Talking Trikots: Black Friday Special — How to build a collection out of sales

Happy Black Friday! If you’re one of many crazy people, you might have pitched a tent on Thursday night outside whatever store you want to raid the following day. Or something like that, I honestly haven’t seen the worst of Black Friday, and this is coming from a guy who used to live in Manhattan.

But while I’m not a shopaholic by any means, at least when it comes to most things, I do tend to take advantage of sales on football jerseys. As you all know, jerseys are pretty expensive, and supporting Bayern Munich means that I support a team with one of the most expensive shirts in the Bundesliga. However, I’ve amassed quite a collection without having to pay as much as I normally would. Let’s take a look at the many sales I’ve been lucky enough to climb on…

Black Friday

We’ll kick things off with Black Friday itself. While I was living in New York, I went up to the adidas store on 5th Avenue and got myself some merchandise for two years in a row. The first one was the one on the right, a long sleeve 2018/19 Bayern home shirt, which I got flocked in Munich a few months later. The other one was the current Germany home shirt, which was just released at the time. It was right after the German national team had booked their ticket to the Euros in said jersey. Not a bad haul.

Speaking of Black Friday, the Nike store that I went to today also had a sale on Korea’s kits, but I didn’t get them because a) they’re hideous, and b)...do I really need a second reason?

Photo by Mohammad Karamali/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Labor Day

Another big sale people tend to bank on is Labor Day, though I don’t exactly know why it merits a sale in the first place. As a result, I never really took advantage of it as much as I could have. The only piece I remember is the 2019/20 away kit. It turned out to be the kit that got destroyed by Eintracht Frankfurt that November. But, it also gave us Hansi Flick as a result, so...that’s a win, I guess?

Random adidas sales

One thing I’ve learned about adidas is that sometimes they’ll have sales for no particular reason. They’ll just say “20% or 30% off selected products” or something like that. I don’t have a clue where those sales come from, but hey, I’m not complaining. I got two away kits as a result, one from 2018/19 and one from 2020/21. The 2018/19 kit is the mintstrocity that we all know and hate, so I’m just glad I got it for less than what it’s worth. Then again, I guess I never could have bought it in the first place. Oh well. The second one I got on the first Christmas Eve after moving back to Korea, at an adidas store in Myeongdong, Seoul. Maybe it was a holiday sale? Who knows. Anyway, it’s not the most impressive looking shirt, but it’s the shirt that blew Barcelona back to the Stone Age, so that’s that.

Random Internet deals

Now, if there’s one thing you should know as a football fan with not so deep pockets, it’s that the internet can be a gold mine. Sometimes, deals pop up when you least expect them to. Take the two jerseys on the bottom there, the 2016/17 away kit and the 2017/18 home kit, respectively. Both shirts I got for $10. Yes, you heard me right. $10. No, I didn’t forget an extra zero. They’re both legit shirts too, I checked the registration code. Don’t ask me who in their right mind sold two perfectly good shirts for 20 bucks. Both kits played a huge part in Philipp Lahm’s last dance for Bayern, which is why I’m quite fond of them.

The top two, meanwhile, I got from good deals on Classic Football Shirts. If you haven’t heard of the site, check it out, it could be right up your alley. The Bayern 2019/20 home kit, which we won a historic treble in, was maybe a third of its original price, while the Germany 2014/15 home kit, which shines in the glow of a World Cup victory, was roughly half off. Good thing too, I needed a World Cup winning jersey in my collection.

The most recent one was a sale on the Bayern online store, 30% off if I remember correctly. It’s the current away kit, which is the kit that sent Hansi Flick and Co. off into the sunset, and Robert Lewandowski broke a very long standing record. Good vibes.

There’s also a Germany goalkeeper kit from the 2014 FIFA World Cup that’s on its way from yet another decent deal. You just have to look.

Photo by Chris Brunskill Ltd/Getty Images

End of season deals

At the end of every season, Bayern tends to reduce the prices of the past season’s merchandise for clearance purposes. This is their chance to offload any leftover jerseys that the fans may have missed, and it is also a chance for fans to get legit gear that they haven’t been able to afford at full price. The three 2020/21 home kits I have on display here are all from the Bayern online store, purchased at the end of the 2020/21 season for lower prices. Some might say it’s too many of the same shirt, but hey, it’s a sextuple winning shirt, it deserves a lot of attention. The black 2020/21 third shirt I actually got today for more than 40% off. I don’t know if it was a Black Friday deal, or a clearance deal, or both, but it was quite a bargain. The only downside is that I couldn’t get the World Champions badge, but beggars can't be choosy.

eBay

Last but not least, eBay is a great source for rare football jerseys if you know where to look. This shirt, the Germany 2010/11 away kit, was one such example. I got lucky with it, getting a decade-old jersey at such a good deal. This is the shirt that I saw Germany wear in the first game I saw them play, which was the 4-0 drubbing of Argentina at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It’s only fitting that it joins my collection, considering it was more or less the start of my Germany fandom. It also just happens to be the most gorgeous shirt Germany ever suited up in. You rarely go wrong with black and gold.

Also currently on its way from eBay is the World Cup winning 2014/15 Germany away kit. Remember Brazil? Good times, good times.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Do you have any jerseys you got for great deals? Let us know in the comments!