The new Premier League season kicks off on Friday 21st August, with last years champions Arsenal taking on newly promoted Coventry City and fans across the UK are gearing up to support their teams with passion and new kits. But before you splash out on the latest shirt, it’s time to ask:

What’s the environmental impact of football shirts? And could keeping your old one be the greener choice?

The Hidden Environmental Cost of Football Kits

Football is more than a game – it’s a global industry, and one with a growing environmental footprint. Each season, Premier League clubs release new home, away, and third kits, creating pressure on fans to upgrade.

But here’s the problem:

  • The UK throws away 300,000 tonnes of clothing every year (WRAP).
  • Football shirts, made from polyester, can take up to 200 years to decompose.
  • Manufacturing a single shirt produces around 5.5kg of CO₂ emissions (Carbon Trust).
  • Most kits are manufactured overseas, increasing carbon emissions through transport.

Multiply that by millions of fans globally, across all the different leagues, and the environmental impact is staggering.

Premier League Season: A Fresh Start But Not for Your Wardrobe

Every year, with the return of the Premier League, shirt sales surge. But what happens to last year’s shirt?

Research conducted by Green Football showed that an estimated 100,000 tonnes of sportswear ends up in UK landfills every year. If this clothing were distributed among a packed crowd at Wembley Stadium with 90,000 people, each person would receive over 2,500 pieces of clothing. Astonishing.

Wembley stadium full of fans
Landfill site with piles of rubbish rotting

Keeping your kit in play for just nine more months can reduce its carbon, water and waste footprint by up to 30%. That older shirt still has value and saving it from landfill is a powerful act of environmental responsibility.

5 Reasons to Keep Your Old Football Shirt in Use This Season

1.🌍 Reduce Waste & Carbon Emissions

Keeping your kit in use reduces textile waste, landfill or incineration of perfectly wearable clothing and prevents microplastics from entering the environment. That stat we mentioned above, about how manufacturing a single shirt produces around 5.5kg of CO₂ emissions – the official Premier League Clubs Retail, Merchandise, Apparel & Product Licensing Revenue stats show that in the 2022/23 season, 10,047,000 new shirts were sold for Premier League teams. That’s an astonishing 55,258,500kg of CO₂ emissions, equivalent to taking 8,114 return flights to Australia or driving around the circumference of the world 8,129 times in an average diesel car.

If that total number of shirts sold dropped by just 10% in favour of people re-wearing last year’s kit or buying a second-hand one – not only is that more money kept in your pocket, it’s a carbon saving of 5,258,500Kgs – enough to power 665 average UK homes for a whole year.

2. 🧵 Repair, Don’t Replace

If your shirt is damaged or worn, there are hundreds of wonderful tailors and seamstresses who can fix torn seams, patch small holes and even remove last year’s shirt sponsor branding to update it with the new season version. Search our directory for a local clothing repair business near you. They can even rework your shirt to suit your style by adding shirring or cropping the length to fit.

3. 💷 Save Money

Half of all Premier League clubs now sell their adult home shirts for over £80 each, which is a big investment to make every year on top of the match tickets, travel to games and all the tv subscription services required. Repairing and reusing is not only eco-friendly – it’s budget-friendly too.

Huge shoutout to Brentford FC for being the only Premier League club that doesn’t release a new home shirt every season – their ‘Always Twogether’ campaign means this year’s home shirt will be worn in both the 2026/27 and 2027/28 seasons.

4. 🕰️ Vintage Never Goes Out of Style

Retro shirts from the ’90s or early 2000s are back in fashion. Old kits show loyalty, history and character unlike brand-new replicas. Check out shirt resale businesses like Classic Football Shirts and Cult Kits, or find old shirts on local Facebook groups and in charity shops.

Armchair covered with sport shirts of different teams from Team GB to Nottingham Forest and England Cricket
Two sports shirt memoboards, a red cushion made out of a sports shirt and a cylinder footstool made from a Nottingham Forest shirt

5. 🛠 Get Creative

Don’t want to re-wear your shirt for another year, or you’ve grown out of it? Don’t throw it away – use it to create something cool for your home. A memoboard for your office, a cushion for the sofa, even a footstool or a chair. Get crafty yourself or give your local upholsterer a call to make something unique and save your shirt from landfill.

And if you really don’t want last year’s shirt anymore, then please consider donating it. Kits 4 Causes is a fantastic initiative that’s diverting football shirts, boots, shorts, socks and other kit away from landfill by keeping it in use.

Support Your Team Sustainably

So whether you’re watching from the stands, the sofa or the pub, you can make a difference. This football season, choose to wear and repair your existing shirt instead of replacing it unnecessarily.

By supporting your team sustainability and not buying new shirts every year, this tells clubs and brands that fans care about the planet. The more we reuse, the more pressure there is for the clubs to change and consider fans views with regard to both affordability and sustainability .

Let’s encourage clubs to follow Brentford’s lead and move to a two-year kit cycle rather than changing their shirts every year.

Article suggestions for you