Daniel Whitmore
Buying a football shirt for a child involves a calculation adults buying for themselves never have to make. You are not only choosing a size that fits today. You are choosing one that will still fit in eight months, after a growth spurt nobody can predict, having been through the wash forty times.
Get it wrong one way and the shirt is tight by Christmas. Get it wrong the other way and your child spends a tournament swimming in something that reaches their knees. There is a sensible middle path, and it starts with understanding how children’s football shirt sizing actually works.
Why age based sizing is only a starting point
Almost every kids’ football shirt is sold by age range. Ages 5 to 6, ages 7 to 8, and so on. It is convenient shorthand and it is not especially accurate, because children of the same age vary enormously in height and build.
What the age label really corresponds to is a height range. A shirt marked for ages 7 to 8 is typically cut for a child somewhere around 125 to 135 centimetres. If your seven year old is tall for their age, the label will mislead you and you will not find that out until the parcel arrives.
So use the age range to narrow the field, then check the measurements underneath. Any seller worth buying from publishes a height range alongside the age, and that number is far more useful than the one on the front of the listing.
How much growing room should you allow?
This is the question most people get wrong, and usually by overcorrecting.
The instinct is to size up generously so the shirt lasts. The problem is that football shirts are already cut with some room in them, and a child in a shirt two sizes too big looks and feels uncomfortable. They will not want to wear it, which defeats the entire purpose of buying it.
One size up is the sensible maximum, and only if your child is near the top of their current height range or visibly heading into a growth spurt. If they have just moved into a range, buy that size. A shirt that fits properly for a year beats one that fits badly for two.
What should you look for in an England kids kit?
The things that matter for children differ from the things that matter for adults, because the wear pattern is completely different.
Children’s shirts get played in, not just watched in. Seams take more stress, crests get scraped against walls and playground tarmac, and the whole garment goes through the wash far more often than an adult’s does. So stitching quality matters more here, not less.
Check how the crest is attached, specifically. A heat pressed badge on a child’s shirt has a hard life and lifts at the corners quickly. Embroidered or properly bonded crests survive it. Most people shopping for an england kids kit are thinking about the design and the price, but crest construction is what actually determines whether the shirt still looks decent by spring.
Shirt only, or the full kit?
A shirt on its own is the common purchase and often the right one. Children wear football shirts casually far more than they wear full kits, and the shirt is the part they care about.
A full kit with shorts and socks makes sense if it is genuinely being worn to play in, or if it is a present where completeness is part of the appeal. It costs more, and the shorts tend to outlast the shirt comfortably, since they take less wear and rarely get worn to school.
If you are undecided, buy the shirt. Shorts can be added later and they are rarely the part anyone remembers.
Do kids’ football shirts shrink in the wash?
Modern polyester shirts should not shrink meaningfully if you wash them sensibly. Nearly every problem comes from heat.
Wash cool, at thirty degrees, and turn the shirt inside out first. That does more to protect the crest and any printing than anything else available to you. Avoid the tumble dryer entirely, because heat is exactly what lifts heat pressed badges and cracks printed numbers. Air drying costs nothing and roughly doubles how long the shirt keeps looking new.
Skip fabric softener as well. It coats the fibres and reduces the breathability that makes the fabric work in the first place, which matters if the shirt is actually being played in.
Should you print a name on the back?
Printing a name is the single thing that makes a shirt feel like it belongs to a child rather than to a shop. It is also permanent, and it makes the shirt non returnable.
If you are printing their own name, that is straightforward and it will still mean something in three years. If you are printing a player’s name, remember that squads change, and a child can be genuinely upset when the player on their back moves club. Their own name never has that problem, and it tends to be the one they are prouder of anyway.
What if you are buying it as a present?
Gifts change the calculation, because you usually cannot measure the child first and you definitely cannot ask without ruining the surprise.
The workaround is to ask whoever does their clothes shopping for a recent height rather than a size, since height maps onto football shirt charts far more reliably than clothing sizes do. If that is not possible, err towards the size that matches their age range rather than sizing up, and check the seller’s returns window before ordering so there is room to exchange it.
Keeping the receipt matters more than usual here. And if you are tempted to add printing to make it feel more personal, remember that printing removes the ability to exchange it at all, which is a poor trade on a gift where the size is a guess.
Buying for a growing child, sensibly
Use the height range rather than the age label. Size up once at most, and only with a real reason. Check how the crest is attached rather than only looking at the design. Wash cool and stay away from the dryer. Print their own name if you print anything.
None of it is complicated. It mostly means ignoring the big text on the listing and reading the numbers underneath it.
Children pick a club before they pick anything else, and why derbies mean more explains a lot about how those loyalties form. If you are ordering from a UK seller for the first time, our guide to buying football shirts online covers delivery, returns and what to check at the checkout.
Frequently asked questions
What size England kids kit should I buy for a 7 year old?
Check the height range rather than the age. Shirts labelled for ages 7 to 8 are usually cut for children around 125 to 135 centimetres tall. Measure your child and match that figure instead of trusting the age label.
Should I size up so it lasts longer?
One size at most, and only if your child is near the top of their current height range. Going further gives you a shirt that fits badly for two years rather than well for one, and children tend not to wear things that feel wrong.
How should I wash a kids’ football shirt?
Inside out at thirty degrees, no fabric softener, and air dried rather than tumble dried. Heat is what damages crests and printing, so keeping the shirt away from it is the main thing that preserves it.
