I may not be at home at the moment – but I have been consumed by Aberdeen’s new home top over the last week.
I’m in the midst of an extended dog-sitting stay at my in-laws’, and it has meant in the mornings I’ve had to drive from Chapelton to our flat in Union Grove before walking down to the Press and Journal offices at Marischal Square as normal from there. It’s been hectic.
But, I’m ashamed to say, over the past few days, when I was parking the car and despite the rush, I was doing something which possibly outs me as a near-30-year-old man-child. I was excitedly letting myself into the flat to see if my new Aberdeen home top had been delivered.
The 2022/23 Gothenburg-inspired kit was first worn by the Dons players in the Premiership opener at Celtic last Sunday.
Watching the game reminded me I’d pre-ordered the thing a couple of months back, with the club promising it would arrive ahead of the first Pittodrie league match against St Mirren on Saturday.
It did. Only just. However, this meant I got to (quite proudly) wear it – along with thousands of others – while attending the match against the Buddies as a fan.
‘No-one over 16 should be buying a replica football top’
Now, at the time of the forgotten pre-ordering, when I mentioned to friends and colleagues I’d bought the new home shirt, many said the same thing: No-one over 16 should be buying a replica football top.
A sentiment which will divide the football-passionate down the middle.
Their words left me asking myself whether they’re right – Is it juvenile, embarrassing and should grown-ups not, under any circumstances, be buying and then cutting about in their team’s latest strip?
New Aberdeen top was always going to be hit with fans – myself among them
Let me explain why I chose to buy my first Aberdeen home top in ages this year.
Months ago, I worked with one of our graphic designers on some Dons concept shirts (Twitter users everywhere screaming ‘slow news day?!?’ at this line).
What we came up with were a host of ideas for tops, including a gorgeous reimagined red-with-white-pinstripes season 1982/83 shirt which was uncannily similar to the one the club eventually unveiled themselves in June.
This serendipity, if you can call it that, probably reflects how obvious a design decision it was to pay homage to the European Cup Winners’ Cup triumph ahead of May’s 40th anniversary.
Going for a Gothenburg-inspired number was a guaranteed commercial hit and the club’s official Adidas version has also been executed beautifully, with the commemorative badge a nice touch, and general sale stock sold out within hours on Friday as a result.
❗ We are now sold out of most adult sizes of our 22/23 home shirt.
Thank you to all fans who have purchased in record numbers with an unprecedented level of pre-sale orders!
We will have a further delivery in September & in the meantime our away shirt remains available 👇
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) August 5, 2022
All of these factors – mucking about with our own similar designs, how good the actual shirt looks, the potential future collector’s item value – meant I just had to fork out the money for it as soon as it was unveiled. No hesitation.
And this was before a summer transfer window rebuild which has left most in the Red Army very optimistic about what could be achieved in the kit this season.
Might lightning strike twice? The last season I bought a Dons home top, I got to wear it at Parkhead as Aberdeen won the League Cup.
Where to wear your new replica shirt (and what is NEVER acceptable)
I suppose none of the above explains why I was so excited for my new Aberdeen home shirt to actually arrive and to have it in my hands. This pre-arrival buzz – and not the buying of the top – is the thing I’m left slightly red-faced by.
Maybe it was just my desire to put to bed the uncertainty of a) something I’ve paid for which hadn’t arrived yet and b) that it was really as nice as it looked in the club’s photos and on Sky Sports at Celtic Park last weekend (oh it is).
But I’m not ashamed by the purchase itself.
Damn them all, the sneering friends and colleagues, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for someone over 16 to buy their team’s replica top and wear it out and about – if you follow the rules below…
I’ll be wearing my home shirt at as many Dons games as possible this season, as well as to other football activities, like five-a-sides, and I encourage you to join me.
It’s probably better to mainly put on your replica shirt of choice if you’re going to a game or at least watching a game, and also to the pub before and after, of course.
If you’re taking it for a spin at the supermarket or the gym, that, to my mind, is ok, too.
Thinking about extending your post-match trip to the pub to the point wear you’re actively wearing a replica football top out in town of an evening? Probably don’t do that.
What about to restaurants, the cinema and so on? No, don’t do that either.
If we, the replica shirt-buying adults of this world, follow these rules, then we should not have to live in fear of the ridicule of our peers.
I hear you ask: ‘What about getting numbering on the back of our shirts, Ryan, is that acceptable, too?’
No.
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