The ghost shirt of Barça
Many people have bought a pink garment from unofficial stores, mistakenly thinking it was Barça's second kit.
BarcelonaSince Barça signed with Nike in the second half of the 1990s, the club's kit has been in constant evolution. Every year, the design changes. At first, more modestly, and lately, more radically. This responds, as you might expect, to a commercial reason. If the shirt is different each season, the kit quickly becomes obsolete, and many people agree to buy a new one to keep up with their favorite club. This isn't something exclusive to Barça. It happens to all professional teams. And this is how business is done with products that cost over 100 euros.
Many people want them, but not everyone can afford them. And that's where counterfeits come in. Fake shirts—and therefore cheaper ones—have always existed. What's happening is that, with online shopping, their distribution has multiplied exponentially. Why spend €134.99 at the Barça Store to buy an official Lamine Yamal shirt when you can buy a fake one on Amazon for less than €50?
The market is full of counterfeit shirts from all football clubs.
Counterfeiting a jersey is relatively easy. Of course, you first need to know exactly what to copy and then have the time to do it. That's why, when major sports clubs are working to design a new kit, the entire process is treated almost as a matter of state. Secrecy is at its highest, and confidentiality clauses are very strict. However, leaks always end up happening. "Nike and multinational sports companies usually point the finger at the clubs, but all the leaks end up coming from their material suppliers," explains a person who has worked on Barça's jerseys for many years.
Thus, it's common for the design to end up coming to light, even before the clubs make it official. But this summer something curious happened. Suddenly, the streets were flooded with fluorescent pink shirts. Supposedly, it was Barça's away kit for the 2025-26 season. The club hadn't said anything, but still, many people purchased it online, where it can be purchased for less than 30 euros. What a bargain! Or so many thought. It turns out the shirt isn't just fake, it's also a ghost. "We don't know where it came from or who invented it, but it's not the one the players will be wearing," they say from the royal offices, where the surprise is huge.
The process of making a shirt is complex. It begins about two years before they are put on sale. In the case of Barça, Nike contacts the club and conducts a survey to find out if there are any notable events or milestones in the year in question. If the answer is yes, they try to adapt accordingly. For example, this 2024-25 season, the 125th anniversary, has been a nod to the first shirt from 1899 and the centenary.
The new agreement with Nike does not alter the Barça shirt-making process.
Barça and Nike recently extended their agreement, but broadly speaking, the shirt-making process hasn't changed much. The multinational's idea is to have a conventional design one season and a groundbreaking one the next. "It's not mandatory, but it's their proposal," explains Barça. Furthermore, Nike has several reference cities, such as Barcelona, Paris, Milan, and London, and takes special care with the design. However, Barça has veto power, according to the club. "But in practice, it's not applied because we're involved in manufacturing from day one and we already anticipate potential problems."
After making the first sketches in Oregon, with a year and a half left before the kit goes on sale, Nike executives travel to Barcelona to meet with the club's top brass. It's an exclusive meeting that sometimes only includes the president, the CEO (when Barça had one) and a marketing manager. It's done behind closed doors, with the utmost secrecy. The Americans pull out different proposals from a briefcase, and then the winning jersey is chosen. "The others either disappear or can be proposed in later years." The real deal is the home kit, which will sell the most and is the most urgent. But the second and third jerseys must also be chosen.
Everyone opens their arms and wonders where the jersey came from.
Returning to the mystery of the fluorescent pink shirt, it's at this point that everyone is left with their arms wide open and it's unclear what could have happened. The club maintains that "under no circumstances" was this design on the table. Therefore, not only do they deny that it's this season's second kit, but they insist that "it wasn't one of the proposals" Nike presented. In short: someone invented it, put it on sale, and people bought it en masse. "You have to admit that the design is attractive. And it could very well be Nike's work. But that's about it. It has nothing to do with us. We've never seen it before," explains the Barça offices.
It's impossible to know how many units have been sold. The only thing that is certain is that it can still be found online. The other question is whether the club will take legal action against companies that counterfeit products using the Barça logo but without paying the corresponding fee. ARA has made an inquiry but has not received a response. The only thing they're saying is that the Royal away kit is yellow in homage to Kobe Bryant. So, whoever has the fluorescent pink one, I'm sorry... they've messed up.
