Are Second Division Football Shirts Better Than Those of Elite Clubs?

There's a revolution happening in football shirt culture, and it's not coming from the Anfield, Old Trafford, or The Emirates. 

While Premier League clubs continue to churn out safe designs that need to appeal to millions of global fans, shareholders and are commercially vetted, some of the most creative and collectible shirts are coming from clubs outside of Europe's elite..

Second Division football shirts (and below) , whether that's the Championship, Serie B, La Liga 2, or lower leagues across Europe, are consistently more creative than those of top-flight clubs when it comes to shirt design. 

Now, this isn't always the case as we see many lower-league teams given basic kit templates with a badge and sponsor, but this doesn't mean that there aren't creative things happening across other clubs.

Commercials impacting creativity

The creativity problem starts at the top. Using the Premier League as an example, clubs operate under enormous commercial pressure. When Manchester United or Liverpool release a new kit, they're not just thinking about the 50,000 fans in the stadium, they're thinking about the millions of replica sales in Asia, North America, and the Middle East.

Every design decision goes through multiple rounds of market testing, focus groups, and brand committee approvals.

The result? Not always, but often safe  designs that won't alienate anyone but rarely excite anyone either.

This in particular is seen across clubs' home shirts in the Premier League, where you may see teams every year reproducing somewhat similar designs, with a slight change to the colour, or trim.

Although in Italy and not in the UK, let's compare that to a club like Venezia FC, who spent the 2021-22 season in Serie A after promotion. They partnered with Kappa to produce some of the most stunning and social-media-trendworthy kits in recent memory which looked more like a fashion brand collab than a football kit.

They were then relegated back to Serie B, but continued to create incredible designs, including most recently Nokta kits, rapper Drake's Nike sub-brand, and currently sit on top of Serie B still with some of the most desirable jerseys in football today.

Image credit: Esquire

Creative Freedom in the Lower Leagues

The difference with second-tier clubs is there is less to lose. When you don't have a global fanbase of 200 million, with multiple sponsorship deals, TV deals etc, it gives more freedom to be more playful by design, especially those that aren't necessarily with the big brands such as Nike and adidas.

Again using another example from Europe - St. Pauli in Germany's 2. Bundesliga have built an entire brand around their counter-culture aesthetic. Unconventional colours (brown and white), skull and crossbones logo etc create designs that look part of a streetwear drop.

Image credit: FC St Pauli

The Boutique Kit Maker Difference

Another factor driving superior second division designs is the rise of smaller, specialised kit manufacturers. 

The Premier League, Serie A, La Liga etc's top teams usually have their kits made by Nike or adidas, with Puma also playing a big part in entering that top-tier market.

As mentioned, when these bigger manufacturers develop kits for lower-league teams, you often see templated designs just with a badge or crest update, but for those that choose another option such as a Hummel, Macron, Castore, VX3, Lotto etc, you often start to see the variation in design.

Using examples in the English league pyramid, you can see the creativity come through from Hummel in their Coventry City designs to custom-designed VX3 kits for teams like Hashtag United.

The Cult of the Third Kit

As discussed above, usually we see across the "bigger" teams it's the home shirt where it feels like things are being played sage, but with the away and third shirts, this is where clubs can be a little bit more playful with design.

If we look at this season alone, adidas' trefoil kits across the third shirts for Liverpool in green, Arsenal's white and gold collared number or Juventus' beautiful black kit, even the bigger shirt manufacturers start to have a bit more fun.

These shirts become collector's items precisely because they're unexpected. They're the kind of design that makes you do a double-take, make you want to buy from other clubs around the world and these shirts make it feel like a genuine discovery rather than another algorithmic product recommendation.

Image credit: 90min.com

Building a Collection Beyond the Obvious

The best shirt collections aren't always built solely on predictable big-club releases. Ofcourse you have to have your favourite teams shirts, but collecting shirts becomes more fun when you expand your horizons outside of those elite clubs.

A Venezia shirt tells a better story than your fifth Manchester United home kit. A St. Pauli shirt starts more conversations than another white Real Madrid jersey.

This is why the culture around football shirt collecting has shifted so dramatically in recent years. 

And it's not just lower-league clubs that are pushing the boundaries...

When you explore shirts across the Eredivisie, or across Brazil and Argentina, there are many top-flight clubs putting out incredible designs. Just perhaps there is less red tape around what they can release.

That's why football shirt shopping through Mystery Shirt in a Box is an incredible option for expanding your collection. Shop for mystery football shirts for men, or even our kids mystery football shirt box.