Nike Authentic Jersey Check

[Barbro Faries]

Well be using pictures of real and fake elements on a football shirt to help us as we dig deeper into the subject. These pictures have been provided by various members of the community, so many thanks in advance to those who have contributed to this discussion!

On the left, we have a swoosh from a recent player issue Nike shirt. Despite the camera angle making the tick look a little chunky, you can see the similarities between this and a swoosh from an older replica Nike shirt from the mid 00s (right). Crucially, the edges of both are sharp despite the different application methods and materials used.

The two swooshes below are examples of passable Nike logos. At first glance or from a distance, you could easily assume these were real, and if I saw these pictures on an eBay listing I would need to see other areas of the shirt to be certain whether I was looking at a real or fake kit.

Modern Nike shirts will usually have some sort of authenticity tag (also called a jock tag) at the bottom right of their shirts. The style of this has changed over time, including the recent introduction of a round patch for some Nike shirts, but each tag will have some sort of long combination of letters and numbers.

The quality of fake authenticity tags seems to be particularly high in comparison to other areas of fake kits, but the codes themselves are a good indicator. Product code searching is typically a bit more straightforward from experience, but add a jock tag check to your process for extra piece of mind.

NOTE: Since this article was published, a number of people have got in touch to say they've received genuine Nike shirts with tags attached the collar. As such this is no longer a consistent sign of a fake, but it is still worth comparing pictures when researching if a particular shirt is fake or not.

As Head of Content, Phil is the creative playmaker of the team, covering every angle of football shirt news in our blogs and weekly Newsletter. Whether it's telling your fakes from your authentics, or deep dives into the newest football shirts designs, Phil will have all your football shirt content needs covered.

In case you missed it yesterday, my Uni Watch Premium article on Substack this week is an interview with David Crabtree, founder of the great ice-design database website TheFaceoff.net, which documents the history of hockey ice graphics, including center-ice logos, red lines, and more.

Again weird comments. Just look at the NBA jerseys for what the perforated numbers are like. They are simply more flexible. They appear solid from anything further than a couple of feet. Again, just weird to complain about authentic jerseys and functional elements.

The most notable difference between an authentic and knockoff NFL jersey is the NFL logo on the front of the neckline. Nike purposely made this patch with a rubber material that is difficult to copy, and it seems as if no knockoff has been able to replicate it. Before you look any further at a prospective jersey, look at this tag. Knockoff jerseys will likely have a cloth NFL logo sewn onto the front of the neckline or some sort of vinyl. If it is not made of a thin rubber, it is not a Nike authentic jersey.

Jersey sizes are printed inside the neckline on the back of authentic jerseys. Rather than having a tag that could rub up against your neck, Nike decided to place the sizing on the collar itself. Depending on what jersey you are after, sizing will either be printed or stitched directed on the collar.

The Nike price tag attached to current authentic NFL jerseys is another easy way to spot a knockoff. All Nike NFL jersey tags look the same. The tag has a black shell and a picture of a football field on the inside. If it has a different tag, then the jersey is a knockoff.

Saving money by purchasing a knockoff may be your style, but you will be surrendering some key physical features, making it more likely that you will stand out in a crowd. Be wary when searching for jerseys on marketplaces and be sure to do your research before making any purchases.

As the popularity of classic football shirts from past seasons increased so has the number of fake shirts with websites such as eBay, Etsy and Depop flooded with fakes.

Even some independent websites choose to sell counterfeit items over the real thing, and so it's important to know what to look for when buying authentic retro football shirts.

Since the early 2000s onwards some manufactures started adding product codes or MPNs (Manufacturer Part Numbers) under the inside wash labels to clearly identify official, authentic shirts.

The location of the wash labels also vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and the product codes are not always easy to identify amongst the different numbers on the labels.

This is why we created this guide, to help our customers identify the product codes for each major brand.

Although Umbro shirts from the early 2000s may have a number on the inside or underneath the wash labels, this number is not necessarily a unique product code used to verify the authenticity of that shirt for that particular season.

In the example below, the label inside the collar is a size label, with no product code to verify this shirt is an original from this year.

If you are unable to clarify if the shirt is real using the above methods then check the quality of the inside stitching. Official merchandise will have higher levels of quality control and will not let poor quality stitching pass. Fake football shirts often have poor quality stitching and general features. This includes a poor stitching or misshapen badges.

You must still be careful when comparing the features of one shirt to another as there are instances when the same shirt can have different features.

Sometimes when a shirt covers several years an earlier version of the shirt may have a different label or size guide inside the collar to the same shirt in the last year of the shirt.

For example, if you were to compare the Barcelona 1999-00 Centenary home shirt with a trusted source you may find the same shirt with two different size guides.

In 1999 Nike used an orange Nike tick at the top of the size guide for the centenary shirt.

Modern remakes or modern reproductions refer to modern day recreations of old classic shirts. These are not genuine merchandise created by the official licensed manufactures such as Nike, Adidas, Umbro and so on.

Fake football shirts are counterfeit items. They are often poor quality due to the lack of quality control. The inside stitching of these shirts is often poor and the material cheaper, less durable and poorly made.

Player issue shirts used to be unavailable for purchase by the general public, as there were only issued to the clubs themselves. However, in recent years manufacturers like Nike, Adidas and Puma have started releasing the player issue shirts to the general public alongside their usual official replica shirts.

Player issue shirts have higher-specification details than standard replica shirts, often made from lighter materials with a tighter fit, heat transferred plastic features, badges and smaller print sizes.

Match issue items are those issued to players to wear in competitive matches.

These are the highest specification shirts, sometimes even worn by the players themselves, known as 'Match Worn' shirts which have either been donated to charity or handed out to friends, fans or collectors.

Original, genuine football shirts are very hard to find. These shirts are no longer manufactured but find themselves in circulation for decades to come.

As more time passes, the number of second-hand football shirts in circulation becomes less and less, and these shirts become harder and harder to find. As the years pass, so does the value of these shirts as they become rare collectors items.

The price of the football shirt is determined by supply and demand, the demand for vintage football shirts these days is high, yet the supply of these shirts is low as quality football shirts get snapped up fast.

This means the older the shirt, the more expensive that shirt becomes. Popular shirts from past seasons become incredibly rare, increasing the value of those rare collector items.

More recent year shirts are more accessible, and so the value of these shirts is lower in the short term.

Although prices depend on the availability of these shirts, the size, condition, if there is a player name or the popularity of the shirts from these seasons.

For collectors it makes sense to buy the real thing, but also the value of original football shirts from past seasons will also go up as these shirts are no longer manufactured, especially shirts from memorable seasons.

For any questions on the above please don't hesitate to get in contact via live chat, email (sup...@classicfootballkit.co.uk) or through the contact us page.

Return to the homepage here or browse our full range of original, authentic football shirts here.

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For some of the jerseys in our lineup, you'll find that every single letter is stitched onto the front, with the player's name and number stitched onto the back too - making it as real as it gets! But hold up, for some other jerseys, we only got the front letters stitched on. You might be thinking, "Why's that?"

Here's the deal: sometimes players get traded, and we don't want to be tossing perfectly good jerseys just because of a roster shake-up. So, we got a bit crafty! The names and numbers on the back are stitched together first, and then they're heat-pressed onto the jersey. This way, we keep things fresh and flexible!

Want the nitty-gritty details on how it's all done? Check out the 'DETAILS' section on each authentic jersey's page.

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