Interview: Josef | Shirt Collector & Kit Community Creative | Arsenal Fan.
A very warm welcome to Josef, who many of you will know from his fabulous Instagram @josefsshirts. His brilliant content showcases his passion for football shirt collecting, as well as his obvious talent for taking a good photo. You can check-out his INSTA here. After a series of recent collab posts, we caught-up with Josef to chat about his collecting journey. Josef's photos from the collab are including in this article.
A nice easy one to start with...... what football team do you support?
I support Arsenal. My Mum supports them after living in the area for much of her life. In fact, I was born not far from Highbury. I also have a huge soft spot for AIK too, because some of my family support them too. I also love Italian football but don’t actively support a team in Italy.
Do you remember you first shirt?
Yes, I do. My first shirt was a Sweden shirt with Ibrahimovic on the back. Top player! I can’t remember the year though. I’ve unfortunately lost the shirt at some point, so don’t have it anymore. I also had Arsenal’s 2009/10 home shirt as a full kit. I believe I got these at the same time.
What got you into collecting football shirts?
I think the main reason I started collecting is because I was pretty fortunate to travel a fair bit when I was younger and I used to pick-up a shirt from each place that I went to. So initially my collection was largely based on very obscure football shirts from club teams in cities that I had visited, or places near I had gone on holiday.
Around the same time, I decided that I wanted to try and collect as many Ibrahimovic shirts as possible from the clubs across his career, including; Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona etc. You may have guessed, I'm a huge Ibra fan. I still have the majority of his AC Milan shirts from his first and second spells.
I've also always had a liking for 90's shirts but my collecting evolved when I started collecting shirts from countries which no longer exist - Yugoslavia, Soviet Union etc; I’ve found this is where my collection has now gone.
I collect Arsenal too. The gold 2001/02 (SEGA) is a favourite of mine and I've got 3 of those at the moment! Oh, and another favourite is the gold Sweden 2004 centenary shirt, which I also have a few of as well!
What do football shirts mean to you?
Football shirts are nostalgia - a way for me to collect 'souvenirs' from holidays and shirts that pay homage to players I watched growing up. I now like to collect rare or unique shirts that not many people will own, like the Yugoslavia one I have in my collection. Not many people you meet will have a Yugoslavia shirt from 1990. For me, football shirts are time stamps from good memories. Be that the Ibrahimovic shirts or a Lazio shirt I got from when I went to see them play. With the AIK and Arsenal ones, it shows my love for the two teams. Both of which were significant parts of my life growing up and are still significant parts of my life now. They meant a lot. There are some shirts in my collection I’d probably save before some people!
What is your favourite shirt in your collection and why?
Wow, that’s hard! To give you one favourite shirt would be impossible. I’ve narrowed down my collection down over the years and gone for quality over quantity. Obviously, we all collect in different ways but I figure you could have 100 ‘okay’ shirts or you could have 20 ‘amazing’ shirts; I pick the latter. I’ll have a go at picking my top 5 or so…….
First up, AIK 1998 home and away, both of those are definitely up there. Those are the shirts AIK last wore in the Champions League and when we played Arsenal. We also wore them in huge games against Barcelona and Fiorentina too, so those are both massive grails for me. Then I suppose the AIK 1995 home shirt. It’s the only other AIK 1990s shirt I have. It’s a rare one. Puma with nice taping down the sides. If you add in the gold Arsenal 2001/02 away and Sweden centenary, then those are 5 of my favourites.
Others worth a mention include.....Yugoslavia 90/92 because of its design, the history around the fact it’s not a country anymore, and it’s one of the most famous adidas templates of all time. Arsenal 91/93 is the same template and is another great shirt. The famous Soviet Union red meat shirt gets a mention too because of its rarity. In many ways, it’s quite a horrible shirt, but there’s something beautiful about it too. Then I have the 22/23 AC Milan 4th shirt that I picked up when I saw Ibrahimovic play at the San Siro is also a favourite. I also have a couple of AIK boxed shirts I got as gifts, as well as some Arsenal ones. These have meaning behind them, being gifts from loved ones.
Is there a shirt you don’t have in your collection you’d love to own?
There are loads of shirts I don’t own that I’d love to have in the collection. One is another gold one, the Arsenal 02/03 third (O2). I prefer the SEGA from 01/02 but for any Arsenal collector, the 02/03 shirt is the pinnacle because of the rarity. Another is the bruised banana, Arsenal 91/93 away. Would love to also pick up some AIK 90s shirts and more boxed ones. There’s an incredible goalkeeper one from 1991. The 1995/96 Lazio third is another one I'd love to own. It’s grey and has a mad pattern on it. And from same season, the Napoli 3rd. I saw it on Twitter in long-sleeved, but it sold before I could buy it!