Forget that Vuitton bag

Years ago, I lived for a few months in Rome. And keeping the when in Rome, do as the Romans do in mind, we also went to the football stadium every two weeks. We didn't go to Lazio Roma, but to AS Roma, where my partner once became a fan because of those beautiful Kappa shirts in giallo-rosso (orange-red) with Barilla as the main sponsor. Those were three loves – Rome, Kappa, and Barilla – in one, and he couldn't resist that.

“A football shirt is so much more than a piece of clothing,” says Spencer Emmering, co-founder of Off The Field, a website where you can buy the most special football shirts. “My father, and I following in his footsteps, became a fan of Tottenham Hotspur for the main reason of those beautiful shirts from Le Coq Sportif.”

Emmering still remembers his first shirt well. “From Suárez for AJAX, my sister wore it for years after me.”
A football shirt also connects people, Emmering explains. “If you see someone abroad wearing your shirt, you will approach them or at least mention your club's name. The more unique your shirt, the bigger the conversation will be when you recognize each other in it.”

Spencer Emmering and his partner Johnny van den Berg started Off The Field as a side project during their studies. “My sister started wearing my football shirts, even on days we weren't going to watch a match, and people asked her how she got them. More and more it became a fashion statement, and since it was already my hobby, I decided to expand on it.”

In the meantime, his post-student room, Spencer graduated from UvA in History last February, has become an office slash storage for shirts that he collects from all corners. “What I enjoy most is going to flea markets because you hear the most beautiful stories about a shirt there. For example, Johnny and I found a shirt from the football club of Verona with the text ‘parliament’ on the chest. I didn't remember that as a sponsor, so I started researching. It turned out to be a shirt from 1996 from a tournament organized between members of parliament and journalists to improve their mutual relationship.”

Searching for stories behind shirts, Emmering, who graduated on sportswashing – where countries try to polish their image by attracting prestigious sporting events to their country – finds perhaps the most enjoyable part. “That's why we do a drop every Friday with a selected number of newly found items, where we can tell a story.”

Another plus of Off The Field: the shirts are affordable and everyone can wear them. “From my sister to my grandfather and everything in between.”
Now just grow big enough to have a real office and make his room package-free again.

Want to order a shirt? You can do that via Off The Field.