Image source, Getty Images
It’s summer (honestly) and England and Scotland are competing in Euro 2024 starting on Friday, so you’re bound to see replica football shirts everywhere you go as two nations get swept up in the excitement.
But, with official kits costing more than £100, the popularity of cheaper, counterfeit strips is on the rise.
While the issue has been around for years, BBC Sport has looked into it.
Is it legal?
In the UK it is illegal to sell fake replica shirts.
Lisa Webb, from consumer organisation Which?, told BBC Breakfast: “It’s illegal to sell these items in this country so buying anything that is counterfeit means you are buying from a criminal.
“It is incredibly temping to buy counterfeit products purely because of how cheap they often are but to do so you could be very well funding crime like terrorism or slavery.”
Image source, Getty Images
How much do they cost?
An official replica England ‘dri fit’ home shirt for adults, manufactured by Nike, costs £124.99 on their official website while the kids’ version is £119.99 and the ‘home stadium’ shirt for children is £64.99. The men’s ‘dri fit’ away top sells for £84.99.
The counterfeit children’s shirts on offer on one online store can be bought for between £4-£14.
Scotland’s official home top, made by Adidas, retails for £75 but a counterfeit one can be bought on some websites for as little as £13.17.
Trade in counterfeit strips costs Nike £2.8bn in lost revenue every year, according to research by Futurum Asia.
Football supporter Dan told the BBC’s You and Yours: “I can get shirts for all four of my children for the cost one shirt legitimately. There are children who are demanding and parents are under a lot of pressure, I’m fortunate to be in a position where I can afford the copies.
“There are people now who unfortunately are struggling to afford those because money is so tight. I know people who would have bought the real thing before.”
Rise in popularity
Founder of football lifestyle magazine Mundial, Seb White, also told the BBC that the desire to be ‘on trend’ has helped raise the popularity of having the latest shirt.
He said: “There is so much money around football, the demand and hype around football and football shirts. Shirts are being seen on fashion catwalks, members of the houses of parliament are wearing them in parliament.
“Shirts are in such demand they can almost get away with the high price and, also, people will pay it because they want to be seen in the latest thing.
“Kids and people put pressure on their parents because they want the latest thing, at the moment the latest thing seems to be the latest football shirt.”