Several years ago, I decided to buy a football shirt for my team. The thing is, I noticed that the shirt worn by the players was not the same as the one I had, the adidas stripes on the shoulders did not seem to be embroidered, but had the same shine as the vinyl of the numbers, the same happened with the shield, it also gave the impression that they were a little more fitted and there were some players who wore a very tight version with transparent bands on the sides. Clearly my shirt was not the competition shirt, but also when looking on different websites, I couldn't find any other version available. The fact is that nowadays, we do see that the brands offer us the possibility of buying the same shirts that the players have.
Fortunately nowadays both adidas and Nike do offer for sale the competition version, i.e. the same jersey that the players play with, but the customer should know that this jersey is made for competition, so it has better materials, is lighter and much tighter than the ‘replica’ version that most fans tend to buy. We are going to compare them and for this it is important to differentiate between the competition ones: The name is Autenthic in each jersey with its different technologies ‘HEAT-RDY’ in adidas and ‘DRI-FIT-ADV’ in Nike that we will see in the lower part of the jersey, and the popular ones of normal use that we know as: Replicas. To clarify that these shirts are not replicas in the sense of bad, but being totally official they are designed with a different construction and pattern.
All Autenthic football shirts (with the ‘Heat-Rdy’ technology in adidas or ‘Dri-Fit-Adv’ in Nike) use the best materials that the brands have developed. If we compare them with the Replica or amateur ones, we will see that the most important differences are the following.
Fabrics:
In those that are the same as the players, the ultra light fabrics that are characterised by incorporating perspiration panels in the areas where the body generates more heat in order to evaporate the sweat, keep the player as dry as possible and thus achieve a better body temperature during the match. They also adjust more in some areas than in others, helping you not to feel the jersey when you play and to be 100% comfortable.
Replica: The fabrics used in the replicas are very good quality fabrics with the same pattern and textures on both sides of the jersey and manufactured to be more resistant to machine washing. They also incorporate breathable panels but not all over the jersey and also have a straight fit that is more adaptable to all body types.
Fit:
The fit in the elite version, is a tighter and more snug fit, with a pattern adapted to professional performance. This means that we have to pay special attention to the size we choose when buying this jersey.
On the replica side, we have a straight cut and not so tight and a slightly thicker material, which as we say, allows you to wear clothes underneath or even a sweatshirt underneath, without the shirt suffering too much. It is a somewhat more robust version, which we will go into in the next point.
Durability
Here we combine several points such as vinyls, seams, and embroidery, which add up to provide greater or lesser durability of both shirts. If we go to the elite t-shirts, we have a lot of vinyl and fewer seams, as the idea is that the t-shirt weighs as little as possible and does not bother either inside or outside it. The seams are thinner and try to be as minimal as possible to give that feeling of union throughout the shirt.
As for the amateur version, we have thicker seams, thicker embroidery and longer threads, all focused on giving a good quality shirt but above all thinking about the fan who will wear it to cheer in the stands or in their own games.
Finally there is also a difference that many will want to know and that is the price difference, as you can imagine the ‘elite’ shirts are significantly more expensive than the ‘replica’ so it is up to each consumer to decide which one best suits their needs.
