On a sweltering New York City summer afternoon a few years ago, I stumbled across a store I never expected to see tucked into a busy SoHo block. A few doors down from some of menswear’s most popular names, from the environmentally conscious utilitarian label Maharishi to Drake’s modern British tailoring and cult Japanese selvedge denim retailer Blue in Green, sat Classic Football Shirts, the online retailer that has become one of the world’s most popular destinations for vintage soccer jerseys. It was slightly removed from SoHo’s glossy luxury corridor, but its arrival still felt symbolic.Football fashion had officially landed in one of the most style-conscious neighborhoods in New York City.That day, I walked out with a vintage pink Palermo FC kit from 1991. I wore it all summer while traveling across Europe and got stopped constantly by strangers sharing compliments as if I was carrying a luxury item like my Balenciaga City Bag instead.This is hardly the first moment sportswear has crossed into fashion. Long before luxury fashion houses learned how to sell hoodies for $900, basketball jerseys and oversized sportswear had already become staples of street style and Black fashion culture. Athletes like Dennis Rodman, Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo-Jo), Gail Devers and Lisa Leslie were style icons long before fashion executives caught on, and jerseys carried cultural currency far beyond the game itself.But soccer? Not so much. Those shiny, boxy polyester jerseys occupied a different universe entirely. They were tribal. Meant for the stands, pubs and often hung on walls. You wore them to represent your club, your country, your neighborhood. Ideally while getting beer spilled on you in celebration (or mourning) in a dive bar near your home stadium.Soccer was too earnest for fashion. Too sweaty. Too working class. Too obsessed with belonging rather than aesthetics.Until, it wasn’t.Kim Kardashian turned football into fashion by accessorizing an AS Roma top. (Bellocqimages / Bauer-Griffin/ GC Images)When Kim Kardashian was spotted wearing a vintage AS Roma jersey in 2023, the fashion world briefly lost its mind and soccer jerseys officially crossed over from stadium culture into mainstream style obsession. From repurposed vintage kits to hand-embroidered designs, soccer aesthetics have become one of fashion’s latest fixations, blurring the line between sportswear, streetwear and luxury culture.Much of that shift has coincided with the cultural rise of women’s soccer, where fashion, identity and fandom have intersected in ways the men’s game never fully embraced. But it would be impossible to ignore the impact of the 2026 World Cup on home soil. With the tournament fast approaching, designers are increasingly leaning into soccer-inspired fashion, recognizing both the sport’s growing cultural relevance and the commercial opportunity that comes with it.“When I was a kid, you will always see the homies wearing a Jordan jersey, or their favorite Wizards players’ jerseys, they were part of everyday style long before luxury fashion caught onto it,” Domo Wells, designer and creative director of Washington Spirit, told The Athletic over Zoom from her Los Angeles home.“Soccer jerseys now fit into that same space, but on a much bigger scale because the sport is global.”Dead Dirt Founder Domo Wells speaks onstage during the 2026 SheBelieves Summit about fashion and soccer. (Ali Gradischer / Getty Images)Unlike basketball or football, which are largely centered around American teams and athletes, soccer offers an endless world of kits, colors and cultural references from clubs everywhere.