I had never had a particular interest in football. (I speak of real football, the kind where you kick a ball with your feet and don't carry it around in your hands. Calcio, as I prefer to refer to it.)

But then I read the book Moneyball, and was already into statistical analysis, and then of course AS Roma is my home town team, and then the combination of AS Roma and statistical analysis got me into the game Football Manager, and then I started going to the gym or otherwise exercising for at least an hour per day and I needed gear to exercise in, and here we are with me with at least 20 AS Roma football shirts, several pairs of AS Roma training pants and socks, jackets, and a pair of football boots. And later this year, though I didn't know it when this shot was taken, I would spend 6 hours flying across the country to see AS Roma play in Perth.

It's funny where life can take you, isn't it? At the start of this process (call it 2018) AS Roma kits were supplied by Nike. So I have a couple of shirts from them. This was before I came to despise Nike and everything it supposedly stands for, as a result of which I will not ever buy another one of their products. Fortunately at that time Roma switched to New Balance. I quite liked the Nike shirts as products, but to be honest preferred the feel of the NB ones which kept me cooler and felt lighter. At each online store sale I would grab a few more of them, both training kits and match kits. Then at the start of the 2023/24 season Roma management dumped NB (which led to legal action) and switched to Adidas. I wasn't impressed. Not because I have any issues with Adidas the company; like NB they stick to making and selling sporting goods, BUT the brand had a reputation for being a tad old fashioned. Its 3 stripes schtick? It was fashionable and trendy... in 1977.

My fears were realised in the first Adidas match shirts, which went retro (what a surprise) with the Lupetto (stylised wolf) emblem from the early 2000s instead of my much preferred club shield. I did buy one on special; the quality is fine, but it's far from my favourite style. The training shirts on the other hand... the stripes don't look bad, they have the shield, they have a nice pattern to the rich, red fabric... as you can see here.

Initially I thought that they felt a bit heavier and not as breathable as the NBs, but as I started to wear them in, they felt better. They're probably my favourites now and I'm kicking myself for not buying more when I had the chance.

The polo shirt is made from luxury, refined cotton which is why it comes in the very fancy packaging that sits under the shirts. It also cost €80 unreduced, and knowing how quickly even the best polos will lose their shape, no way was I paying that. When they whacked a huge discount on it though... well, that's different.

I'm glad I have what I do because the 2024-25 season gear is a train wreck. The match kit has thankfully returned to the shield but has some weird pin stripes down it, and can only be obtained with the club sponsor's logo on it. (I bought just one shirt with the name of former sponsor DigitalBits (a blockchain network) on it because it had been marked down so heavily... but then they stiffed us on sponsorship payments. A cryptocurrency business that's dodgy, who'd'a'thunk it? Anyway, I obviously don't wear that out and about, and don't want to be a billboard for anyone else either.

There are no training shirts other than T-Shirts this year (not yet, anyway), and while people can and do wear regular T-Shirts, I've been spoilt by having heat and moisture wicked away from me. Aside from that, the general quality of the apparel seems to have power-dived.

So in short, I'll need to make these, and my existing collection, last a while. It doesn't look like there will be anything for me this year!