Old football shirts, how was it to play in them?

[maniak]

Today I was with a lad whose grandfather was a sports journalist and traveled around quite a bit. He showed me some of the shirts he got from people from different clubs and out of curiosity we ended up playing a bit wearing an old shirt, just to see how it felt.

I played for about 15 minutes with a Saint-Etienne shirt from 1967 and I got to say, it was one of the most uncomfortable 15 minutes of my life. It was so hot and the fabric was itchy as hell. I imagine it would be worse in the rain, the shirt would probably get a couple of extra kilos if wet.

I don't know if that was a "winter shirt" and they had a different one for the summer.

I gained a new respect for those guys who had to play in those shirts.

 

[UnitedRepublic]

Today I was with a lad whose grandfather was a sports journalist and traveled around quite a bit. He showed me some of the shirts he got from people from different clubs and out of curiosity we ended up playing a bit wearing an old shirt, just to see how it felt.

I played for about 15 minutes with a Saint-Etienne shirt from 1967 and I got to say, it was one of the most uncomfortable 15 minutes of my life. It was so hot and the fabric was itchy as hell. I imagine it would be worse in the rain, the shirt would probably get a couple of extra kilos if wet.

I don't know if that was a "winter shirt" and they had a different one for the summer.

I gained a new respect for those guys who had to play in those shirts.

They didn't know better back then.

 

[Tacitus56AD]

Ah the good old days, when you really had to earn your minutes out there by sacrificing a good chunk of your nipples on those shirts made from cheese graters.

 

[tentan]

Was it one that the players wore or just a replica one where you buy in shops?

Obviously the ones the players wear are authentic and made out of different material compared to the replica ones that are sold to the fans.

But having said that I don't think 'authentic' kits existed back in the day.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Wait until you see the balls they played with back then

 

[RuudVNistelrooy10]

They didn't know better back then.

This.

I was having a conversation with an old coach who was just telling me about the usual, how heavy the ball was and even more so when it got wet. We've all probably heard that a thousand times from the old timers. I got curious and asked about the kit.

He just said it was just a shirt not much else to it. Nobody knew any better, never could have imagined the technology/research that goes into it these days. It felt totally fine back then noone ever complained about it

 

[maniak]

Was it one that the players wore or just a replica one where you buy in shops?

Obviously the ones the players wear are authentic and made out of different material compared to the replica ones that are sold to the fans.

But having said that I don't think 'authentic' kits existed back in the day.

He got them from people in the staff so I assumed it was the one players used. As you said, I don't think they had different shirts for players and fans.