In the 19th century, a search for gold famously captured popular imagination across America. A couple of centuries later, the commodity of allure across the land of opportunity seems to be polyester Pantone 1895C. People are scrambling for Inter Miami’s soft, electric pink football shirts. Pink is the new gold, it seems.
The announcement that Lionel Messi would be signing for David Beckham’s Inter Miami made their jersey the hottest piece of replica sports merchandise on the planet, and quite possibly of all time. It’s the perfect capitalist storm: a distinctive colour, a new and exotic football club with the addendum of Beckham, fronted by an instantly recognisable and widely adored athlete in Messi.
Manufacturers Adidas won’t be drawn on specific sales numbers – perhaps they’ve lost count – but they did reveal that within days of Messi announcing his next destination, the brand received 500,000 requests from stores and suppliers for Miami football shirt stock. Existing inventory had vaporised like a puddle in the hot Florida sun.
The shirt business is serious. In 2019, Real Madrid signed a kit deal with Adidas worth a guaranteed £955 million over eight years – the most lucrative contract in football history.
Yet half a century ago, the industry was non-existent. The birth of replica shirts can be traced back to October 1973, when two salesmen from Admiral drove 100 miles from Wigston in Leicestershire to
