Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – which World Cup 2018 jerseys you can find in Hong Kong and where to buy them
From the widely available Nike and Adidas kits to teams like Iceland and official printing so you can stand out from the crowd
While football crowds in Hong Kong are nowhere near their 1970s heyday, football culture is alive and kicking in another aspect: football shirts.
Whether it’s a wedding or a press conference you’re never far away from someone wearing a jersey, fully printed and badged up, and invariably a cool J.League side or a European giant.
The city is nerdvana for football hipsters, with tens of jersey stores that offer shirts that you can’t get elsewhere, with only the specialist stores of the internet and Tokyo coming close to offering what you can find with a day (or two) exploring Mong Kok.
You won’t be able to get the new Nigeria kit – Nike’s reimagined 1995 design for the Super Eagles sold out in seconds worldwide and there are no plans for restock – but you can get pretty much everything else.
Your first stops, and the most obvious, are Adidas and Nike. The sportswear giants have the World Cup sewn up providing 23 of the 32 kits between them and it is a safe bet that whoever wins will be wearing one or the other.
Germany, Japan, Argentina, Spain, Sweden, Belgium and hosts Russia will be sporting the three stripes while England, Portugal, Brazil and France have opted for the swoosh.
Those teams are readily available across town with training gear – such as England’s 1982 inspired number –and Adidas selling fan T-shirts for Nike-sponsored teams such as England and Brazil.
If you’re not sure who to support Nike FC have you covered with a number of jerseys that feature several different national flags.
Nike.com.hk has a few items on there while Adidas online will merely point you towards their brick and mortar stores while Marathon Sports, such as the Times Square outlet, has a selection of these Nike and Adidas kits too.
OK, basics covered, how do you stand out from the crowd? You head to the various Aladdin’s caves of athletic wear that are hidden around Hong Kong and the most fertile ground is Mong Kok.
SFALO (hk.sfalo.com/en) is maybe the biggest name in the game.
They have three stores (Portland Street in Mong Kok, Emperor Group Centre in Wan Chai and their Kwun Tong flagship in The Grande) and you know you are in the right place because the shirts are all enshrined in plastic.
There are two plans of attack, either go in with a shirt or team in mind or fritter away an hour or two flicking through the racks. Printing is also available on the shirts that are not already named and numbered and there are special offers on their Facebook.
You can have Iceland’s Errea brand home top with the options of five different players and the Hummel Denmark goalkeeper top with Schmeichel 1 on the back.
If you can’t get what you’re after at SFALO there is still hope.
Ball 3 Shop (Instagram:ball3shophk, 6722 3811) on Nathan Road in Mong Kok is smaller than SFALO but as thorough in its quest for cult kits. They have Mohamed Salah Egypt tops for sale as well as plenty of vintage jerseys from clubs and national teams.
Football Kingdom, also in Mong Kok in the Hing Fat Commercial Building on Yan Chong Street, has Serbia shirts, Tim Cahill-printed Aussie tops and Mo Salah name set Egypt kits among their selection of World Cup, J.League and European shirts.
Prokicker (prockicker.com.hk, 9337 5283, instagram: prokicker) has a handful of shirts online and plenty more with official name sets on their Instagram. Croatia, Brazil and Iceland among them and an Iceland away shirt or a Chicharito Mexico home jersey.
Futbol Trend’s website (futboltrend.com.hk) is not that helpful – it’s preoccupied with underwear – but their Instagram (futboltrendhk) hints at what they have in store (with marginally fewer briefs). You can pick up current World Cup kits and more besides at their iSquare shop in TST and at MOKO in
Mong Kok and Castle Peak Road in Yuen Long.
Freekick Sport in Mong Kok’s Ginza Plaza (2171 4228) offers World Cup shirts with printing and has Australia’s home and away jerseys plus the US if you don’t mind that they didn’t make it to Russia and want to represent anyway.
Another Mong Kok shop is Kitroom Sports (kitroomsports.com) in the East Building on Argyle Street. No one else is offering England’s Ruben Loftus Cheek or Brazil’s Renato Augusto. They also have the Croatia away kit and you can get Modric or Rakitic added to that.
You could also go even more niche and make your own jersey. World Soccer (wosohk.com) has loads of teamwear to choose from and will even help you design it. Custom jerseys will take a couple of days, though, but you could spend some of that looking through the array of Hong Kong league jerseys.
It is in the same building as Ball 3 Shop on Nathan Road in Mong Kok and they also do sublimation printing.
If all else fails UK-site Kitbag (kitbag.com) has free delivery to Hong Kong. They’ve got most teams covered.
While the websites leave a lot to be desired most of these shops have a Facebook site with photos of stock. They do keep unusual hours so check beforehand.
