This year we’ll be hitting the road for a new video series that marries kit collecting with travel. Shirt Tours, which has been in the works for several months, will give you an insight into what it’s like to be a football shirt collector around the world.
Each episode will focus in on one particular location and one team that plays in that town or city. We’ll pick out the best places to eat, we’ll attend a game to soak in the matchday experience and we’ll see what shirts we can find along the way. Be it through scouring vintage stores and flea markets, or having to concede and shop at the club store, each destination will be viewed through the lens of football shirts.
Our first episode sees us landing in Hamburg, Germany, famous for its port, canals and architecture. Arguably as famous are its two main football teams, Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli, and we visited the latter as part of our weekend.
Here’s a recap of our time, with some shirt collecting and travel tips and tricks.
A weekend in Hamburg Cult Kits style
Our first order of business was to grab a coffee. Our Airbnb was situated near Stadthausbrücke station, close to the centre of Hamburg. Our eyes were pointed west however, as we looked in the direction of St Pauli’s Millerntor-Stadion. The stadium would be the hub of our trip and it would be easily accessible from our accommodation at just a mile away.
Walking from the city centre towards the St. Pauli district, one sighting became increasingly more dominant: stickers. Most major cities will feature a smattering of football stickers, often left by visiting fans leaving their mark on an away day, but St. Pauli was covered more than most. The presence of so many symbols across every spare inch of bench, wall and lamp post only added to the aura of the area. Many of the stickers displayed anti-fascist messages, as if to amplify the ethos of St. Pauli as a club.
Not all club shops are created equal
After grabbing a coffee we took a short walk to Millerntor and to the St. Pauli club shop. Official club shops are usually more of a last resort; the place you go to if there aren’t any other independent stores. Depending on your schedule, it’d usually be somewhere to wrap up a trip if other shops/markets had proved unfruitful. We had heard good things about the St. Pauli store however, and its location at one corner of the stadium made it an easy place to visit given the fact we were basing our day around the ground.
To our pleasant surprise the club shop offered more than expected. Each of the team’s current home, away and third shirts were on the rails, with long sleeve options also available. Training and leisurewear items were also on the cards, alongside a huge amount of merch ranging from towels to mugs and even to things like rubber ducks and a toaster. Though there was a degree of irony at an anti-capitalist club slapping their logo on just about anything they could find (as noted by many of the fans we spoke to later in the day!), the St. Pauli club shop was absolutely worth a visit.
As we were leaving the store we bumped into a member of a Polish St. Pauli fan group. After a brief conversation he gifted us a tote bag featuring the local logo of the group; a moment of generosity which would be typical of our experience during the weekend.
Saved by the fan
Enter a major curveball. The tickets we had purchased for the game via a third party site had come through, only for us to discover that we were due to be seated with the away fans! We’d tried to avoid this for obvious reasons, given that our party was decked out in brown and that we were filming a documentary about St. Pauli. Panic set in. Would we have to go undercover, watching the game whilst making sure not to expose ourselves as secret home fans? Perhaps we could rush back to the Airbnb to change clothes?
Thankfully, help would arrive from a fan we were due to speak to. Luke, who gave a short interview for the doc, was well connected and was able to provide us with tickets amongst the home fans last minute. Generally speaking it’s quite hard to get hold of tickets, especially on a matchday, but your best bet if you’re unable to find ones online is to reach out to fan groups. It’s always worth double checking your bookings, too.
Inside the tunnel
As kickoff for St. Pauli vs Leverkusen approached we had the incredible opportunity to receive a tour inside the Millerntor courtesy of Alexander Timm, Head of Merchandising at St. Pauli.
We immediately dove straight into the heart of the stadium, and moving through a couple of sets of doors we quickly found ourselves inside the player’s tunnel; an almost suffocating gauntlet of graffiti lit up in red. The experience was incredible, above and beyond your typical tunnel. Naturally, we then made our way to the pitch and went to walk around the grounds taking in the aesthetic of the stands. Of the many prominent messages written across the stands and found on stickers one line in particular stood out Kein Mensch ist illegal (No human is illegal); a message which is as timely now as it ever was.
On the horizon the imposing Feldstrasse Bunker peeked its head over the top of the stands. With the rest of the stadium slowly getting ready for the match that would follow, Alex shared more about the story of St. Pauli’s three kits for 2025/26. The home brings back the classic brown and white striped look; a move designed to appeal to the more traditional football fan. On the away side things are still somewhat traditional, though Alex explains there was a desire to appeal more to the ‘hipster’ crowd who spends as much time thinking about how to style their shirt as they do the results at the weekend. Finally the third shirt is a direct shoutout to the hardcore fans and ultras culture.
With a range of options and reasonable pricing, we’d highly recommend a stadium tour if your schedule allows.
Sing no matter what
And so the main event. A weekend away as a football fan tends to centre around a game (assuming it’s not the offseason!), and as the St. Pauli faithful began pouring into the stadium it was clear that we were in for a treat.
There was one small catch for our party though. Bag restrictions meant that we couldn’t bring in all our cameras and gear. Our original plan of returning to our Airbnb to drop off everything was thrown into a loop with the surprise stadium tour we’d just had. Thankfully, Luke saved the day once again by letting us leave our bags with Dave; a friend of his who would turn out to have an intriguing story of his own…
With our bags safely stored away we made our way to the standing area of the stadium, grabbing a much needed pint along the way. Despite arriving with some time to spare it was clear that space in the standing zone was at a premium. Luke explained to us that it was not uncommon for fans to turn up a couple of hours before kickoff to ‘reserve’ a standing spot. St. Pauli’s return to the Bundesliga had only made things more hectic, and the arrival of Bayer Leverkusen was another factor behind the sellout crowd.
The absence of personal space and the closeness with which we were standing alongside our German brothers and sisters added to the occasion. Though it being ‘only’ a regular Bundesliga match, the noise was deafening as both teams walked out the tunnel. An incredible display of flags in our stand, many of which bore the legendary skull and crossbones, was bettered only by the banners of the ultras who were just to the left of us.
Throughout the 90 minutes there was very little, if any, let up from the raucous crowd. A 25 minute opener from Leverkusen was matched with an equaliser just 7 minutes later, giving the crowd plenty of shout about. As the first half drew to a close there was almost nothing between the sides, with St. Pauli if anything having the better of the chances. Leverkusen’s quality would shine through in the second half, playing the role of opportunistic visitors to perfection with a smash and grab goal that proved to be the winner in the 58th minute. The goal did nothing to deter the home crowd at the Millerntor who continued to sing their hearts out until the final whistle.
You don’t need us to tell you to watch a St. Pauli game, but if you’re going to Hamburg do your best to try and catch a match.
The early bird catches the fish sandwich
The start of day 2 was a change of pace from the busyness of the matchday. Though many places were shut on a Sunday morning, one place that wasn’t was the famous Hamburg fish market.
At walking distance once again from our accommodation, the fish market was packed with locals enjoying a range of home grown produce. There was even live music to add something more to the atmosphere. Our main order of business was to try the iconic fish sandwich however. Despite its somewhat unappealing appearance, the sandwich was a hit with our group. The market was certainly a worthwhile spot to visit whether or not you’re a seafood fan.
From the fish market we immediately took a taxi ride to a flea market. Hamburg has a number of flea markets open periodically throughout the year. Many of these markets are only open on certain days, so our advice would be to research before you go. Chances are at least one market will be open during your trip, and the limited nature of each particular market adds to the potential for a bargain find.
Our main goal was a simple one: find as many football shirts as we could. It didn’t take long, as we stumbled across a pair of 2000s kits in superb condition. France and Atletico Madrid, in decent sizes with no significant damage. Best of all, in true flea market fashion, the prices were extremely reasonable at just €15 each.
Though the rest of the market didn’t deliver quite as well, it was still an enjoyable experience walking round the market. Being a fair distance away from the centre of Hamburg allowed us to see a part of the city we may otherwise not have visited.
St. Pauli ‘till I die
Our trip would finish on a high note with an opportunity to speak to Dave Doughman. Dave, who had helped keep our bags whilst we watched the game, just so happened to be a musician with an impressive resume and a recent achievement worth celebrating, with his band Swearing at Motorists having just recorded an album right in the heart of St. Pauli’s stadium becoming the first band to achieve such a feat.
It’s not every day you find a recording studio at one end of a football ground, but as we were welcomed in by Dave on what was a much quieter Millerntor than the day before, we found ourselves in a quite remarkable corner of St. Pauli’s home. Dave, a longtime fan of St. Pauli, was a key figure behind the Levi’s Music Studio; an initiative which, amongst other things, gave local kids the opportunity to have music classes. These classes were open to refugees, providing one of many tangible signs of a club and its community giving back.
As Dave explained, the ethos around the club was refreshingly honest and welcoming in an era where sport can feel like it’s becoming more closed off. This was a fanbase who were not only there for the sport itself or the results. They were playing chess on a Wednesday. They were supporting other, smaller non-league teams. They were welcoming in strangers not as a token gesture but as a genuine sign of warmth.
Outro
Finishing our day back at the docks, the words of Dave and others we had spoken to throughout our couple of days stuck with us. St. Pauli was not just a club with some memorable iconography and a strong brand image. Despite very real tensions even amongst its own fanbase and disagreements between the club and fans, there were countless people ready to welcome us in and share their story, not in a ‘look at us’ way but with a confident belief that there is more to football than 90 minutes.
As football shirt collectors, it would be unfair to say that Hamburg is a dream destination from a kit perspective. Like many cities in Germany there was not an abundance of specialist vintage stores, which led us to improvise with the flea market trip. Still, the quality of the club store was a welcome surprise, and the enjoyment of the trip as a whole and the intrigue of St. Pauli as a place more than made up things.
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