Certain Teams' Fans Wear Merchandise More Often...

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07 Apr 2019, 4:07 pm

I'm posting here cos if I post it in a Celtic place people will deny it and on a generic Scottish football place I'll have Rangers fans taking the p...

I don't even think this is a bad thing. If I thought it was a bad thing I wouldn't do it...

Certain teams fans wear their merchandise more often. The three examples I can think of are: Celtic fans (obviously this is what got me thinking), Man U fans, Barca 'fans' (doubt they're actual fans in the UK but maybe) and Newcastle fans. But you don't see for eg Rangers shirts, Sunderland shirts, Man City and Real Madrid shirts all over the place.

It's even true of other club wear. I only allow myself to wear football shirts on match days but I'm forever in Celtic tracksuit, Celtic pyjamas or Celtic t-shirt. OK I'm aspie so poor example (we get obsessed) but when I go out and about in town, I forever see people in Celtic merchandise - tracksuits and t shirts and things like that. But I didn't back home see Rangers stuff like that. I was more likely to see someone dressed as an Orangeman than in a Rangers' tracksuit. Even today, a day after a draw versus Livi (which feels like defeat), my stepdad saw a fat bloke in a Celtic t shirt. Even one of the best dressed, most stylish rock stars, Rod Stewart does it. Head to toe Celtic, Celtic themed shows etc.

Ok this is Scottish eg and probably boring people, so for an English one - there was this Geordie barman I used to see in the pub in my hometown. No matter what, he wore a Newcastle shirt. (the gross thing about it was it was the same shirt every day and it stank of bo and beer...) A Sunderland barman in another town I was in, never saw him in a football shirt, I can't even tell you what their football shirts look like. Or even Spanish eg - I always see people even in the UK dressed in Barca shirts not Real. I only see Real things in Spain and on match day. And every holiday I went on as a kid, there was a kid at kids' club who wore a Man U top every day.

Why? Am I imagining it? What other teams do this? What other sports do this?

My possible theories:
1 it's just that certain merchandise looks better than other merchandise
2 those fans are either cleverer or poorer and want to get value out of their £40/£50 shirts. But then the wearing all the merchandise in the shop isn't something which matches up to that
3 these are just distinctive tops so maybe when someone is wearing green and white or black and white or bright red it's more obvious and I'm not really seeing a trend
4 this sort of stuff is more appropriate to wear in other situations so for eg I'm seeing Celtic fans wearing their club wear to Irish music events which makes sense, a random Aberdeen top wouldn't
5 these fans have more of a sense of pride and meaning in their teams - Celtic mean much more to me than just on the pitch successes. That means even in a defeat people will wear the stuff. I'll wear Celtic stuff sometimes to symbolise Irishness or general left wing sentiment.
6 these fans are poorer so they have more opportunity to wear the stuff. For eg I couldn't go around an office in my tracksuit but I don't have a job so... (this is the answer I would get in a generic Scottish football thread on reddit)
7 these are more successful teams
8 these are the 'cool' teams. Not always on the pitch. Celtic and St Pauli have a certain cache about them so rock stars and people wanting to look 'cool' will wear that stuff. People wanting to look 'woke' (sorry Americanism I can't think of a British word for it), same...
9 For whatever reason these clubs have more obsessive fans
10 these clubs have better marketing strategies
11 peer pressure to do it. Sometimes I see people in more clubwear than I am and I want to match it...
12 peer pressure not to do it 'we're cutting about in suits and they jakey b....s are in tracksuits'

There might be reasons I'm not thinking of.

Again

1 is this really a trend? (the trend of 'some teams' fans are more into clubwear than other teams' fans')
2 what teams is it that people wear and don't wear the clubwear a lot? I mean anything from t-shirts to football shirts to baseball caps.
3 what teams is it in other sports - or is this just a football thing?
4 is it true in other countries?
5 why do some teams do this?
6 why do some teams not do this?
7 why do some fans do this
8 why do some fans not do this?
9 are there motives I'm missing?
10 if you're a sports fan - do you wear a lot of clubwear? Is that normal for your team?

I also think there's a generational thing. So my generation at our CSC - all in hoops, some in other clubwear. The teens - wearing everything possible. Middle aged people - wearing scarves and generic, Irish looking clothes (this is hard to describe but there's some way that old people's clothes can just 'look' Irish, basically like something the Dubliners might have worn) some in hoops but mostly not. Old people - no football shirts just football scarves and Irish looking clothes (again, dressed like the Clancy Brothers...) ... But that makes sense cos old people didn't grow up with merchandising being as big as it is now. We also do it sometimes when there isn't a game on.

Yes I know this is funny. I know it's a bit ned. But I refuse to change how I dress especially as it's normal in my demographic and I've taken enough heat for it in real life (Rangers hometown) so online trolls don't bother me. I'm just trying to figure it out, more like a sociology exercise than something biased. That's why I've put both negative and positive reasons down, as well.