About Concept Jerseys

Kit Henderson grew up in the stands of a mid-table English club, where his first jersey in 1995, three sizes too big, became his uniform for every match day. That worn cotton badge stitched on his chest meant everything, and by his teens, he understood what most shops never got right: fans don’t just want kits, they want to feel part of something when they wear them. Kit’s journey into the world of jerseys started at university when he began swapping and trading with collectors across Europe, making long train journeys to swap meets and spending weeks tracking down a 1982 Fiorentina away kit through nothing but photographs and phone calls to dusty vintage stores. Those hunts shaped his eye for authenticity: he learned to spot a fake embroidery thread from ten feet away, to understand how fabric weight changed across decades, and why some clubs’ concept designs felt inevitable while others rang hollow.

Kit’s older brother Marcus was his first sidekick in this world, a Liverpool devotee who’d spend entire Sundays photographing every detail of his vintage shirts for Kit’s growing spreadsheets. Their mum, Jean, who’d knitted scarves for the family and their neighbors’ kids, taught him that the comfort of wearing something made with care matters more than any logo. His dog Archie, a golden retriever from 2014 onwards, became a fixture in Kit’s office at the original shop space, napping under the wooden workbench where Kit and Marcus would lay out new stock. Kit’s business partner and childhood friend, Ravi, joined officially in 2018 after a decade of showing up to Kit’s tiny apartment to sort inventory on weekends.

Among his most vivid memories: finding a signed 1998 Brazil training top in a Lisbon flea market for peanuts, realizing it was real only when the seller shrugged and said his father had been the kit manager. There’s the afternoon in 2015 when he held up a concept design for a club he’d never heard of against the light and saw the designer’s hand so clearly in the stitching that he tracked them down and became friends for life. He remembers the smell of the first box of jerseys he shipped, that particular cardboard and cotton and plastic, and how shaky his hands were. Kit still has the text from his first customer saying the fit was "perfect," and he keeps the printed version tucked behind his desk. He’s worn every category of jersey we stock at least once, often for an entire season, so he can tell you exactly how a 2005 Manchester United away kit feels after fifty washes, or why that concept design’s collar sits a half-centimeter different than the original.

Kit is passionate about defending three things fiercely: that quality embroidery is worth the wait, that authenticity beats hype every single time, and that the story of a jersey matters as much as its appearance. He calls nonsense on artificial scarcity tactics, mass-produced "vintage" reproductions sold as originals, and the idea that only official club shops matter. He’ll tell anyone listening that some of the most beautiful soccer kit ever made never reached a mainstream retailer. His favorite expressions when talking about jerseys are "true to person," "the fabric doesn’t lie," "you can feel the difference," "that’s the real thing," and "it tells a story." His ritual is unpacking new stock on Thursday mornings before opening the chat, holding each jersey up to the window to check the light hits the embroidery right, and then texting Ravi a single word: ready, or wait. He still gets that same flutter in his chest every time a customer writes back to say they wore their new kit to the match and felt like themselves. · Cofounder & Head Buyer

Kit Henderson is a lifelong soccer fanatic and one of the founders of Concept Jerseys. From standing on the terraces as a kid to hunting down rare kits across the globe, Kit’s lived the obsession that drives the brand. Every jersey in the shop has been personally vetted, worn, and tested for the quality and soul that separates a true fan’s kit from the rest.

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