National Jersey Day – November 7, 2026

History of National Jersey Day

The term ‘jersey’ comes from the island of Jersey in the English Channel where natives have a long tradition of knitting, and the earliest sports clothing was made. The first gymnasts were from Germany. They wore grey linen uniforms at first, but by the 1890s, cotton shirts became more common. When team sports emerged with the need to tell players apart, their shirts were dyed in many different colors, and symbols and numbers were sewn on. At the 1896 Olympics, athletes from the same nation wore different clothes to compete. By the 1908 London Games, uniform clothing regulations were put in place for all competitors, and the word ‘jersey’ was mentioned for the first time in a sportswear context. The first sports jerseys were made with cotton or wool fabrics before synthetic versions like nylon and lycra came about in the ’30s. The first synthetic jerseys were quite uncomfortable, yet by the ’70s, they were the most popular and seen as perfect for sports.

Not until 1970 did sports teams begin to create a strong identity for themselves and take the idea of commercializing their shirts seriously, starting from when English football team Leeds United became the first to design shirts that could be sold to fans as replicas in 1975. Moved by the success, other clubs followed suit, adding manufacturers’ logos and a higher trim level to their shirt designs. Jerseys became even more mainstream when German team Eintracht Braunschweig became the first to sign a deal to display a sponsor’s logo on the front of their shirts. By the ’80s and ’90s, almost all major clubs had signed such deals, increasing the value of sponsorships, especially for larger teams. In the U.S., the North American Soccer League was the first to experiment with printing the players’ names on their shirts and assigning each player a squad number.

The day was started by the National Football League Players Association, to bring fans together, and build a sense of community through the uniforms of their sports teams. Wear the jersey of your favorite sports player to observe National Jersey Friday today. Wear it to work, school, restaurants, and or even around your home.