Within this post research and analysis of the business “Classic Football Shirts” will be conducted, subjects such as client values, product purpose, opportunities for growth and competition will be explored.
Classic Football Shirts.
Classic Football Shirts (CFS) is a simple website created in June 2006 by Doug Bierton and Matt Dale. The core premise of the website is to supply customers with modern and vintage football shirts that have been worn to compete in matched. A lot of customers are attracted to the website for the shirts being affordable.
Target Audience.
CFS’s target audience consists of a variety of different groups ranging from collectors trying to purchase every single shirt from a specific team, to nostalgia driven individuals that want to purchase shirts from an era in which they loved. Because the sport is loved by both genders, CFS has even added shirts from the women’s league to further broaden their customer interests. Finally, to further embrace client values, CFS have authenticated every product on their website to ensure customers aren’t disappointed in the material and ultimately lead to the customers coming back for more.
Visual Language.
CFS has a very recognisable sleek logo with their primary colours consisting of a dark green and white which closely resemble the look of a football field with the green grass and white field markings, this ultimately leads to a stronger brand image as this links to the businesses products. Additionally, the logo consists of someone wearing a shirt which aligns with the product perfectly as it shows potential customers what the business offers. On the other hand, the typography chosen for the logo is off-putting as 3 different fonts are used together which additionally don’t even compliment one another, this could potentially lead to future customers turning away from the company as it may look rushed and sketchy.
If customers ignore the burger drop down menu at the top of the page and scroll down as newcomers, the customers may feel very overwhelmed with the different headers and products listed along the landing page, leading to frustrated customers not finding what they’re looking for and giving up, this can easily be avoided by removing them and putting them into the burger drop down menu, as it would remove the clutter and make the landing page appealing to any newcomers. Additionally, the brand colours are being used along the whole website which furthermore enforces the brand image.
Growth and Competitors.
One major competitor to CFS is “Vintage Football Shirts” (VFS) with a very similar name and website layout. CFS came out on top for their affordable prices and unique creations such as the “Weekly Deals” section that provides customers with even more discounts, which ultimately lead to CFS grabbing the majority of the customers eyes. In contrast VFS has a very nicely laid out website with beautifully labelled drop down menu’s clearly depicting different teams that have shirts for sale, this can be very beneficial to takeaway for CFS as customers will find exactly what they’re looking for with no issue, which ultimately leads to a positive user experience.
The growth of CFS has been exponential with a 63% rise in revenue from the year 2023 to 2025 (Fashion Network 2025), this was done with many hardships and struggles that Doug Bierton and Matt Dale faced in the first start-up of CFS, this was primarily because of old/vintage shirts being viewed as second-hand or outdated, customers ended up purchasing new kits from other websites/stores, which ultimately meant that Doug Bierton and Matt Dale had too create their own established market for older shirts with the use of social media to promote it.
References:
N.A (April 2026) Classic Football Shirts. Available online: https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/ [Accessed 19/04/2026]
N.A (April 2026) Vintage Football Shirts. Available online: https://www.vintagefootballshirts.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorsNsJ0STP7_CCQVWwSvD6aE4wxszRKgBpVTecLvSDJVm6KiB7U [Accessed 19/04/2026]
Nigel Taylor (June 2025) Fashion Network. Available online: https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/news/Classic-football-shirts-sales-jump-but-profits-fall-as-it-focuses-on-expansion,1744916.html [Accessed 19/04/2026]