Soccer and fashion: Blurring the line between sportswear, streetwear and luxury culture

On a sweltering New York City summer afternoon a few years ago, I stumbled across a store I never expected to see tucked into a busy SoHo block. A few doors down from some of menswear’s most popular names, from the environmentally conscious utilitarian label Maharishi to Drake’s modern British tailoring and cult Japanese selvedge denim retailer Blue in Green, sat Classic Football Shirts, the online retailer that has become one of the world’s most popular destinations for vintage soccer jerseys. It was slightly removed from SoHo’s glossy luxury corridor, but its arrival still felt symbolic.

>Football fashion had officially landed in one of the most style-conscious neighborhoods in New York City.

>That day, I walked out with a vintage pink Palermo FC kit from 1991. I wore it all summer while traveling across Europe and got stopped constantly by strangers sharing compliments as if I was carrying a luxury item like my Balenciaga City Bag instead.

>This is hardly the first moment sportswear has crossed into fashion. Long before luxury fashion houses learned how to sell hoodies for $900, basketball jerseys and oversized sportswear had already become staples of street style and Black fashion culture. Athletes like Dennis Rodman, Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo), Gail Devers and Lisa Leslie were style icons long before fashion executives caught on, and jerseys carried cultural currency far beyond the game itself.

>But soccer? Not so much. Those shiny, boxy polyester jerseys occupied a different universe entirely. They were tribal. Meant for the stands, pubs and often hung on walls. You wore them to represent your club, your country, your neighborhood. Ideally while getting beer spilled on you in celebration (or mourning) in a dive bar near your home stadium.

>Soccer was too earnest for fashion. Too sweaty. Too working class. Too obsessed with belonging rather than aesthetics.

>Until, it wasn’t.

>When Kim Kardashian was spotted wearing a vintage AS Roma jersey in 2023, the fashion world briefly lost its mind and soccer jerseys officially crossed over from stadium culture into mainstream style obsession. From repurposed vintage kits to hand-embroidered designs, soccer aesthetics have become one of fashion’s latest fixations, blurring the line between sportswear, streetwear and luxury culture.

>Much of that shift has coincided with the cultural rise of women’s soccer, where fashion, identity and fandom have intersected in ways the men’s game never fully embraced. But it would be impossible to ignore the impact of the 2026 World Cup on home soil. With the tournament fast approaching, designers are increasingly leaning into soccer-inspired fashion, recognizing both the sport’s growing cultural relevance and the commercial opportunity that comes with it.

>“When I was a kid, you will always see the homies wearing a Jordan jersey, or their favorite Wizards players’ jerseys, they were part of everyday style long before luxury fashion caught onto it,” Domo Wells, designer and creative director of Washington Spirit, told The Athletic over Zoom from her Los Angeles home.

>“Soccer jerseys now fit into that same space, but on a much bigger scale because the sport is global.”

>Unlike basketball or football, which are largely centered around American teams and athletes, soccer offers an endless world of kits, colors and cultural references from clubs everywhere.

>“That’s what makes it so exciting creatively. People are not just wearing jerseys anymore. They’re customizing them, cutting them up, styling them differently and turning them into something personal. The jersey becomes less about fandom and more about identity and self-expression,” she said.

>Wells’ latest collection for the Washington Spirit, particularly the track jacket, one of football culture’s most enduring staples, was inspired by a deep dive into 1990s streetwear culture and reruns of the sitcom Martin. Now based in Los Angeles, she said she has been drawn to the practicality and style of track jackets, which influenced her approach to the design. The goal, she explained, was to create something that reflected the Spirit’s identity while still feeling fashionable enough to wear beyond matchday.

>“I’m not just designing for hardcore fans,” she explained. Through her Dead Dirt brand, Wells has created a retro-inspired NWSL collection that transcends club loyalty, the kind of shirts you’d want to wear whether or not you support the team.

>“I want someone with zero awareness of the Washington Spirit to see it and think, ‘That’s fire,’ and buy it anyway.”

>That mindset captures the broader shift happening at the intersection of football and fashion. Jerseys are increasingly being treated as lifestyle pieces meant to exist far beyond the stadium. The target audience is no longer just season-ticket holders or ultras, but consumers who may never watch a full 90 minutes and still want the shirt because it looks good.

>

The NWSL and Dead Dirt’s knit game is hard. pic.twitter.com/pC2ndwvl6Q

>— VERSUS (@vsrsus) January 23, 2026

>

>Fashion brands have quickly recognized soccer’s commercial and cultural power. From Brazilian fashion house Farm Rio to Aimé Leon Dore, the Queens-based fashion powerhouse, to H&M collaborating with Italian sportswear giant Lotto, companies are embracing football aesthetics to tap into a younger audience that sees jerseys less as sports merchandise and more as streetwear staples.

>For brands, the trend represents a lucrative opportunity. With authentic jerseys from Nike, adidas and Puma often selling for $80 to $150, soccer apparel has evolved far beyond matchday merchandise. The global soccer jersey market was valued at $87.5 billion in 2024 and is expected to approach $140 billion by 2034, according to market research estimates. What was once sportswear is increasingly being worn as streetwear, giving manufacturers a growing audience that extends well beyond traditional fans. Designing for non-fans dramatically expands the customer base.

>Take Diana Al Shammari, aka The Football Gal. Since 2017, Al Shammari has been transforming football kits into wearable art through embroidery and customization.

>“What drew me to football shirts was the sense of identity that they bring and seeing one group of fans wearing one kit reinforces that,” she explains on her website. “The reason I decided to customize and embellish them was to showcase that within groups, people have their own identities and individualities as well.”

>Her handmade jerseys have been worn by some of sports’ top athletes including Barcelona and France defender Jules Koundé, F1 Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Last winter she made a bomber jacket which took the catwalk by storm at the first fashion showcase during the Milano Cortina Olympic Games. The jacket, which took over 60 hours to complete, was a “true labor of love,” she says. “This is a piece where sport meets art and fashion,” she explained over an Instagram post. She is currently not taking any commissions, but her her waitlist is open for when she has time to customize new ones.

>

🌷 Le printemps, un maillot third @hummelFrance, des broderies de toute beauté… Et un bijou signé @TheFootballGal_ ! ✨

>L’AS Saint-Étienne est heureuse d’être le premier club français à collaborer avec l’artiste Diana Al Shammari, qui mêle broderies délicates et football.… pic.twitter.com/LVVQft4SCn

>— AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) March 29, 2026

>Today, not only are her embroidered jerseys in high demand, but her custom soccer cleats are having a moment of their own.

>Al Shammari’s breakthrough moment came with adidas’ Predator collaboration last year, when she was invited to reinterpret one of football’s most iconic boots through her own creative lens. Inspired by Spanish football culture and the carnation flower, the design reflected the broader shift happening inside the sport: football aesthetics are no longer confined to matchday. They now exist in luxury fashion campaigns, celebrity streetwear and youth culture globally.

>Al Shammari is far from alone in reimagining football gear as fashion.

>“Sports and fashion have come together and collaborate in ways more than we’ve ever seen before,” Crystal Dunn, the former USWNT and Gotham FC midfielder, told The Athletic. Dunn, a self-described fashion enthusiast who has attended New York Fashion Week shows in the past, recently stepped onto the runway herself carrying the Tunnel Walk Bag, a cleat-shaped clutch bag designed by Andrea Bergart for Haleon’s For The Assist campaign.

>For Dunn, the appeal lies in creators willing to challenge the predictable aesthetics long associated with sportswear.

>“I am most captivated by designers that step outside the box and are super creative,” she said. “People who are okay going against the grain instead of sticking to what’s considered normal.”

>That mindset increasingly defines modern football fashion. Cleats are no longer just performance equipment and jerseys are no longer reserved for matchday. They have become extensions of identity, creativity and personal style, worn as confidently at Fashion Week or on city streets as they are inside stadiums.

>That’s why this summer, I’ll be rotating my modest jersey collection around town. And if I can somehow make it off her waiting list, maybe one of them will even get the embroidered by The Football Gal.

>Consider this my descent into high brow blokecore.

>This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

>Washington Spirit, NWSL, Sports Business, Women's Soccer, Culture

>2026 The Athletic Media Company