Were training shirts sold in shops like home and away kits?

Barely, most were distributed inside the club to players and staff rather than sold at retail, which is why relatively few survive today.

Why do so many different brands appear in this training collection?

Training kit was a lower-stakes contract for clubs than the match shirt, so the manufacturer sometimes differed from the one making the home and away kits that season.

Are training shirts usually plainer than match shirts?

Often, though some, like the tagged Barcelona pieces here, carry the same crest and detailing as the match shirt from the same season.

Shipping is free within the Netherlands and Belgium from 100 euros, and worldwide from 150 euros. Everything ships with track and trace.

OFF THE PITCH

Training shirts were made for players and staff, not for supporters, and that single fact explains almost everything about why they turn up so rarely: barely any were ever sold as replica in the first place.

More information

Made for the training ground, not the shop rail

Unlike a home or away shirt, a training top was handed out inside a club rather than sold to the public in any real volume, worn for sessions, warm-ups and travel rather than matches. That is why a training shirt from a well-known season, such as Ajax's 1996-97 or 1997-98 pieces in this collection, is often harder to come by than the match shirt worn by the same squad, even though both were made in the same era by the same manufacturer.

A wide net of clubs, a narrow purpose

Because training kit was never a marquee product, the manufacturers behind it varied more freely than on match day: Umbro made Inter Milan and Lazio's early-90s training shirts, Puma supplied Dortmund's more recent training sweaters, and Asics fitted Empoli and Ajax in the 2000s. The result is a collection that spans far more brands than a typical home or away kit grouping, simply because clubs treated training gear as a smaller, lower-stakes contract than the match shirt itself.

Barcelona and Real Madrid off the pitch

Barcelona appears several times here, including a 2007-08 and a 2013-14 training shirt both still carrying their original tags, alongside Real Madrid's 2005-06 training shirt from the same broad period. Training pieces like these rarely reached general sale even when the matching home shirt did, which is part of why finding one still with tags attached is unusual today.

National teams in training kit

International training shirts round out the range, including the Netherlands's 2004-05 and 2006-07 training shirts, the second a women's edition, and Yugoslavia's 2003-05 training shirt. Each was produced for a specific squad's own use rather than a retail run, so the sizes and print details on these pieces sometimes differ from what a collector expects based on the equivalent match shirt from the same season.

Good to know

Were training shirts sold in shops like home and away kits?: Barely, most were distributed inside the club to players and staff rather than sold at retail, which is why relatively few survive today.
Why do so many different brands appear in this training collection?: Training kit was a lower-stakes contract for clubs than the match shirt, so the manufacturer sometimes differed from the one making the home and away kits that season.
Are training shirts usually plainer than match shirts?: Often, though some, like the tagged Barcelona pieces here, carry the same crest and detailing as the match shirt from the same season.
Is shipping free?: Shipping is free within the Netherlands and Belgium from 100 euros, and worldwide from 150 euros. Everything ships with track and trace.