My Football Shirt Collection - Ashton

Ashton is a Sheffield Wednesday fan and football shirt collector. He fell out of love with wearing shirts after comments from school kids, but has since fallen back in love with jerseys. This is due to a tweet from his mum, Hayley being shared across the football shirt social media community.

He has received messages of support and a number of impressive shirts since, we had a chat with Ash about his collection and the response so far.

Can you tell us about what happened with the kids who made comments about your collection and the response to your Mum's tweet?

I used to turn up to football training at my local side in a different shirt each week, often classic shirts with bold designs from the 90s. One of the other players on the team thought they looked stupid which knocked my confidence and I stopped wearing them for a while. During lockdown I have had time to reflect and I fall back in love with them and I have distanced myself from the negativity. I'm back to wearing them wherever I go now!

The response on social media has been incredible. People within the community have been very supportive and I've been getting shirts in the post everyday since, they second day after the tweet was posted I had 8 unexpected parcels arrive at my door! We thought it would be best to explain to the postman why we were getting so many parcels, it turned out that he collects shirts too, he has 500 in his collection so I have a way to go before I've caught up with him!

I've been contacted from all over the world now, from Florida to Malaysia and have even had messages from Torino FC! I've had sports stores, clubs and even individual collectors send me shirts and made me feel like part of the community, the messages of support have made the negativity to my collection a thing of the past.

How long have you been collecting football shirts?

have been collecting shirts since I was about four, my Grandad bought me a Holland shirt out of the blue, I loved how bright and orange it was! I have pretty much lived in football shirts since, mainly from Sheffield Wednesday who I support and England

What led you to support Sheffield Wednesday?

My mum! She is a big Sheffield Wednesday fan so I was born with blue blood, she met Des Walker when she was 11 which began her support for the club and she raised me as an Owl too. I can't even remember my first time watching a game at Hillsborough as I was too young, I had my first season ticket at 8 and was lucky enough to get to watch us play at Wembley in the Play-Off Final in 2015. I love being a Wednesday fan, I'm not from Sheffield and all the kids at my school support Premier League teams or local clubs like Derby so it makes my football team more unique!

How many shirts fo you have in your collection so far?

I now have over 90 shirts! Over 30 of those have been sent to me due to my Mum's tweet

Which are your favourite shirts in your collection?

My 1995 Sheffield Wednesday Away shirt is probably my favourite, the bold green design is great, my Mum and I wore this and the yellow 93 Away to a 90s party and they went down really well!

My second favourite is my 2010 Marseille shirt, it was a gift from a Ryan from Rowsley 86 FC, the design is crazy!

Finally, my favourite to be passed down to me from my Grandad's collection is my Spain 94 Away shirt, I love how 90s it is.

What shirt would you most like to add to your collection?

I'm always on the lookout for Sheffield Wednesday shirts, I love Brazil shirts too and the Fiorentina 92 Home shirt is on my wishlist too!

I also like shirts that have a connection to Sheffield Wednesday and our current and past players, I have an Armenia Bielefeld shirt, our centre back Julian Börner signed for us from them, I have Portugal shirts in honour of Jose Semedo and I now even have Reda Johnson's training shirt from Eastleigh FC, they're all great shirts and remind me of three of my favourite players to have played in blue and white.

Do you have any plans for your collection going forward?

I just want to collect as many shirts as I can and be able to wear them whenever I like. My mum has had to buy me a clothes rail as my wardrobe is full so now I'll have to fill that. I want to add them all to my Instagram too

I hope to get more shirts from anywhere and everywhere, the more obscure the better! I love seeing people trying to work out the shirt I'm wearing and their reaction to it being from Guadalajara!

For now I'm just going to try and have a new shirt to wear everyday until I'm back at school.

Follow Ashton's collection here

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