Collectors Club

In a small bedroom in East London, Ellis Platten is sitting on his chair in a white, red and navy Umbro England sweatshirt from the mid-nineties. It screams of the heroes on that night in Rome, when England qualified for the 1998 World Cup. On one arm of the chair is a Leeds United shirt from the early seventies when they were winning titles; the other is an incredibly rare Porto home shirt from the late eighties. It’s a blue version of the iconic Holland 1988 shirt, one the Portuguese side wore in a European Cup Winners’ Cup game against Tottenham six years earlier. Pointing to the surrounding items, the 28-year-old says: “People don’t make stuff like this anymore. People try to replicate it, but it’s not the same. It’s from an era of football that was different; it’s a completely different sport.”

Sitting opposite, I counter: “Ellis, you weren’t even born when those items were made. What makes a relative youngster like you so attached to these objects?”

Looking at me with his customary smile he flashes throughout our two hour-long chat: “These are genuine, historic artefacts. Each one tells so many different stories. In terms of the allure to me, there's obviously the rarity of them. In the seventies and eighties, shirts had only just become available commercially, so shirts from that time are much harder to get hold of and so I find them more desirable. I was born in 1997, so the shirts from the nineties relate to a period that I’ve heard so much about. I might not have been alive, but through a shirt or the sweater, I can learn even more about the greatest game, and I can also look good at the same time.”

I have no comeback. Ellis has distilled the essence of football shirt collecting perfectly for the first piece in a new series for Classic Football Shirts, called “Collectors Club”. This compact room in East London is my first stop on a journey to tell the stories of the collections, the collectors and their personal museums of the beautiful game.

"My family, half of 'em are Leeds fans, half of them were from Norwich, but I didn't really like football until I played it. Then I was like, 'ah, I get it now'; it all started there."

Looking out at his granddad mowing the lawn, Ellis would always notice him in the Norwich home shirt worn between 1992 and 1994. Flecks of green and white on a yellow background and the Ribero sponsor. It wasn’t Jeremy Goss’ goals against Bayern Munich and Inter Milan wearing that shirt that caught his attention, but his granddad pacing up and down the garden. Ellis remembers: “I became obsessed with the idea that even though I don’t like this team; I know every team’s got a cool shirt.

That core memory and the fact that Ellis was born and raised in Great Yarmouth would certainly have given him cause to become a Norwich City fan. It was, however, the Leeds United side of the family who won out, and once Ellis got his first Leeds shirt, a goalkeeper top from the Yorkshire side's first season back in the Championship in 2004. It was to be the first of many, very many.

Like any youngster his age, Ellis absorbed the beautiful game through playing FIFA and Pro Evo, watching Super Sunday or ‌hearing the Champions League anthem blaring out of his television screen. But even at a young age, the desire to experience football in person was strong. “Leeds was a nightmare to get to, even if we could afford tickets. So we’d go to local non-league games, like Lowestoft Town. Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and places like that. I remember one day, a group of five of us in year nine at school. We just decided: “Let’s go watch Peterborough”. That desire to engage with the sport at its most real would eventually be something Ellis would make a career out of.

When he wasn’t visiting quirky football grounds with his mates, Ellis was monitoring the CFS Weekly Deals email. “When I was 17, I’d always look out for that email — blimey that’s over ten years ago! I was always putting a wishlist together of their weekly deals, and back then they were £20 each. Some of them are worth hundreds now. The first order I made was for a Porto away shirt from 2014 made by Warrior.”

It was a buzz for Ellis, but he also sought that rush of dopamine in less healthy ways. An addiction to gambling was crushing not only his quest to add to his collection but also his personal life. In a rare moment of seriousness, Ellis recalls: “I never had the money to get more shirts because of the gambling addiction. I was thinking if I could just kick this, I could put that money into a healthier pursuit.”

Somehow, amidst all that, the younger Ellis was looking to the future. He applied to UCFB (University Campus of Football Business) and, knowing he might not quite have the grades to get in, he started a YouTube channel which showed him going to games. It was enough to convince the university that he had what it takes. However, Ellis declined the place he was offered because he realised that being a student in London just wasn’t financially feasible. The YouTube channel AwayDays he’d started ultimately propelled him much further. As part of that Ellis filmed his trips to charity shops hunting for football shirts. “I’d wander around Norwich and uncover some real gems. I’d film myself saying, ‘This is worth this much on Classic Football Shirts’. If you look at their values and the videos now compared to today, it’s crazy. Charity shops are charging more these days, which is obviously something I don’t begrudge them doing. Like everyone else, they see the value in football shirts. The biggest bargain I ever had was when I found a Messi 2012/13 home shirt for £2.50 in the Barnados in Norwich; it was crazy. I still look at charity shops. Even when I won’t buy the shirts, I’ll just put them up on my story being like - ‘There’s a shirt here if anyone wants to go get it.’

The success of AwayDays coupled with eventually kicking the gambling addiction meant Ellis could broaden his target list. “I felt like I had everything I really wanted, the ones that somehow meant something to me and also the real classics. I’d see lists of the best football shirts of all time, and there weren’t many gaps. Like the Fiorentina Nintendo shirt from the 1998-99 campaign. So I kept thinking, what’s next? Then Aaron Ramsdale messaged me on social media and offered me a Patrick Bamford match-worn shirt. I realised match-worn shirts are another niche entirely. There might be a thousand bruised banana shirts, but there’s probably only one worn by Ian Wright.”

Then came COVID and lockdown. Visits to charity shops and the away trips weren’t possible, Ellis had to pivot, and match-worn shirts that suddenly were never attainable became attainable, and as crucially, it made for great content for an audience who sat at home online. Anyone who has seen an AwayDays video will know Ellis goes all in, so what better target to aim at than a match-worn shirt used by who Ellis thinks is the greatest player to ever play the game, Lionel Messi. Things were going well, so I didn’t want to disrupt the interview by entering the Maradona v Messi debate; we’ll revisit that another time.

Either way, Ellis had started a journey that would spawn a rollercoaster 10-part YouTube series, which at one point saw him get incredibly unlucky - losing thousands to a scammer. It highlighted the many perils of shirt collecting, but it all worked out in the end. One shirt Ellis gets out of the crammed wardrobe is a Barcelona away shirt, which the Argentinian genius wore against PSG in a friendly in 2013. It’s wrapped in a plastic covering, obviously. I carefully hold the hanger and try not to drop it, which is easier said than done when Ellis suddenly tells me he’s been offered £20,000 for it. I put it back slowly, next to a Raphina match-worn shirt which Ellis says is very much one of his favourites of the over 500 items, all metres from where I’m standing.

The Messi match-worn saga helped his burgeoning and emotive content reach a whole new audience, to which tens of thousands were subscribed. I was one of those subscribers and, whilst working on video content for a football media channel, I knew there was only one person to host a content series on football shirts. “I was a very raw interviewer at that point. There would’ve certainly been a better presenter than me out there. But I had the basis of my knowledge of shirts, which then allowed me to improve my presentation.” Despite Ellis’ self-deprecation, the format continued alongside Classic Football Shirts on AwayDays. That relationship eventually saw the world leaders in selling football shirts acquire the AwayDays channel in 2024. Ellis's decision not to go to university and persevere with his channel had been well and truly vindicated, and the acquisition means his journey of football shirt collecting has led him to work with some illustrious names to discuss their own love of football shirts. “I’ve worked with Rob McElhenney, Marco Reus, Alex Morgan, Jay-Jay Okocha, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt; we’ve just done a great one recently with Antoine Semenyo.”

As he tails off, I have to remind him he missed David Beckham off the list. Ellis laughs: “How did I forget that! Football shirt collecting has meant I’ve met actual David Beckham. It’s been an incredible journey, and it’s sometimes so hectic it’s hard to look back and properly reflect. I think I was never prouder than during the Martin Tyler interview I did. I was so proud of that interview; in my opinion, it’s the best interview I’ve done. He knows me now, and I saw him again at a Leeds game. He shook my hand and said I was doing amazing stuff. I was thinking, that’s Martin Tyler. That’s brilliant. That’s all because of shirt collecting. I think that’s the beauty of collecting; it takes you to places, and allows you to meet people youd never envisage”

Working in the game for over two decades, I’ve been lucky enough to meet many collectors of football memorabilia and ephemera. One question that always stumps them is asking them what their favourites are. Ellis is no different; after a good 30 seconds of thinking, he smiles: “I’ll go with Leeds. Leeds played in the 1972 Centenary FA Cup Final. They won 1-0, thanks to an Allan Clarke diving header. I have his white Umbro jacket from that day, with his name stitched in big blue letters on the back.” Ellis pauses, the disbelief clear. “Wow. It still baffles me that I have this iconic piece of Leeds United history in my house. However you look at it, that’s ridiculous. I first saw it in the CFS archive, and during our discussion about the acquisition I just told them that giving that to me had to be part of our agreement. And here it is, a genuine one-off with so much history attached to it.”

Forgetting for a minute the countless hours and effort Ellis put in to make AwayDays a success, just asking for a shirt and getting it seems pretty straightforward compared to the rest of the collection. Ellis recalls getting an extremely rare Fiorentina training top from the 1997/98 season which had Super Mario on it, another real favourite of his. “I spent years trying to find one, had my eBay notifications on every single day, twice a day in Italy, once a day in England. The thing with collecting, if you’re patient, is that the thing that you really want will pop up at some point. And then one day, one came up. I couldn’t believe it, but I lost the bid because it went for two grand. So I messaged the seller, who was the biggest Fiorentina collector. “Do you have another one?” He said “Err…yeah, but I’m really busy ‘cause I’m moving” So, I got a flight to Florence the very next day and I went on a day trip to Florence just to get the shirt. That one was one of the hardest, but it also showed that if you’re patient, somewhere in the world, eventually it will appear.”

Throughout our conversation, my eyes dart around the room, and I constantly see something else that catches my attention. Ellis rented this two-bed place purely because he needed a room to house his collection. I ask him if he’s ever considered condensing his many spoils of collecting. He nods his head. “We used to do mystery box videos, and I’d sell them at the end of the mystery box, but these days I just haven’t had the time, and I’m never at home to do it properly. Last year, I think I went to 26 different countries. It’s a brilliant, but hectic life. What I’d like to do one day is hold a big raffle to shift some. People can buy a ticket for a pound and then they win a random shirt from the collection. That’s the best way to do it because no one’s getting ripped off, and no one is paying an insane amount of money, and it would be a small way to give back to the people who have supported me over the years.”

Ellis is at a point in his life when big responsibilities like an engagement, weddings, and the children that may follow are now a real consideration. I pose the question: “Given all that, some would say that collecting and hoarding valuable football shirts might not be very high up the priority list. He responds, “Like I always say, they are my investments. I call ‘em investments because my football shirt collection has gone up loads in value since I bought them. But there is still that voice on my shoulder when I do buy something saying, “Why? I don’t wear enough of the ones I have now! But it's definitely a healthier vice than what I had previously when I was gambling. It’s obviously good to channel your focus into something that is harmless, you know what I mean? There are definitely ways in which shirt collecting could be harmful, but I’m now putting my time and energy into something that is meaningful and not wasting it on betting too much money on something I don’t even know about. It’s a much better dopamine fix”

Ellis is so open and honest, online and in person, I ask if he’s got any advice for those on their own collecting journey or who want to start one. “You’ll always find the most joy in getting things that mean something to you. It’s all well and good trying to chase the most expensive, or the ones that you know are gonna be like an investment or whatever; that’s fine. Obviously, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t done that with some shirts I’ve purchased as well. But the ones that will always bring you joy are the ones that mean something to you. I think you should buy what you like. Don’t buy what everyone else likes; buy what you like. Also, buy stuff you’d wear as well. Get some use out of it as well. The sweet spot is to get something with tangible value that you can also wear and enjoy. I think that’s what people sometimes forget about collecting.”

As we conclude a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours, talk once again turns to the 1972 FA Cup jacket. I have already established he’ll always keep it; it means so much to him. We are talking the day after Leeds United had progressed in the FA Cup third round, so I ask Ellis one last question: “Would you wear the most treasured piece in your collection if Leeds ever got to the final of the world's greatest cup competition?”

He laughs hard: “I genuinely had this thought yesterday. If Leeds gets to the FA Cup final, I will wear that jacket to the final. 100%. That’s the only time I would ever do it. Yeah, of course. Someone might get beer in it, but it would be Leeds in an FA Cup final. Imagine that. That’d be crazy. Crystal Palace showed what can be done. So you never know. Everyone gets their day in the sun, and that’s the beauty of football.”