After lockdown turbo-charged his passion for collecting football shirts, a Folkestone man set about trying to track down a full set of jerseys from the World Cup in the United States in June, 1994.

We sent reporter Rhys Griffiths (who has his own collection of 50-plus shirts and counting) along to admire his efforts, and find out more about why some people just cannot get enough when it comes to soccer memorabilia...

Baz Davison talking about his football shirt collecting hobby

"Like most people during lockdown, I took up a hobby, and it kind of escalated from there," Baz Davison explains as we explore his collection in his Folkestone living room.

"I've always been into collecting football shirts, it's always been a passion of mine, football in general and then the shirts as well.

"And it's not just getting the football shirts. It's the thrill of finding the shirts, because some of them you don't know where you can find them."

The thrill of the chase is obviously one of the main attractions for this particular collector of soccer shirts, as he recently challenged himself to track down a jersey from every nation which produced commercially available replicas for the 1994 World Cup held in the United States.

At a great cost of both time and money – details of the latter not divulged for the sake of his relationship – the 45-year-old Arsenal fan succeeded in his quest. This brought his collection to around 80 shirts.

"I decided to go with USA '94 because I've always liked football but I never really got into World Cups previously, and bizarrely enough that was one England never qualified for, but I kind of got hooked on that.

"It was only after then that I chose a club to support so I became an Arsenal fan after that. But yeah, just from 1995 on really, getting passionate about football.

"I used to collect other English teams, I used to have the Manchester United grey shirt from when they lost against Southampton because back then football shirts weren't a collectible item.

"I remember a sports shop trying to sell those ones off because it was regarded as 'oh well, they're never going to wear these ones again'.

"But now I just focus on foreign clubs."

In recent years there has been a marked growth in the online culture around football shirts, their design and their desirability as a collectible.

But things used to be very different. It was not until the 1990s that the sale of replica shirts to adult fans really took off, although they had been around for decades they had previously represented a small market aimed mainly at children.

Today there is a whole subculture associated with the love of football shirts – and rare, iconic examples can reach eye-watering prices. Diego Maradona's match-worn 'hand of God' shirt recently sold for a record sum of £7.1 million at auction.

But while the shirts right off the players' backs may attract the attention of super-rich collectors or museums, thanks to the boom in e-commerce there is now little to stop those with more meagre resources building their own collections too.

One of the biggest names in the game today is the website Classic Football Shirts, which began as a tiny operation in a spare bedroom dreamt up by two students with a love for these sporting garments.

Today the business trades from a huge warehouse in Manchester, selling thousands of different kits from all corners of the globe, and even as two bricks-and-mortar stores which have become sites of pilgrimage for collectors.

And it seems everyone who catches the bug ends up with a slightly different vibe for their growing haul.

Lee Bowman, a 36-year-old Crystal Palace and Dover Athletic fan from Dover, has around 350 shirts in his collection and he tends to focus on specific clubs and eras.

"I've collected football shirts from a young age and have always had the latest Dover Athletic shirt growing up," he said.

"I now have almost all Crystal Palace home and away shirts from the past 20 or so years, having been a season ticket holder at Selhurst Park for 15 years between 2004 and 2019.

"In the last couple of years my collecting has progressed to a whole new level and I have accumulated an impressive collection, predominantly of non-league shirts from the 90s and 00s.

"Having grown up watching Conference football, many of the clubs, their shirts and players from back then are very memorable to me and give me a strong sense of nostalgia.

"I have acquired shirts of Farnborough, Kettering, Rushden & Diamonds, Southport, Stevenage, Woking, Welling and many many more, some of which are match-worn too.

"As well as non-league, I have great memories of many 90s Premier League shirts and have specific club shirts on my wanted list. As well as Palace, I have a fair few Coventry City shirts from around 1994-2001 as they had some great kits supplied by Pony and Le Coq Sportif."

With shirts made in the 1990s now coming up towards 30 years of age, collectors face a challenge to rank alongside rarity – the need to keep these vintage items in tip-top condition.

There is a great deal of variation in terms of value and desirability based on the condition of the shirt, a hierarchy which descends from BNWT (brand new with tags) right the way down to those kits which have suffered from cracked sponsors, pulls to the material and marking to the fabric.

"All shirts are taken great care of," Mr Bowman emphasised.

"I have a 'treatment process' for those that require it, having learnt ways of improving the condition of shirts.

"I've invested in de-bobbling machines to remove patches of bobbles and small pulls, lint rollers to remove excess lint, and certain stain removers to remove any marks within the material to really improve the quality, look and condition of a shirt.

"Careful hand washing methods are essential for football shirts. Normal everyday washes will cause them to fade, or for sponsors and namesets to crack or peel off in time.

"I have also invested in a heat press machine and can now self-print names, numbers and sleeve patches to shirts, which has been great as I'm now able to work on projects and customise shirts with a particular player name on giving them an authentic and personal touch."

Although for many collectors the thought of parting with their treasure trove of memorabilia is heart-breaking, others do end up parting with collections large and small.

This can mean they fall into the hands of people like Geoff Senior and his fellow volunteers who run the club shop at Folkestone Invicta Football Club.

The shop, located in a rather ramshackle but charming cabin on the far side of the Cheriton Road ground, is an Aladdin's cave of assorted items of football memorabilia and is extremely popular with visitors to the club.

Mr Senior said: "The majority is donations, particularly the programs and the books, and some shirts. I'm pretty good at scrounging.

"Yeah, people come in and say 'I've just got divorced, my loft is full of Chelsea programmes' or 'I'm moving house' or 'the ceiling's collapsing'.

"Ron (a fellow volunteer), as you know, his passion is looking at programmes. He's like a librarian and alphabetises them, then he sets them out into cups and leagues. If we get a query about any particular programme, the chances are he'll be able to lay his hands on it if we've got it.

"Visitors to the club do love the shop, because it's full of interest, it's cheap. We don't rip anybody off for programs of 30p, four for a pound, sort of prices.

"You see people walking away with Manchester United ones under their arm thinking 'eBay, eBay eBay', and yeah, we're only asking 30p, if people want to sell them on for more that's up to them."

And so the memorabilia market keeps on turning.

Do you have an unusual collection you'd like to share with our readers? Email reporter Rhys Griffiths at rgriffiths@thekmgroup.co.uk