Updated: 2025/26 Season Price Trends

• For the 2025/26 campaign, 13 out of 20 Premier League clubs have raised prices on either adult or junior replica kits compared to last season.
• Leading the pack is Everton, who hiked both adult and junior shirt prices by a combined £15 — the biggest single-year jump in the league.
• 7 clubs now charge £85 for their adult shirt — the Premier League’s highest base price: Arsenal, Man United, Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Fulham, are joining Tottenham and Chelsea, who were already there.
• For a full junior kit (shirt, shorts & socks) the average price across the league is now £101.10.
• Most expensive: Chelsea & Tottenham – £116, Everton – £115
• Our analysis of the counterfeit market showed adult shirts could be bought for just £12.61 on average. Full kids’ kits average £13.03, nearly £88 less than official channels!
• The full data is available here.

36% of Parents Are Choosing Counterfeit Football Kits Over Costly Club Ones

• 36% of parents admitted to purchasing a counterfeit shirt, with 23% specifically buying them for their children. Among these, 72% rated the quality “very similar” to official kits.
• 74.6% of fans correctly identified genuine shirts, but over a quarter believed the fake was authentic during side-by-side testing conducted outside a football game.
• Our expert picked out over 70 mistakes on a Liverpool shirt, and after ten washes, most counterfeit shirts showed clear deterioration.
• Our research shows that the average annual cost for parents buying a new home shirt for their child has grown from £31.49 to £59, an 87% increase in real terms since the start of the Premier League in 1992.

Casino Kings via Stadia Agency - Updated 5th August 2025 - London

A Tale of Two Shirts! Are Fake Football Kits Red Card Offense?

With demand for football kits at an all-time high, our latest research reveals the hidden story behind what’s driving the booming £180 Million per year counterfeit football kit market.

Our team purchased and independently tested six counterfeit kids’ shirts from China against six official club versions, revealing shocking insights about pricing, durability, and quality—alongside compelling survey results about fans's shifting views. Here’s what we uncovered:

Key Findings & Headlines

1. Purchase, Size & Delivery Analysis

• Price Gap: Counterfeit kits can be 3.5 to 7 times cheaper. For example, a child's Liverpool counterfeit shirt costs just £16.72 compared to the official £65.
• Delivery Risks: Only 75% (6 out 8) of counterfeit orders arrived successfully.
• Size Variations: Counterfeit kits varied in size, from 8.5% smaller (6cm less) to 2% larger than the originals, creating inconsistencies for buyers.

2. Public Visual Tests

• Side By Side Testing: Conducted outside a football game, 74.6% of fans correctly identified genuine shirts, but over a quarter believed the fake was the authentic version!
• Standalone Tests: Without an official shirt to compare, 70.6% identified the fakes correctly—a third mistook them for real.

3. Expert Analysis

• Quality Control Gaps: An expert flagged over 70 mistakes on the fake Liverpool shirt alone, also revealing several issues with the official kits.

4. Parents’ Survey Insights

• Counterfeit Acceptance: 36% of parents admitted to purchasing counterfeit shirts, with 23% specifically buying them for their children. Among these 72% rated the quality was “very similar” to official kits.
• Cost Awareness: 86% of parents consider kits expensive, with 59% rating them as “very expensive.”
• Release Pressure: 61% of parents feel clubs release kits too often, and 65% report pressure to have their children wear the latest kit.
• Lower-income families were less likely to buy counterfeits compared to middle-income families.

5. Wash Testing

• Durability Differences: After ten washes, most counterfeit shirts showed clear deterioration, especially in heat-pressed designs, with four out of six failing to maintain quality.

6. Historical Price & Shirt Release Analysis (1992-2025 )

• Cost Increase: Adjusted for inflation, official adult shirts have risen 28.8%, and children’s shirts 15.3%, over the last 33 years of the Premier League.
• Annualised Home Kit Price (AHKP): Our proprietary metric, AHKP, shows that, adjusted for inflation, fans are paying nearly double today to keep up with just home shirt releases (95.6% adult, 91.2% child sizes), a significant burden in today’s cost-of-living crisis.

The Cost Of Living Crisis & UK Fans

• Household incomes in the UK have stagnated since the 2008 financial crisis, with annual growth averaging less than 0.5% between 2007/08 and 2022/23, at just 7.2% in total. Shirt prices, adjusted for inflation, have increased 29.2% in that time, 3 times faster than wages.
• Real wages declined by approximately £6 per week between April 2019 and April 2023, driven by the impacts of lockdowns and high inflation.
• In March 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s independent public finance watchdog, forecasted that household income per person will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until December 2025.
• The number of people living in ‘food insecure’ households increased by 2.5 million in 2022/23, reaching a total of 7.2 million.
• UK Energy bills, averaging £769 in 2021, soared to £2352 by 2023 (+205%) and are expected to remain at £1,717 from October 2024 (+123%).

Quotes

Daisy Wooliscroft - Casino Kings Consumer & Data Team

The full findings provide a deeper context into why fans are increasingly drawn to counterfeits despite quality trade-offs. This trend isn’t just a story about cheaper options—it’s a reaction to evolving market conditions, brand pressure, modern social media retail and economic factors affecting fans.

You can read the full eight-part series, including tons more insights and our analysis of seven key factors behind the booming market for counterfeit shirts here: https://www.casinokings.com/a-tale-of-two-shirts-fake-football-kits