Of suede fringe from Colorado caribou to yellow and green stripes of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the North American Soccer League is responsible for some of the most iconic kit designs in American soccer history.
The once-forgotten league, which operated from 1967 to 1984, has seen something of a revival in recent years. Lionel Messi’s presence in MLS prompted some to delve into the archives of American soccer, exploring a league that had its own litany of superstars: Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and many others. While Messi appears for Inter Miami in something approximating a pink T-shirt, these other legends have plied their trade in the technicolor palette of the 70s and 80s, kits that make the aesthetic ‘clean’ Today’s downright boring.
The renewed interest in the NASL as a whole has caused collectors and casual fans to seek out memorabilia related to the league, with a particular emphasis on game-worn or team-issued jerseys. The value of game-worn kits has skyrocketed in recent years, with verifiable, authentic jerseys from anonymous players previously costing hundreds of dollars sometimes selling for thousands. Jerseys worn by league legends are now reaching five figures.
Maybe for the first time, there’s money to be made collecting NASL memorabilia. And that demand has created a sizable bootleg market for NASL shirts, something that seemed unthinkable a decade ago. eBay, for example, is full of fake NASL kits, many claiming to be “game worn” or “team issued.” Some of them are quite compelling, at least to the casual observer. Others are more obviously fraudulent, but all seem to sell.
It’s a phenomenon that Mark Stein knows intimately. The 58-year-old has been collecting NASL jerseys for as long as he can remember, an obsession that began in the late ’70s when he was a locker room assistant for the NASL’s Chicago Sting. Forty years later, Stein has assembled what is probably the largest collection of authentic NASL jerseys in the world, with some 450 jerseys and 30 warm-ups. The photos in his collection look like something close to pornography to anyone in the American football collectibles space. Almost every desirable name and shirt is there, and they’re all real.
Stein’s role in the Sting locker room often involved laundering uniforms and interacting with the visiting teams’ equipment staff, giving him a relatively easy line to add to his collection. It also gave him an intimate and in-depth knowledge of a very particular subject.
“In the early ’80s, when I started collecting, I knew exactly what the fabrics were, what the prints were, what the embroidery was, what the twill materials were,” Stein said. Athleticism. “By washing them, I also know what detergents were used. I know what a 40 year old jersey must smell like or feel like. What’s happening, because these items have become so valuable, is that individuals and companies are producing items and passing them off as “game-used” items, not just in-game items. , but even as “team-issued” items. saying they were handed out by a coach, equipment manager or other.
A recent sale on eBay is a good example. The seller, whose username is “viva-cana,” has long sold shirts on eBay, often claiming them to be “authentic.” The jersey is a unique jersey used by the New York Cosmos in a 1984 exhibition match, a “homecoming match” featuring club legends, including Pele, lining up against the Cosmos themselves of 1984. The back of the jersey bears the number 8, worn by attacking midfielder Rivelino, a key player on Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team and a member of the Cosmos in the late 1970s.
This particular eBay user recently adjusted the language of their listings, from “authentic” to “vintage” and “pre-worn.” In the listing for this particular Cosmos jersey, it includes a grainy photo of Rivelino wearing the jersey and a roster for the game that day, inclusions that seem to suggest the jersey could be worn in matches.
Things are off to a strong start for the jersey. It has the correct weight and construction. The collar layout is correct and this is clearly a genuine vintage Adidas shirt from the era. The label on the collar is also correct in terms of what should be on a shirt of the period and matches other known examples of this 1984 exhibition kit. The iconic Adidas ‘Trefoil’ logo, which also looks okay and shows wear that would be consistent with a 40 year old shirt.
However, things quickly go off the rails when you look at the Cosmos logo on the front of the shirt and the name and number on the back of it. While the Adidas logo shows wear, the Cosmos name, numbers and crest are all very clearly recently applied, in a bright white color, with no visible wear. The ink used in the transfer is also modern compared to an actual match worn shirt from the era. The shirt is a fake – a vintage Adidas shirt modified to look like the jersey from the homecoming game.
For Stein, it brings back memories of a time when he was deceived. He had spotted a jersey that an eBay seller claimed was worn by the Minnesota Kicks and the goalie for Canada’s men’s national team. Tino “The Birdman” Lettieria player who is perhaps best known for tying a stuffed parrot to his goal before every match.
“The jersey looked good on me,” Stein said. “Thanks to photo matching, the same colors, logo style and numbering looked similar. I bought this thing, got it, and it arrived at my house. As soon as I took it out of the packaging, I realized it was fake. The material was different from what Adidas used at the time. The inks used were newplastisol“inks that didn’t exist 40 years ago.”
The story of the Cosmos throwback shirt becomes even more complicated when looking at a similar sale. A few years ago, a Beckenbauer jersey from the match hit the market. The neck label on this shirt is a little different than the one on the Rivelino shirt purchased on eBay. It doesn’t say “made in USA”, for example. The placement of the Adidas logo relative to the crest on the opposite side of the jersey is also different, with the two being almost equal (instead of offset, as is the case on the Rivelino and Pelé jerseys.)
“This item was part of the team’s game offer,” says the listing for the Beckenbauer jersey, which will sell for around $1,000 in 2023. “It was made available to players on game day and has special features which differentiate it from the products found. on general sale. No guarantee can be given that this item was worn by a player for the match, although it is possible that it was used and then washed after the match.
Even that description only complicates things. Was it distributed for promotional purposes? Was the Beckenbauer jersey perhaps one of several cheaper examples given to the player to provide to fans, opposing players or anyone else wanting to get their hands on a jersey? More than any other team, the Cosmos frequently manufactured copies of their jerseys, both authentic and replicas.
Former Cosmos equipment manager Charlie Martinelli knows this better than anyone. He and his wife Terry managed all of the Cosmos’ kits from the team’s inception in 1974 until his departure in 1978. He was there during Pele’s heyday, when the Cosmos became a world power. He remembers making dozens of Pelé jerseys for virtually every game the team played. He distributed them to opposing players, celebrities, team administrators. Everyone wanted a piece.
Generally speaking, however, this was not the case on most other NASL teams. Players often went entire seasons with only a handful of kits and were fined for donating their jerseys. Shirts torn during games were often mended, not thrown away. The number of truly “match worn” shirts placed on the market is small. Think Caribou shirts, the ones with suede fringe that so often end up on “ugliest football kit ever” lists. Each player on this team received a home jersey and an away jersey for the entire year. This means that there are actually only around 40 “match-worn” caribou kits in existence. When they hit the market, they inevitably bought thousands of them.
However, some counterfeits are easier to spot than others. As of this writing, there are half a dozen NASL shirts on eBay alone that claim to be “authentic,” like this George Best San Jose Quakes jersey, which the seller says is “officially licensed” and “rare.” The jersey is also missing the neck label and the lettering on the back does not have a drop shadow, as the club’s official jerseys did that year. Fake.
Another listing from the same seller makes similar claims, despite the fact that the Quakes jersey they are listing is made by Nike, which has never made jerseys for the Earthquakes, which has used Adidas for all of its equipment from from 1976 (except for one). year the entire NASL used Admiral for its uniforms.)
“There’s a ton of undead Adidas products,” Stein said. “And people will just buy these old blank shirts and make these jerseys. It used to be complicated, but now anyone can do it. There are at-home devices for creating transfers, decals and digital prints. If you have a good artist, they can recreate almost anything. I know people who produce stuff in their garages. As long as you have decent artwork, you can make it look real.
It’s worth noting that there are many shirts on eBay that don’t claim to be authentic at all, and obviously that’s fine. If a seller would like to make a “tribute” shirt, they are welcome to do so. Here is a great example, a 1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies jersey clearly advertised as a replica or throwback. It’s quite well done too. It won’t fool the trained eye, but if a fan just wants to sport their childhood team colors, it’s a nice fit – and a lot cheaper than risking it on a real jersey, too.
(Top photo: George Tiedemann/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)