The World Cup Fuels Soccer Jersey Boom on Whatnot
A soccer jersey is never just a shirt. It’s a symbol of national pride, of your favorite player, the memory of unforgettable matches and increasingly, of your personal style. This year, as the World Cup dominated group chats and watch parties popped up around the world, soccer jerseys took over Whatnot.
While sports cards remain one of the most popular shopping categories on Whatnot, fashion has grown to be the largest category by order volume. This was especially reflective during the peak of the tournament, where soccer jersey searches grew faster than sports card searches, jumping nearly 230% with about 3x times more people searching than the month before.
Host country pride took over
Throughout the tournament, Mexico and the U.S. teams led jersey demand on Whatnot, a clear sign of just how much host-country energy shaped shopping behavior. For sales, unsurprisingly US soccer jerseys led sales but England landed in second place and Mexico not far behind.
Across the United States, there was strong regional support for particular national teams.
Mexico dominated across the Southwest and West Coast, including California, Arizona, Washington, and Nevada. USA anchored big coastal and eastern markets like Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey. And England showed up scattered across the Deep South, including Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and others.
Demand moved in real time and across nations
As the World Cup moved into the knockout rounds, search demand shifted from early host-country favorites to the teams still standing.
Jersey searches for Norway roughly quintupled during the knock-outs on the back of Haaland's breakout run, while headline contenders climbed fast, Spain up 114%, France up 96% and Argentina up 53% week over week, as attention followed the teams still standing.
Meanwhile, early tournament favorites cooled from their group-stage peak. Mexico searches fell 58% and USA searches fell 39% from late June, as attention followed the teams advancing toward the final.
Heading into the final weekend, Spain jersey searches nearly doubled week over week, up 98%, while Argentina held flat, down 12%.
Messi led the way but Haaland was the breakout star
Player demand moved just as fast as team demand. Soccer legend Messi drew more search interest than anyone, and together with 18-year old Lamine Yamal accounted for nearly 40% of all named-player searches, as spectators watched the passing of the torch.
But the breakout star was Erling Haaland. Searches for Haaland jumped roughly 17x from before the tournament, and he briefly overtook Messi in early July as Norway's run gained momentum.
Pulisic, the U.S. captain, also saw a major home-tournament bump, with searches up more than 3x.
A breakout goal, a strong tournament run, or a viral match moment quickly turned into search demand for jerseys tied to a particular player.
Vintage jerseys boomed globally
It wasn’t just new jerseys that captured demand. Some of the popular jerseys were decades old.
Searches for vintage jerseys rose nearly 70% in a month, fuelled by fans hunting down legends of the game. In the US, Beckham was the most searched player followed by Ronadinho and Kaká.When it came to sales, the top-selling jerseys were Pelé, Ronaldinho, and Gerrard.
In addition, different generations were looking for different vintage eras to add to their wardrobes around the world. Throughout the tournament, Whatnot seller Tom Rainsford, who runs RetroFootballShirts, shared that buyers were chasing the jerseys they grew up on. Millennials hunted down the 90s classics like Italia 90, USA 94 denim away shirt and Brazil 94, while Gen-Z looked to a decade later to the early-2000s Nike Total 90 era, with Ronaldo's debut Portugal jersey a firm favorite.
Whether shoppers were after national team kits, vintage finds, or player-specific jerseys, one thing was clear: fans weren't just watching the tournament. They were shopping it live.
Seller spotlight: Tom Rainsford, RetroFootballShirts
Tom knows soccer jerseys. He founded the Retro Football Fair in 2019, running it alongside a full-time office job, until in 2023 he backed himself and left to sell jerseys for a living. He started from home with a couple of hundred jerseys to his name. Today, he runs RetroFootballShirts full-time on Whatnot, employs four people and holds around 3,000 jerseys at any given time. Going live on Whatnot has been the engine of that growth. He sells through stock faster than at a pop-up and can reach a global audience.
"You can build a real community, with buyers coming back time after time," Tom says. "They ask questions, they want to hear the stories behind the vintage kits, and see the items up close before they buy."
That community shows up for the rare finds. "A standout for me this World Cup was a stream where a single collector spent £4,000 on a bundle of 30 vintage jerseys, some really special ones in there, a 1980s East Germany, a 1994 AC Milan, a 1993 Borussia Dortmund," Tom says. "They came in, asked what we had, chose their bundle live and it was shipped to them that day."
Beyond the World Cup
The final's been played, but this summer showed football jerseys are as much about fashion, memory and community as the match itself. And with the new Premier League season kicking off soon, there's plenty more to come, live on Whatnot.
