How to spot a fake 1998 Fiorentina shirt

The 90s was a golden era for football shirts, especially in Serie A and nothing comes close to the 1998 Fiorentina shirt. It ticks all the boxes. Unique colour, Batistuta and the Nintendo sponsor.

It is also one of the most faked shirts on the market so we have pulled together a guide with 4 tips to help you tell if the 1998 Fiorentina football shirt you are looking at is the real deal of a fake.

Tips to spot a fake vintage 1998 Fiorentina shirt

The material feel and shape of the collar

First up you must check the material feel and shape of the collar. The 1998 Fiorentina shirt has a wide collar and a button on the front. The real shirt will see a wider collar and a clean button, where the fake shirt is more narrow. You can also see the fake shirt material is more shimmery and crumpled.

The shape of the Fiorentina crest and letter spacing

The first thing to look at is the badge. On the real shirt you can see the shape of the diamond is different and also the letters A C should have a space between them. Very rarely do the fakes have this detail and the letters are usually not spaced out at all as you can see.

"This sparked my obsession with all things Serie A and so that’s how I came to see Batistuta smash it up in the beautiful 1998-99 Fiorentina home shirt. Fiorentina, Batistuta, Nintendo. What more do you need? Sometimes a sponsor just partners a shirt perfectly and takes it to another level, this was the perfect example of just that."

Mark From 12 Yards

Inside print of the FILA tag

The 1998 Fiorentina shirt was made by FILA who were the official Fiorentina shirt manufacturer in the 90s until the 2000 season when they switch to Mizuno. If you turn the shirt inside out you can also see the detailing of the FILA tag. On the real shirt the FILA tag is stuck onto the top of the shirt and doesn’t have significant stitching. Notice how the fake is stitched all the way through.

The FILA wash tag

Finally the most important detail which is a straight giveaway. The wash tags on an original Fiorentina shirt will have a FILA tag with a silver strip running through it like the picture below. It would be very surprising to find this on a fake shirt.

So there are 4 tips to help you check if your Fiorentina shirt is real or fake.

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