich sold 3,250,000 shirts; Real Madrid, 3,050,000 and Liverpool (oi oi), 2,450,000. Millions of football shirts and fan jerseys are sold each year – meaning, millions of non-biodegradable polyester shirts, made from energetically expensive, non-renewable, petrochemical-heavy processes, are sold each year. All the best things are bad for us.
Today, entire teams of innovative designers and material scientists are dedicated to the development of technical materials and sustainable or circular solutions to the polyester problem. But, until breakthrough, polyester remains fundamental in football.
It’s not all doom n’ gloom and sports apparel corporations are making waves in terms of innovative alternatives that’ll lessen the impact. Nike recently introduced its recycled material scheme ‘Forward’ as part of its Move to Zero meanwhile Adidas collaborated with Parley for the Oceans to create a line of sportswear incorporating waste plastic collected from oceans and beaches.
Earlier this year, Puma, which previously worked with recycled PET bottles, upscaled its use of recycled materials, introducing its new programme Re:Fibre.
The Re:Fibre programme focuses on polyester textile waste. Re:Fibre garments are made from 95% (at least) recycled polyester, collected from donation bins situated at partner clubs: Manchester City in the UK, Borussia Dortmund in Germany, AC Milan in Italy and Olympique De Marseille in France. Puma only accepts disused, washed, branded sportswear made from 100% polyester for recycling. Working with external sorting partner I:Co, Puma collects, shreds, mixes, dissolves, filters, polymerises, melts, spins, knits and sews old sportswear into new. The brand hopes to increase its overall usage of recycled polyester to 75% by 2025.
Having exclusively developed kits for the Swiss Women’s football team, Puma has recently designed Switzerland’s fan shirt for the Women’s World Cup next month (which I will be watching). And, in a national red with tonal graphics representing the Swiss Alps, it’s made from Re:Fibre recycled polyester.
Aside from buying second hand, choices for more sustainable football shopping were at a minimum and a fan shirt made from recycled polyester is definitely a first. Pretty cool. A sporting apparel industry that is circular? That’s the goal! So let football shirts made from recycled fibres set the precedent.