Skip to main content
BoF Logo

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

The Business of Fashion
Sustainability

‘Every Shirt Has a Story’: The Designers Saving Football Kits From Landfill

The increasing popularity of retro football kits has helped to ease the flow of polyester garments to landfill sites.
AC Milan partnered with Paris-based label Koché on a collection made from upcycled jerseys.
Many designers are upcycling old football kits. (AC Milan)
By
BoF PROFESSIONAL

It may have been a quiet January transfer window, but even so, thousands of new shirts will be printed for Lucas Paquetá, returning to his former Brazilian club Flamengo, while his West Ham shirt instantly feels old. Not to mention the thousands of other players moving from one club to another. Uefa estimates that up to 60 percent of kits worn by players are destroyed at the end of the season, and at any one time there are thought to be more than 1 billion football shirts in circulation, many of which are discarded by fans once players leave.

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

Further Reading

Shein, Nike and Fashion’s Widening Sustainability Gap

Copenhagen Fashion Week’s 20th edition offered promise in pushing fashion’s sustainability agenda from within, defying the wider industry's pullback from the cause. But with fashion’s decarbonisation trajectory offtrack, Shein’s questionable climate targets, paired with labour abuse in Nike and Prada’s supply chains, there’s still a long way to go.

© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Sustainability
How fashion can do better for people and the planet.

The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.

How Mexico’s Independent Women Fashion Designers Are Rethinking Growth

At Soho House Mexico City, Mexican fashion designers Carla Fernández, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Camila Banzo joined BoF’s Yasmine Dahlberg to speak candidly about identity, innovation and what it takes to build an independent fashion business in Mexico — as part of both Women’s History Month and the House’s ongoing Women Shaping the Future initiative.

view more
Latest News & Analysis
Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

The Industry That Eats Its Young

Small fashion labels have always been shortchanged by their wholesale partners. A wave of high-profile bankruptcies has turned a structural injustice into an existential crisis. There is a better way to do business, writes Imran Amed.

The Zara-Fication of John Galliano

Fashion’s enfant terrible is trading exclusivity for the mass market. Is it the ultimate fashion coup, or the final surrender of prestige?

The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.

VIEW MORE

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.