Our Story
It all started in the summer of 2006. We should have been revising for our final exams, but with the World Cup on the horizon we had other priorities — namely searching for an original 1990 West Germany shirt.
Growing up, we had both been obsessed with collecting new kits. But to our surprise, sourcing a classic proved difficult. That frustration quickly turned into curiosity, and we started wondering how many other fans with a taste for nostalgia had faced the same problem.
That moment sparked an idea. What if there was a place dedicated to authentic vintage football shirts — a place where fans could easily find the kits they grew up loving?
So, in a small apartment in Manchester, two friends — Daniel Carter and Liam Brooks — decided to turn that idea into reality.
And just like that, Heritage Football Kits was born.
The Early Days
Our goal was simple — to create a place where football fans could discover rare and unique shirts while exploring the history behind their favourite teams and players.
In the months that followed, despite being told by friends and family to go and find a “proper job”, we decided to take a chance. We started buying as many shirts as we could, slowly filling a small student apartment with racks of vintage kits. Eventually, in August 2006, we launched our first website and opened the doors to what would become Heritage Football Kits.
Back then, social media didn’t exist to help spread the word. In the beginning it was slow going. We managed to scrape together just enough money to place small advertisements in a couple of popular football magazines. Fortunately, it worked. Slowly but surely, passionate fans began discovering the site. Those early supporters became our first loyal customers — without them, the journey might have ended before it really began.
One of a Kind
With a solid foundation we finally moved into our first office space in the city centre in 2008, and not long after launched a new clearance category which featured items from brands such as Lotto and Joma. Our mantra became, ‘Who wouldn’t want a pink Palermo shirt for £12.99!’ as we redefined our vision of the business to try and offer something for everyone.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing. One afternoon in 2009 we received complaints from a five-a-side team who had purchased Palermo kits, only to arrive at their game and find their opponents sporting the same all pink attire. It became a bit of an obsession in the years that followed to spot people wearing the various weird & wonderful ranges we stocked, or to imagine someone walking around Beijing in a Shrewsbury shirt, or Rio De Janeiro in a Rochdale training top!
AC Milan
Despite some relative success, nothing could prepare us for what came next. There were rumours AC Milan had a warehouse with over 15 years of player stock, and when the rumour became a reality we were overloaded with 30,000 items ranging from Shevchenko’s match worn shirt to David Beckham’s underpants. The size of the delivery demanded a bigger space, and we rolled the dice renting a warehouse ironically situated next door to the Etihad stadium.
Early talk of an indoor 5-a-side pitch quickly subsided as we set about working with a number of clubs and brands, and by 2015, to the amazement of friends and family (who were still telling us to get a real job) needed a mezzanine floor to handle new deliveries. Word spread around social media too as fans began sending us pictures of their orders with Valencia flip-flops, Napoli training bibs, Dynamo Kiev player issue shirts firm favourites.
The end of 2023 saw our Pop-up stores head over the pond – our tour of the US saw us land in LA, Miami ending in New York. Our LA trip welcomed Giorgio Chiellini in for a meet and greet with our customers, and we were we able to supply the Italy legend with a shirt of one of his idols, Roy Keane in a shirt shopping video. It was an incredible experience sharing our passion for shirts over in the US, so far from the student house we started in.
Our friends and families are by now almost certainly sick of us talking about football shirts. Seventeen years on from those fateful summer nights listing products in a computer cluster at Owens Park student halls we can appreciate it’s been quite a journey, and one that’s only served to ignite our passion further. We couldn’t do this without the support of our amazing workforce, and of course that of our customers. Whether you’ve bought a Napoli figurine, a Loja Prawn shirt or a mint condition Holland 88′, thank you.